Mission
The mission of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), as a United Nations specialized agency, is to promote safe, secure, environmentally sound, efficient and sustainable shipping through co-operation. This will be accomplished by adopting the highest practicable standards of maritime safety and security, efficiency of navigation and prevention and control of pollution from ships, as well as through consideration of related legal matters and effective implementation of IMO's instruments, with a view to their universal and uniform application.
EMS and Reduction Efforts
• Headquarters building refurbished in compliance with the latest UK legislation on energy efficiency: energy-efficient windows, lighting, heating/cooling (all lighting, heating and air-conditioning connected to motion detectors and/or timers). Host Government preparing in-depth sustainability review of building.
• Measures to reduce consumption implemented (lighting and heating/cooling timers set to shortest possible times, escalators switched off whenever possible, motion sensors added for lighting in parking garage (otherwise emergency-level only), exterior lighting reduced.
• Changes in working practices (no all-night meetings) to reduce consumption. Paper-smart initiatives launched in 2012.
• All photocopying/printing double-sided and reduced-toner by default; unnecessary printing/ photocopying strongly discouraged; most printers networked and shared.
Each year, as part of the Greening the Blue Report on Environmental Governance, each participating UN entity’s progress on the development of an Environmental Management System (EMS) is evaluated according to the UN system’s EMS criteria (these criteria are available on the Methodology webpage). Upon this evaluation the entity is then rated Exceeds, Meets, Approaches, or No response. For the 2023 reporting year, IMO’s did not report on EMS progress for 2023.
Environmental Training for Personnel
IMO did not report on training for 2023.
Offsetting
IMO offset its 2023 emissions.