Green Performance Working Group
Meeting Minutes - 2013-12-04
· Working group is open - please invite your colleagues to join.
· Primary purpose of working group is exchange of ideas. We want to understand how to get green performance operational and to enable the sector to be better able to communicate about green performance
· Working group is still discussing what its mandate will be for the year and is open to suggestions. Please email these to SPTF (), or email them directly to Geert Jan or Amelia.
· Interest in green performance is growing.
· Enclude thanks SPTF for its support and hosting the event - SPTF has long been a supporter of this topic and is enthusiastic about green performance microfinance.
· Currently, Hivos is improving a version of a green tool called Green Performance Agenda (GPA). Geert Jan and his colleague Nathalie are engaged in the process of upgrading the tool.
· Marion from PAMIFA is leading a process to select indicators to be able to measure or appreciate green performance in microfinance, and we would like to engage the working group in the process of producing indicators.
· Hivos decided it wanted to support its institutions with a practical guide and look at environmental impact - this is when Enclude engaged with them.
· One common initial reaction when people hear about "green microfinance" is to assume that becoming green performant would be very costly and burdensome for MFIs. Hivos therefore knew it needed to make something very practical and tangible with its tool.
· At the SPTF annual meeting in Jordan, June 2012, Natalia and Geert presented a version of the green performance agenda tool developed with Hivos.
· The green performance agenda (GPA) is a toolkit that combines a self-assessment, e-learning, and provision of information (e.g., what kind of tools are there that an MFI could use to develop its green performance agenda, extensive case studies). The self-assessment process gives you a sense of your green performance today and what it can be tomorrow.
· GPA is not prescriptive - it is about being aware and conscious of your decisions and giving institutions the information they need to make decisions.
· To see GPA website, go to this website: gpa4mf.blogspot.nl. Can download the whole GPA tool here.
· The GPA version 2 is underway - will have more case studies, link to other tools, and have some new functions.
· Geert/Hivos are also working to have an application of GPA2 that works on the tablet so it can be used in the field.
· Hivos has regional offices and is actively disseminating the toolkit and training people on it regionally.
· Growing focus on green:
o At the SEEP conference in Nov 2013, there was a session on green performance.
o At the European Microfinance Platform in Nov. 2013, there were to green performance meetings: one for microfinance institutions, one for investors.
o Geert was at a two-day conference in Zimbabwe in Oct 2013 and both days were devoted to green performance.
· In the future - do we need to rethink the Universal Standards to integrate the third bottom line - should we create a green performance dimension to the Universal Standards?
· Currently, CERISE is updating the SPI tool. The new version, SPI 4, is going to have four modules in addition the core module assessing SPM, and the four additional modules are rural, women, environment, and poverty.
· This working group can provide input on the environmental indicators that will be included in the SPI 4. The environmental working group of the e-MFP is also working on these indicators.
· Marion had identified a longer list of indicators, from her research, that could be environmental indicators, and we are asking for your feedback. Would you please take the survey to pick which are the top ten in your opinion, among the list? 27 people have already looked at the long list and provided feedback. We are now sharing the list with the Green Performance Working Group. Geert will send link to survey about indicators to this working group - please respond by December 11, 2013.
· Marion - the survey shows a list of different practices that have been identified for microfinance institutions - this list is the result of Marion's research, which she has been doing for the past 3-4 years, on green performance in microfinance. We would like to make it more simple; the goal is to choose ten indicators only for the CERISE SPI 4 tool. Do we have consensus around key indicators? Note: the results of the surveys will not be taken by CERISE directly, but will inform CERISE's development of the environmental module.
· Question: Confused about definition of green microfinance. Some definitions are reactive - environmental harm. Some definitions are more pro-active - often related to energy. What is your definition? Many projects seem to be non-profit or technical assistance based. Does your definition include financial sustainable business propositions?
· Geert Jan responds: our definition includes both. The do not harm angle relates to understanding your own environmental footprint and managing environmental risks
· Avril: I work in Latin America. Since we started our regional green microfinance program, the objective is to give TA to microfinance institutions to give them something very similar to the GPA - on the firsthand it is reducing the carbon footprint of institutions and educating MFI staff about climate change, and why it is important while the whole staff understands the importance of green performance, and also an aspect of assessment of risk in portfolio due to climate change/environment, and third aspect is green loans for renewable energy/energy efficiency. I am saying the multilateral and bilateral donors are pushing this idea but we are also having a lot of demand from the region. We have a regional competitive proposal process, and we received 64 applications. We see MFIs that are interested in developing green microfinance. These institutions are not only NGOs but also regulated and unregulated institutions and banks willing to downscale, seeing the opportunities and the need. From my side, I wanted to tell you there is this green microfinance initiative, and we will be posting case studies as well. See more at website www.ecomicro.org.
· Leslie Barcus: I came out of CGAP to run the Microfinance Management Institute (MFMI). That has dissolved as a legal entity but we were working on getting microfinance management into MBA programs. I'm presently the interim ED of Farm Sanctuary. One of the most difficult issues in greening the planet is that with the level of population we have in the planet we are consuming too many animal products and that is a huge component of the carbon footprint. That's a very controversial one. Through demonstration effect, and maybe it can't be worked today or soon into this particular set of standards, but through demonstration I think it would be interesting if the big NGOs and the multi-lateral and bi-lateral institutions should follow a more plant-based diet at their conferences and events. This is often not discussed in green microfinance. Right now we are always talking about solar, and I support that but we have a long way to go with that technology, but right now we could look at our consumption of animals.
· Geert: the scope in which we talk about green performance in microfinance is something we should discuss. In our approach we should be able to zoom out even beyond the borders of the direct impact an MFI is making and think about the larger developments that are not directly within the grasp of an individual MFI.
· Question asked by Armonia (MIX): Have you been already discussing with investors to see if they are interested in pushing up the green agenda as a condition for funding?
· Regarding investors pushing the green agenda: at e-MFP, there was a session on green performance specifically for investors. What Geert sees currently from IFC, Inter-American Development Bank, and African Microfinance Development Bank, those institutions are becoming more serious about engaging with green microfinance.
Comments and Questions Submitted in Chat Box
· Is this a special indicators or an added to twinline indicators?
· from Drew Tulchin: Thanks folks. Looking good and a nice step forward. I am particularly interested in growing MFI products that facilitate sale and growth of green products. For example, anyone interested in Kenya and E. Africa, we are helping a cookstove company called BURN. They are linking their distributors w/ MFI and other SME financing. Anyone with thoughts and/or insights and interests, is welcome to contact me. Drew Tulchin, Social Enterprise Associates
· Just wondering why we call green? environment concerns for me doesn't necessary or not all will directly result to green. at the moment no suggestion [for what to call it instead]
· Have you been already discussing with investors to see if they are interested in pushing up the green agenda as a condition for funding?
· from Leslie Barcus: Thanks Geert....absolutely this notion of plant-based diets is an early concept. Where MFIs could play a role, and I agree with you again, is to promote loan or savings products which are conducive to same. Thank you.
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