Monday 5th June was World Environment Day, and what a day it was. This year’s celebrations saw a whole host of activities all around the world, including lots of announcements and events, including the launch of the new greening strategy for the UN complex in Bangkok.
In conjunction with the catering company Sodexo, UN ESCAP, and UN Environment have taken action to green the UN Building’s facilities and operations by reducing plastic waste, tackling food waste, introducing a green menu and reducing energy consumption.
One of the partnership’s priorities is to reduce the amount of plastic waste leaving the compound. To achieve this they are encouraging staff to:
ESCAP and UN Environment have set a goal to reduce food waste from the UN Building in Bangkok’s canteens. And as a first step, they need to know how much they’re throwing away each day. With that in mind, Sodexo will now be tracking the amount of food wasted in their dining rooms. They’re also introducing a ‘shame board’ so that staff can track progress.
The quantities of post-consumer food waste in the first week came as a wake up call – between 40-90g of food is wasted per meal. That might not seem a lot, but adds up to around 15% of the food that is served. If you amplify that up the food supply chain where food is wasted along the way, it means that we are wasting a huge percentage of what has been taken from nature to feed us.
In order to help the partnership achieve their goal, staff are being encouraged to:
Keeping with the theme of food, the caterer - Sodexo - has introduced a greener menu at the Bangkok office, which uses more sustainable produce, including certified seafood. Sustainability labeling has also been introduced, to help staff make more informed and sustainable choices at lunch.
Staff are also being reminded to switch off lights and computers before leaving the office. Leaving appliances on stand-by mode is still a great waste of electricity. Whilst there are solar cells at the UN’s Bangkok office that contribute to electricity supply, they want to ensure that all energy used is put to productive use.
For more tips on how to reduce your environmental footprint check out our ‘Get Involved’ pages to see how you can make a different, or watch ESCAP’s greening video below.