Nissan Europe, WFP join forces to boost sustainability in humanitarian mobility

DUBAI: Nissan Europe yesterday announced a year-long humanitarian collaboration with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) focused on improving road safety and environmental sustainability within the organization. The program will touch WFP’s employees in terms of road safety and significantly enhance WFP’s supply chain foot printing and sustainable procurement initiatives, contributing towards the United Nations (UN) “Greening the Blue” program to measure, reduce and offset carbon emission of UN agencies.

With 88 percent of WFP’s 14,600 staff based in the field across 82 countries, safety is a critical part of the organization’s day-today operations in ensuring the efficient delivery of food assistance to the people who need it most. Often visiting some of the hardest-to-reach communities in the world, threatened by natural disasters and conflict, road incidents are unfortunately commonplace due to hazardous road conditions.

Through this collaboration, Nissan Europe will be working closely with WFP to create a strong culture of road safety by providing remote training to help WFP’s team of drivers and fleet of 3,200 vehicles - thus enhancing humanitarian access to deep-field communities. Nissan will also leverage its environmental leadership to support WFP in effectively measuring its carbon footprint across its air, land and sea operations as well as through its supply chain.

This pilot with Nissan, representing an annual investment of Ä180,000, marks an important step toward more efficient, greener and safer means of moving humanitarian supplies and people, supporting WFP’s vision of zero hunger and Nissan’s Blue Citizenship visions of a future with zero emissions and zero fatalities. “WFP is delighted to work with Nissan Europe to explore new and innovative ways to green our operations and improve the safety of our fleets,” said Jay Aldous, Director, Private Sector Partnerships at the UN World Food Program. “As the logistics leader for the humanitarian community, WFP is committed to improving every facet of our operations so we can more effectively reach the people who need our assistance the most, wherever they are.”

Thierry Pieton, Senior Vice President, Administration & Finance Nissan Europe commented: “Following Nissan’s donation of 10 Million Yen (US$80,000) to support WFP’s relief efforts in Nepal, today is a proud moment for Nissan as we cement our relationship with the UN World Food Programme. Improving road safety is critical to accessing vulnerable people in hard-to-reach areas, and Nissan is committed to using its expertise and resources to help WFP reach its zero hunger ambition.”