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Greening the Blue provides information on the UN system’s environmental footprint and the efforts to reduce it.
Greening the Blue Annual Reports highlight the progress in the implementation of the
Sustainability Strategy I.
Reports are publicly available, assuring transparency and serving as a source of inspiration for other
organizations to green their facilities and operations.
This section presents greenhouse gas emissions resulting from UN system facilities, vehicles, and business travel. The calculations include activities carried out by personnel assigned to UN offices and activities over which the UN system has financial and operational control.
In 2024, 44% of the UN system emissions originated from the operation of facilities. Out of the total emissions from facilities, 46.6% comes from generators, followed by purchased electricity, building refrigerants, boilers and heating. Generators are often the only viable solution in many of the sites where UN is operating, due to frequent electricity cuts, or even complete lack of a grid. As explained in the next chapter on Renewables, UN system entities have been installing solar panels and are gradually phasing out the use of generators, whenever possible. Initiatives from UN system entities focus both on reducing consumption, as well as generating energy through renewables.
UN entities have significantly reduced their environmental impacts by shifting to energy produced onsite from renewables, notably solar panels. Through such interventions, entities tackle emissions and budget shortages while also securing reliable supply. Some examples include:
38.7% of the UN system’s solar energy production comes from Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions.
34,872,592 kWh were produced on site from renewables, equivalent to energy for running the United Nations Office at Nairobi and Geneva for 4 years.
The UN system is committed to preventing harm from waste from facilities, operations and activities to the environment and local populations. Several efforts are carried out within UN facilities worldwide to reduce waste of all types, eliminate single-use items, handle organic and hazardous waste and even sell waste of high recyclable value and reinvest gains in other environmental efforts.
Based on the commitments described in the Sustainability Strategy I, UN system entities have agreed on a common approach in the development and implementation of Environmental Management Systems. Guidelines and criteria for EMS rely on the ISO standard 14001:2015. Each year, UNEP SUN collects data and evaluates the status of EMS of reporting entities against set criteria. Entities’ EMS are scored as meeting, approaching, or not meeting the criteria.
Scoring of Environmental Management Systems of UN entities
Personnel covered by an EMS based on its scoring (2024)
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Sustainability performance of individual UN entities.
Learn how we collect and analyze data.
Access guiding material on emission reduction, offsets, sustainable buildings...
Stories and updates from UN system environmental efforts
