Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

 

www.fao.org

HQ: Rome, Italy

Focal Point: Tina Mittendorf, Giulia Cavo, Riccardo del Citto, Christopher Breen, Ana Reñones González

Email: [email protected]

Internal Sustainability Team: One part time staff, three full time consultants, one intern 

The entity may not report waste data for all its personnel. Please refer to the entity's personnel chart below for more information.
Data has been amended for the year 2019. Implausible values reported during the environmental inventory exercise were investigated, and found to be erroneous by significant margins in a sub-regional office. This has been rectified and the new value represents the actual water consumption for 2019.
FAO staff figures for 2019 and 2020 have been updated since they were published in the respective year's Greening the Blue Report. From 2022, FAO's staff figures exclude home based/remote staff in line with the UN Environmental Inventory boundaries.

DIRECTOR-GENERAL'S MESSAGE

“As we look at the current state of our planet, at the loss of biodiversity, rising sea levels, ecosystem degradation, and the negative effects of climate change, it is clear that the time for action is now.”

Qu Dongyu, Director-General, FAO

MISSION

FAO’s Strategic Framework seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. 

Field Offices

http://www.fao.org/about/who-we-are/worldwide-offices/en 

ALIGNMENT WITH THE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT IN THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM, 2020–2030 

In May 2021, the FAO Director-General formally inaugurated the new Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) Strategy 2020-2030. The new CER Strategy serves as both a mandate and a roadmap for a 45 percent reduction in the absolute amount of CO2e emissions released into the atmosphere by 2030, compared to 2018 levels. This is in line with the overarching Strategy for Sustainability Management in the UN System 2020-2030, as four of the five environmental impact areas, and the six management functions are included in the new FAO Strategy. Biodiversity is treated separately, as FAO has recently launched the dedicated Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors.

EMISSIONS REDUCTION

The largest sources of FAO emissions are associated with facilities, fleet management, and air-travel, with air travel accounting for around 50% of the Organization´s environmental footprint.

Since around 2008, FAO has incorporated many in-house sustainability initiatives, primarily related to facilities, travel, and procurement.

FAO has further scaled up the scope and ambition of its sustainability ambitions and commitments, which are encapsulated in FAO´s Corporate Environmental Responsibility Policy and Strategy 2020-2030. With the development and implementation of these frameworks, FAO has committed to integrating holistic environmental considerations into its facilities and operations, both at FAO Headquarters and FAO Decentralized Offices.

Since 2016, building related emissions have shown a steady decrease trend since across FAO. 

In 2020, emissions from FAO facilities dropped significantly by 52% and air travel emissions dropped by 76% compared to the previous year, due to the restrictions of the covid pandemic crisis. Overall, FAO emissions experienced a decline of 61.6% Organization-wide in 2020. This trend continued in 2021, during which time total FAO emissions fell by a further 15%.

There was a rebound of emissions in the 2022 reporting year. Total emissions increased to 29,894 tCO2eq, up by 70% relative to the previous year. This is attributable to employees returning to the office and undertaking more travel as restrictions were lifted. Emissions from stationary combustion have notably increased. Power outages and other factors have contributed to these rises, underscoring the need for accurate reporting and exploration of hybrid solar systems. Large fluctuations in fleet emissions also indicate the need for a fleet management system to improve reporting accuracy. 

However, total emissions are still 38% below the 2018 baseline. Although emissions have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, this rebound will require renewed efforts towards sustainable practices and enhanced reduction initiatives in the coming years to ensure that FAO continues to align with the goals of the FAO Corporate Environmental Responsibility Strategy 2020-2030 and the UN Sustainability Strategy. 

EMS AND REDUCTION EFFORTS

An EMS has been implemented at FAO Headquarters and a pilot EMS is in place in the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. The CER Strategy 2020-2030 further outlines commitments to developing more EMSs in FAO Decentralised Offices.

FAO has had great success in increasing the prevalence of renewable energy in the Organization, contributing to GHG emission reductions. Since 2016, solar systems have been successfully installed in the Regional Office for Africa in Ghana, and in the country offices in Nepal, Djibouti, Uganda, Mauritania, Jordan, Congo, Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone.

These success stories have triggered the interest from many COs, and FAO is now developing on average of 2-3 solar PV systems per year. To capitalise on this momentum, FAO has launched a Call for Expression of Interest: Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in FAO DOs in June 2022. Approximately 37 project proposals were received from 22 countries, of which 13 energy efficiency projects in 10 Decentralized Offices have been selected to apply for CapEx funding, with implementation to begin in 2024.

Offices are also developing sustainability action plans, single use plastic bans, and awareness raising initiatives, improved waste management, lighting or HVAC upgrades etc on their own initiative, and taking an increasing interest in sustainability.

An action-oriented and collaborative approach has been adopted to ensure the success of the Strategy. Representatives from FAO divisions and regional offices, supported by the Corporate Environmental Responsibility Team in FAO Headquarters, have established a working group for the implementation of the CER Strategy 2020-2030. This working group meets regularly to report on activities, share best practices, foster collaboration and coordination, and to identify challenges and opportunities for a holistic integration of sustainability considerations across FAO.

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 2022 reporting year, FAO’s progress on the EMS is rated as: Approaches.

ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS AND STANDARDS IN POLICIES, PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES

In June 2022, FAO adopted the Framework for Environmental and Social Management, which replaces the Environmental and Social Management Guidelines (2015).

In addition to the Environmental and Social Standards, these safeguards establish boundaries for FAO programmes and projects, help to establish risk levels, and provide the operational pillars which set the principles and mechanisms to effectively screen and manage risks and potential impacts in FAO programmes and projects.

For the 2022 reporting year, FAO’s status of implementing environmental and social safeguards and standards in their policies, projects and programmes is: Yes.

ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL

FAO is currently in the process of developing a new corporate environmental responsibility training course, which will be mandatory for all FAO staff.

The course, which aims to equip staff with the knowledge and tools to understand how everyone can lessen their environmental footprint in professional and personal settings, is due to be launched in 2024.

For the 2022 reporting year, FAO’s status on providing training on environmental sustainability is No. Note, this status was updated after the data collection deadline for Greening the Blue Report 2023.

ENVIRONMENTAL INVENTORY APPROACH

FAO is regularly monitoring its footprint through its annual environmental inventory exercise, which is used to calculate the total emissions associated with operations and buildings. It includes both Headquarters and Decentralized Offices. In this way, FAO can identify good practices or inefficiencies at the office, country, and organizational level.

In the first few months of each year data collection takes place. All Decentralized Offices are contacted and invited to provide data for the previous year.

The exercise accounts for GHG emissions issued from the use of:

  • Energy
  • Stationary combustion (e.g., fuel for power generators)
  • Refrigerant gases for air conditioning systems
  • Mobile sources (air travel, rail, boat, bus, car/vans)

The exercise further estimates water consumption, as total waste generation and recycled fraction, and the presence of sustainable procurement practices and take-back schemes

For the minor offices that do not report data, proxies are used to estimate their emissions. Normalization factors for proxies are based on climatic zones of the office, the number of personnel, and the office floor space (m2). Accuracy of data has improved over the years, especially regarding decentralised offices.

The total amount of GHG emissions deriving from flights, trains, bus, boats are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator.

The unavoidable GHG emissions are offset by purchasing Certified Emissions Reduction credits.

OFFSETTING

FAO has purchased Adaptation Fund Certified Emission Reductions from the Clean Development Mechanism for the purpose of compensating the unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions from the operations and travel of the Food and Agriculture Organization since 2014. The amount of GHG emissions to offset every year correspond to the figures displayed on top of the page.

The offsetting is done for the whole Organization (HQ and all decentralised offices) and covers 100% of the areas where FAO has operational and/or financial control (buildings, fleet and official travels). 

WASTE MANAGEMENT

At HQ, waste monitoring and waste separation is part of the waste management contract. Single use plastic items have been banned from catering services. This has been further supported by awareness raising campaigns, as well as a behavioural science pilot project designed to understand how recycling rates in FAO HQ might be further improved. The outcomes of this pilot will be used to implement measure to boost the recycling rate in HQ, and to identify possible measures that can be replicated in Decentralised Offices.

In decentralised offices, waste reporting is mainly done through the annual environmental inventory exercise. Over the years, we have achieved a participation rate of over 90% of the consulted offices. However, only 34.5% of the reporting country offices declare to have recycling procedures in place, and the recycling rate is generally very low (average 18%).  

Waste management is an area where FAO will focus its efforts in the future, in line with the UN commitment and objectives outlined in the Strategy for Sustainability Management in the UN System 2020-2030 – Part I, and the FAO Corporate Environmental Responsibility Strategy 2020-2030. 

WATER AND WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT

Presently, water management only consists in monitoring water consumption at HQ and in decentralised offices through utility meters, and in raising awareness towards water saving measures and basic technologies.  

Water reporting is mainly done through the annual environmental inventory exercise. Over the years we have achieved a participation rate of 90% of the consulted offices. 

Water and wastewater management is an area where FAO will focus its efforts in the next future, in line with the UN commitment and objectives outlined in the Strategy for Sustainability Management in the UN System 2020-2030 – Part I and the FAO Corporate Environmental Responsibility Strategy 2020-2030. 

OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES

  • Study of UN Practices for Waste Management in field offices, in collaboration with UN Environment
  • Implementation of single-use plastic ban policy 
  • Intelligent use of air conditioning policy and guidelines
  • Promoting behavioural changes
  • HVAC upgrade with HEPA filters to reduce internal air pollution  
  • Installation of hybrid solar systems to supply energy during normal operation and as backup source during grid outages, to avoid the use of diesel generators

NEXT STEPS

The FAO Corporate Environmental Responsibility Strategy 2020-2030 has entered into force and its implementation is delivered through consultation and cooperation with many administrative divisions at HQ level and focal points from regional offices, that shall be responsible for its wider dissemination, supported by the FAO Corporate Environmental Responsibility Team in FAO HQ. The working group for the FAO CER Strategy meets periodically to build specific workplans, identify priority actions and set up a solid monitoring and reporting framework. FAO further participates in inter-agency working groups and meetings to constantly explore new best practices and initiatives and their applicability to FAO. 

Within the next year, FAO will continue its development of new solar PV systems in decentralised offices, with the development of another system already underway in Eritrea. These efforts in promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency projects will be greatly aided by the Call for Expression of Interest, which will begin implementation after final approval. This will eventually become a recurring call, providing country offices with a systematic mechanism for requesting support for energy efficiency projects throughout the Organization. This will further help to target the areas of concern highlighted in the environmental inventory, namely the use of diesel generators.   

Regarding FAO fleet emissions, to increase data accuracy and to homogenise reporting across the Organization, FAO is designing a fleet management system for implementation. FAO is also exploring operational controls and awareness raising methods to curtail unnecessary travel and ensure that levels of air travel remain aligned with the objectives of the FAO CER Strategy 2020-2030 

FAO is also undertaking renewed efforts to raise awareness around issues of food waste, with a pilot project to be launched in FAO HQ in October 2023. The project will use smart scales to measure the types and quantities of food waste being generated in FAO HQ canteens. The pilot will make this information more salient to staff and will help inform measures to raise awareness and reduce food loss and waste.  

ADDITIONAL LINKS