Dialogue to Change: A Youth Vision for Fundamental Rights
We are excited to announce the launch of From Dialogue to Change: A Youth Vision for Fundamental Rights, a new publication developed as part of the FOCUS project.
September 10, 2025
Stepping Forward: How EYP is Offsetting Emissions and Leading with Sustainability
We have taken another step on our sustainability journey by offsetting our emission! As a large network, we need to make conscious choices for a greener tomorrow – from the food we eat, to how we travel, and the way we reuse, repurpose, and recycle!
Offsetting Emissions: A Tangible Impact
Our work involves traveling – a lot. We often have to fly from one side of Europe to the other to support our ongoing projects. The flights we take, unfortunately, still exhaust kilograms and kilograms of carbon dioxide. To confront this, we have contributed €340 to Atmosfair, a certified climate action platform operating its projects according to the Clean Development Mechanism (CMD) outlined in the Kyoto Protocol as well as the “Gold Standard.”
With this contribution, we covered 13,600 kg of CO2, covering our air travel footprint for 2024. Atmosfair uses these contributions to support renewable energy and electrification projects in Senegal, India, and Mali. With this, we hope to not only contribute to the global emission reduction but also help underprivileged communities globally.
We wish to turn this into our regular praxis. Using the streamlined calculation process provided by Atmosfair and MyClimate tools, we have now integrated emission data into our annual planning, factoring in approximately €11 per flight for offsetting to ensure accountability and transparency!
A Toolkit for Change: EYP’s CO₂ Offsetting and Sustainability Guides
In our continuous effort to do better as a network, this year we introduced two new documents: CO2 Offsetting Guide, an internal guide to improve our sustainability at the International Office, and the Sustainability Guide, designed for a network-wide usage to help National Committees in reducing their events’ environmental impact. These two documents, that keep being updated as we learn more ourselves, offer practical advice on low-emission travel, sustainable catering, materials usage, and carbon tracking.
To further support our network, we offer the Carbon Footprint Tracker – a detailed Google Sheet template where data can be inputted to assess an event’s total emission. While time-consuming, it offers a clear breakdown that helps identify where we can improve the most.
Going Beyond Carbon
Through different projects supported by E.ON Stiftung, we have been able to go further than just offsetting. Our Sustainable Engagement Fund (SEF), part of our Climate Youth Action Plan, has supported events of our National Committees in over 10 different countries in being carbon neutral. Learn more about the SEF here!
We have also created additional resources to further lower our environmental impact. For example, the Food Sustainability Guide, co-created with EYP the Netherlands and the Food Wave project, which promotes sustainable food practices for our events.
Further, we produced a line of upcycled merchandise to increase our sustainability efforts. We worked with Lichtenberger Werkstätten gemeinnützige GmbH, a local Berlin organisation which provides job opportunities to people with disabilities, to upcycle our old event banners into new, fashionable merchandise. This way, high quality banners made for one-time events won’t end up on landfills, but in your bags and purses. Each piece is unique, crafted by hand with lots of love and effort. You can find these merchandise on our store, here!
Looking Ahead
Our work is ongoing. We continue to collect, review, and share best practices across the network, keeping sustainability at the heart of our organisational culture. Every flight offset, meal served, or train taken contributes to the broader goal of a more sustainable future.
