Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)
www.ctbto.org
HQ: Vienna, Austria
Number of staff: 426
Key Figures
Total emissions: 2,773 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions per staff member: 6.5 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions from air travel: 1,756 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Air travel as a proportion of total emissions: 63%
Air travel per staff member: 4.1 tonnes CO2
Building-related emissions: 42 kg CO2 equivalent per square metre
“The CTBTO recognizes that climate change threatens the planet and is committed to doing its share to move toward the goal of a climate-neutral UN.”
Tibor Tóth, Executive Secretary, Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)
Executive Secretary's message
“The CTBTO recognizes that climate change threatens the planet and is committed to doing its share to move toward the goal of a climate-neutral UN. Along with its sister international organizations at the Vienna International Centre, the CTBTO has undertaken initiatives to reduce energy consumption, curtail air travel, and encourage use of mass transit. The organization is also exploring, wherever possible, ways to make the network of monitoring facilities more carbon-neutral, but realizes that it will not for the present be able to achieve complete carbon neutrality because of the energy requirements of some of the specialized technology that underpins the verification regime.”
Tibor Tóth
Mission
CTBTO is the international organization established to ensure the build-up of a global verification regime capable of detecting nuclear explosions underground, underwater and in the atmosphere. The regime must be operational by the time the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which bans all nuclear explosions, enters into force. The verification regime consists of 337 monitoring facilities supported by an International Data Centre and on-site inspection measures in the event of a suspected nuclear test.
Experience so far
The CTBTO adopted a policy of conducting all job interviews via video-conference in June 2007, thereby saving more than 200 air trips over the past two years.
The decision to save on cooling and heating costs by keeping office buildings two degrees warmer in summer and two degrees colder in winter created some discomfort initially, but is now accepted.
Installed a green roof on one of our buildings.
Reduction efforts
1. Collaboration with Vienna-based organizations on the Vienna International Centre complex related to building, energy and air-conditioning measures.
2. Multiple sustainable travel initiatives:
Suspended travel policy to nine-plus hours for Business Class travel instead of seven-plus;
Equipped organization with good quality videoconferencing facilities to limit the need for travel; all CTBTO interviews are held via video-conferencing;
Requested travel agent to report for all itineraries the CO2 emissions (carbon footprint) of travel; Encourage train travel within Europe.
3. Office equipment (i.e. personal computers, monitors, etc.) was completely replaced with eco-friendly equipment.
Offsetting
The CTBTO has not looked into this option at this point.
Next Steps
No strategy or policy paper has been produced, however, a draft Environmental Plan, initiated by our counterparts UNOV and UNIDO for other VIC organizations has been contributed to and joint initiatives undertaken.
The CTBTO is very conscious of this issue and is looking to the UN and other sources to seek good practice related to sustainable procurement in order to develop an appropriate policy.
