International Maritime Organization (IMO)

www.imo.org
HQ: London, UK

Focal Point: Aubrey Botsford

The entity may not report waste data for all its personnel. Please refer to the entity's personnel chart below for more information.
All entity personnel are included in the entity's greenhouse gas emission inventory.

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 2022 reporting year, IMO’s progress on the EMS is rated as: No response.

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

For the 2022 reporting year, IMO’s status of implementing environmental and social safeguards and standards in their policies, projects and programmes is: No response.

ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL

For the 2022 reporting year, IMO’s status on providing training on environmental sustainability is: No response.

INVENTORY management Plan (IMP)

The “boundaries” of IMO’s inventory are considered to be:

• Everything that is paid for and controlled by the Organization. This includes: all utilities for the building; use of official vehicles; official travel (including entitlement travel; transfers to/from terminals for official travel; taxis provided by the Organization. Not included: postage/shipping/freight.

• Headquarters premises only (regional offices are not included). 

OFFSETTING

IMO has offset all its GHG emissions for the years 2008-2015 inclusive through the purchase of appropriate CERs. Greenhouse gas emissions for 2016 will also be offset (purchase of CERs in process).

NEXT STEPS

As a regulatory agency for shipping, IMO is working to an established action plan to address greenhouse gas emissions from ships, as described in the message from Secretary-General Sekimizu. In its day-to-day operations, too, IMO is implementing several emission-reduction actions, particularly in important areas like the headquarters building, and will continue to take further action wherever practicable.

IMO and sustainability