United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)
www.unhabitat.org
HQ: Nairobi, Kenya
Focal Point: Bernhard Barth
Email: [email protected]
Mission
UN-Habitat is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future. Its mission is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all.
Field Offices
Alignment with the Strategy for sustainability management in the United Nations system, 2020–2030
UN-Habitat recently streamlined internal responsibilities to ensure efficient annual reporting to the Greening the Blue report on its environmental performance.
UN-Habitat is currently reviewing internal procedures in the areas of focus of the UN strategy for sustainability management in order to identify areas of opportunity to improve performance.
Emissions Reduction
UN-Habitat has been measuring and reporting its organisational greenhouse gas footprint since 2017 (2016 data). Per capita emissions have decreased from 10.41to 3.6 in that time.
Much of the change can be attributed to changes in the amount and boundary of data collected for the inventory, as coverage improves over time to include both more staff and more reported emissions from all UN-Habitat offices.
- UN-Habitat’s main office building in Nairobi runs off a partial solar PV electricity system
EMS and Reduction efforts
UN-Habitat has committed to setting-up an Environmental Management System within the timeframe set-out in the UN strategy for sustainability management.
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, UN-Habitat’s progress on the EMS is rated as: Does not meet.
ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS AND STANDARDS IN POLICIES, PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES
For the 2022 reporting year, UN-Habitat’s status of implementing environmental and social safeguards and standards in their policies, projects and programmes is: Yes.
ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL
For the 2022 reporting year, UN-Habitat’s status on providing training on environmental sustainability is Yes, and it is mandatory for all personnel.
Offsetting
UN-Habitat’s entire emissions footprint reported in both the 2019 and 2020 Greening the Blue reports (2018 and 2019 data) was offset as part of a UN Secretariat coordinated effort. Offsets for the 2021 report (2020 data) are being processed.
Waste Management
UN-Habitat’s Headquarters in Nairobi successfully takes part in the UNON campus-wide waste management and recycling system, with internal waste separation at source within the office buildings.
Other Environmental Measures
- UN-Habitat has launched its new Environmental and Social Safeguards System (ESSS). This will be used to assure sound environmental and social performance throughout the life-cycle of UN-Habitat projects; extending a pro-environmental management approach to projects and programmes, as well as operational activities.
- UN-Habitat complies with the UN Secretariat Procurement Manual (Effective 1 July 2020) in which sustainability considerations have been introduced.
- UN-Habitat’s HQ in Nairobi has supported the UNON-wide roll-out of a ban on single use plastic for events and conferences on the Nairobi compound.
- Events organised on the compound in Nairobi follow the green meeting guide published by UNEP.
- UN-Habitat follows ST/AI/2013/3 which allows for the purchase of lower cost and most direct route combinations.
- Staff are encouraged to reduce usage of business class flights.
- UN-Habitat complies with the principles of paperless meetings, whereby all executive board meetings and Assemblies are paper-free, with materials being shared on USB, electronically or via apps.
Next steps
UN-Habitat is in the advanced stages of the implementation of a strengthened Environmental and Social Safeguards System (ESSS). This will be used to assure sound environmental and social performance throughout the life-cycle of UN-Habitat projects; extending a pro-environmental management approach to projects and programmes, as well as operational activities.
UN-HABITAT Environmental and Social Safeguards System
Habitat