United Nations University (UNU)

www.unu.edu
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Focal Point: Nobuyuki Kawade
Email: [email protected]

Internal Sustainability Team: 16 full-time consultants

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.

Under-Secretary-General's Message

"The environment and the sustainable use of natural resources is at the heart of the work carried out by the United Nations University. Nearly half of the University's research institutes focus principally or exclusively on environmental protection, and all UNU's postgraduate programmes either centre on environmental protection or feature it prominently. Complementing UNU’s research and training in the area of sustainable development are working practices that seek to limit emissions and contribute to a greener workplace.”

Dr. David Malone, Under-Secretary-General & Rector, UNU

Mission

The mission of the UN University is to contribute, through collaborative research and education, to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations, its Peoples and Member States.

FIELD OFFICES

https://unu.edu/about/unu-system 

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

As an ISO 14001 accredited institution since January 2001, UNU has been working on the implementation of the Sustainability Strategy through implementation of the UNU Environment Management System (EMS).

  • Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions:

UNU has concluded an agreement with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC) since 2019 for offsetting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the operations and travel of UNU.  Under this agreement, UNU offsets 1,500 tons of CO2 per year, the amount estimated in accordance with the principles of the UN Greenhouse Gas Inventory, from 2019 to 2023.

  • Waste:

UNU fully align with the laws and regulations of both the local and the national governments.  

  • Biodiversity

Through an effort led by the UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability(UNU-IAS), UNU has joined the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. As a collaborating agency, UNU is playing an active role in research and capacity building for ecosystem restoration in a wide range of areas including sustainability in production landscapes and seascapes, water management, and the integration of conservation and biocultural values into urban planning in large metropolitan areas.

  • Facilities management:

UNU promotes energy savings via internal campaigns; Cool UNU/Warm UNU

  • Information and Communication Technologies (ICT):

Reduction of paper and energy wastes via introducing various new technologies.

EMISSIONS REDUCTION

UNU has achieved tangible reduction in emissions for the period 2020 – 2021.  This is due to less use of the premises while personnel working remotely from home and to less travel during the pandemic.

EMS and Reduction Efforts

  • UNU Environment Management System (EMS) Manual has been updated annually. In December 2021, UNU has passed the renewal audit and new certificate of ISO 14001:2015 has been issued by the certified auditor.
  • UNU-IAS issued Policy for Greener Workplace, which includes key components of the UNU EMS and encouraged personnel to practice at home during telecommuting.
  • UNU-IAS issued Guidelines on Production of Printed Materials, which include digital first policy and requests strong justification for printing.

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, UNU’s progress on the EMS is rated as: Meets.

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

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

ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL

UNU conducts Environment Management Training for all personnel annually. The training video is made available online via intranet and accessible to all personnel.

Also, UNU sets up an intranet page for its EMS that is accessible to all personnel and regularly updates the contents.

For the 2022 reporting year, UNU’s status on providing training on environmental sustainability is Yes, and it is mandatory for all personnel.

ENVIRONMENTAL INVENTORY APPROACH

The leakage of refrigerants is calculated by proxy.  Also, the leakage from a hot/cold water generator is excluded due to lack of a proxy to calculate as well.

Offsetting

211 tonnes CO2eq for 2021 for the UNU premises in Tokyo. UNU has an agreement with UNFCC for offsetting greenhouse gas.

Next steps

2022-2023: ISO14001 Periodic Audit,

2024: ISO14001 Re-certification Audit

Annual Staff Training on UNU EMS

Internal campaigns; Cool UNU/Warm UNU

ADDITIONAL LINKS

https://unu.edu/about/unu-services/facilities-management/iso14000