Greening the Blue Initiative
On 5 June 2007, the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon publicly called on all UN agencies, funds and programmes to become climate neutral and "go green." In doing so, he took the first step in leading the UN System towards greater sustainability and showed the world that the UN System is fully aware of the social and environmental challenges it faces in the 21st Century.
It was decided that UN entities should:
- MEASURE their environmental performance
- REDUCE their environmental impacts
- OFFSET unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions
Since then, the UN System has come a long way in measuring and reporting about the environmental impacts of its facilities and operations by publishing data about its greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental indicators such as waste and water management.
Associated to measuring, reduction efforts are underway across the whole UN System mostly organized around an environmental management system.
Coordinating this work across the UN System is the responsibility of the Sustainable United Nations (SUN) facility.
Read more on the origins of the UN System’s sustainability work and the structure of the bodies responsible for it.
UNEP is not only coordinating this work but it is making serious efforts to reduce its own footprint. Find out more about the work to green UNEP.
Sustainable UN Facility
UNEP hosts the Sustainable United Nations (SUN) facility, located in the Economy Division in Geneva. Established in 2008, SUN manages and supports the Issues Management Group (IMG) on Environmental Sustainability Management, which is a network of ‘Sustainability focal points.’ The focal points are designated by the UN entities’ member of the Environment Management Group. SUN also leads the UN system’s efforts to measure and reduce its environmental impacts.
While much of SUN’s work goes on behind the scenes – securing a mandate; ensuring environmental considerations are factored into key UN initiatives; and, providing templates, frameworks, technical support and advice to the IMG - there is also a UN-wide campaign to engage staff at all levels of the organization, detailing what’s happening to green the UN and how they can get involved. This campaign is Greening the Blue.
The UN 2020 - 2030 Environmental Sustainability Strategy
The Chief Executive Board endorsed the UN system’s first Strategy for Sustainability Management in the UN system. The strategy, which covers the years 2020 - 2030, builds on existing achievements achieved via the UN-wide Greening the Blue campaign as well as lessons learned in the last 10 years. It is designed to raise the UN System’s ambitions on sustainability and ensure greater system-wide coherence.
The strategy includes a vision for sustainability in the UN system: “The UN System is a leader in integrating environmental and social sustainability considerations across its work in a systematic and coherent way, practicing the principles that it promotes and leaving a positive legacy.”
Greening the Blue Reports
The UN system first reported its greenhouse gas emissions in 2009, for 2008 emissions. Reporting has continued every year since then and has continuously improved in accuracy and scope, providing an ever-more detailed picture of the UN system’s emissions and their sources. The report now includes data on waste management since 2017, on water management since 2018, on environmental management and on climate neutrality status.
You will find the annual UN System reports on its environmental impacts and efforts to reduce it here.
