From the very beginning of its work IBB Minsk has paid much attention to a search of solutions to environmental issues. Working groups on alternative energy resources and energy saving, educational seminars on environmental protection - all these activities have made a particular contribution to the development of ecological awareness of Belarusian citizens.
It’s necessary to mention the visit of the head of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, Mr. Alfred Buß to Minsk. This event as well as the conference «Keeping Creation» in July 2006, was one of the most important episodes in the development of IBB’s environmental effort. At a public meeting with Metropolitan Filaret, Mr. Buß presented the campaign of the German Evangelical Church «The Green Cock», according to which religious institutions introduced an environmental management system in order to assume the obligation of keeping creation, undertaking concrete practical steps.
The idea of «The Green Cock» gave an impulse for the elaboration of the Belarusian-German co-project «Development of a Unified System of Environmental Certification for Social, Religious and Educational Institutions of the Republic of Belarus» (November 2007 - October 2008.), which goal was the implementation of an environmental management system in Belarusian nonprofit organizations. Within this project IBB defined the basic principles of its Environmental Policy, conducted a thorough audit of the impact of its own economic activities on the environment and developed a program on environmental management in the years of 2009 - 2011. Based on this, on 28 October, experts of the German action «The Green Cock» certified IBB Minsk and confirmed IBB activities comply with European standards of the environmental management system EMAS II.
Along with the certification by the European system EMAS, leading Belarusian experts inspected IBB and Children's Center «Nadezhda» for certification by the international standard ISO 14001. On December 24th, 2008 Belarusian Ministry of Environmental Affairs issued the corresponding certificate to IBB Minsk as the first educational institution with hotel and restaurant complex in Belarus.
As a result of the project for implementation of environmental management system of the EMAS standard, the logo «White Stork» was developed. In the future, like the «The Green Cock», it should unite all the non-profit organizations in Belarus, which will have established an environmental management system in accordance with the criteria of ISO 14001 and EMAS II. Besides, an important condition is that, participating in this campaign, organizations are supposed to work actively with the public on all environmental management matters and to be truthful examples for their target groups.
Thus, the environmental management system is aimed not only at energy and financial savings. Its main objective is the consistent reduction of the negative impact on the environment and by that improvement of the health of its employees and target groups. Thus, the environmental management system is designed to strengthen both the motivation of staff and organization's image in the eyes of the public.
The main goals of IBB within the environmental management system are:
• Reducing electric energy consumption. For the sake of this aim, IBB is equipped with sensors that regulate the activation and deactivation of the electric light (timers, motion sensors, etc.). The number of energy-saving lamps is growing.
• Economical consumption of heat energy, which is achieved by rational modes of heat distribution units, determined by external temperature sensors, and by controlling the temperature in the office with a thermostat on the radiator.
• Management of emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. The achievement of this purpose required the elaboration of an ecological passport, an inventory held, and an agreement on the standards of pollutants formation. Positive dynamics on reduction of the flow of gas fuel and emissions of pollutants is achieved by economical modes of the boiler, as well as by adjusting thermostats on the heaters.
• Separate collection of waste. For this purpose, within the land occupied by IBB, there are two specially equipped sites. Paper, glass (optionally sorted by color), plastic and residual waste are collected separately.
As a result of the work undertaken in 2008, the number of secondary material resources put into recycling significantly increased in comparison with 2007. Thus, the amount of waste cardboard and paper increased on 77%, PET-bottles on 80%, glass in 36 times. Unfortunately, the processing of other types of waste such as used batteries, packaging Tetra Pak and others, in Belarus has not been organized yet.
Each year, the consumption of natural gas for heating the administrative building has been reduced. As a result, emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere in 2008 reduced six fold in comparison to 2005.
Achievement of these results became possible thanks to the clear defying of duties, responsibilities and authority of each employee in the environmental management system. Moreover, a system of regular internal staff training on environmental issues contributed much.
The implementation of the environmental management system into the every day life of the center indicates that IBB Minsk pays much attention and runs its work according to the values encouraged throughout its educational activities. Thus, IBB wants to set an example for its clients and guests, as well as urges to contribute to the development of environmental awareness in society.
Oleg Bogun, responsible for environmental management
Tel.: + 375 17 270 50 72