Environmental Policy

This policy document was created as part of integrating May 17 Association into the planning, implementation, and monitoring of strategies while taking environmental conditions, including the climate crisis into account.

May 17 determines the "sustainability of the environment" as one of its goals in its corporate functioning, in the institutions it cooperates with, and the activities it supports.

Carbon emissions and environmental policy, in general, are an integral part of all of the organization's policy documents, including the Human Resources Administrative Procedure document, Procurement Guidelines and Travel Policy; all relevant documents are expected to be compliant with environmental policy.
Taking into account the climate crisis, May 17 organizes capacity building meetings for both its own organization and its partners on organizing and event planning that do not harm the environment.
One of May 17's main goals within the environmental policy is to reduce CO2 release caused by full-time employees by 15% by 2023 via utilizing different forms of travel and meetings.
May 17 will prepare an environment monitoring guide and conduct yearly environmental monitoring to reduce environmental damage during the 2021-2023 period.

Within the scope of the travel policy, May 17 prefers the transportation types that least harms the environment:

Taking into account the intersectionalities of the target group, it decides which means of transportation would be used by negotiating with the participants regarding discrimination, mistreatment, and violence that may occur during the transportation process. It does not prefer a means of transportation that the participants do not approve of.
It is organized in such a way that participants are least affected by this process during the periods of epidemics or infectious diseases.
It targets the implementation of environmental policy in such a way that it does not affect the ability to participate in the meeting of participants who work during the week and who do not have an open sexual identity in the workplace.
Prefers to work with local experts to minimize long-distance transportation at the events it supports.
Aims to organize online interviews/meetings to reduce the CO2 emissions produced by transportation as much as possible. Prefers using digital platforms in situations where the impact of the activity will not diminish.

Meeting and organization services:

May 17 is mindful of choosing venues that can be illuminated by daylight or open spaces as meeting places.
Aims to minimize plastic and other waste generation during the meetings. (Such as replacing plastic water bottles with jugs and cups)
May 17 Association does not consume meat at its activities under the vegetarian food policy. It investigates the ability to purchase vegan catering services during the procurement process and is mindful of purchasing a vegan service at lunch or dinner.
Prefers to use the venues of non-governmental organizations as meeting places.
Encourages the use of online tools in the activities of the organizations it supports. If they don't have the needed equipment, it aims to provide it.
It targets meetings/events to be held in logistically accessible locations and to reduce urban vehicle use.
Encourages the use of online tools to minimize paper and plastic consumption. (Activity program, monitoring and evaluation tools, etc.)
Encourages the use of wipeable boards to reduce paper consumption during meetings and workshops.

Office Management

Monitoring the creation of environmental policy, implementation and monitoring of programs and projects,
Enhancing waste management capabilities; paper recycling, separate collection of organic waste, medical waste (mask, etc., which are used intensively during the pandemic periods), other waste types,
Application of environmentally friendly lighting options,
Planning working hours in a way that is least harmful to the environment,
Choosing the hygiene materials to be used in office cleaning from products that can be dissolved in water, least harmful to the environment and not tested on animals,
Development and implementation of online tools to minimize paper, plastic consumption within the office (for timesheets, daily leaves, annual leaves, assignments, purchase request forms, etc.),
Using the other faces of papers to minimize paper consumption where paper consumption is inevitable,
As required by the policy of minimizing CO2 release due to travel; planning of annual trips (which can also be estimated) for people working in the association; annual travel expenses, transportation, online meetings that are possible to be held, etc. should be reviewed. In this context, each program is responsible for making its own planning,
Environmental assessment for intra-organizational programs/projects, preparation of indicators for this and making sure that they are feasible,
Using wipeable boards for office meetings in order to reduce paper consumption and overall cut-down of paper consumption is being aimed.