UNEP Produces First UN Sustainability Report

(New York, 28 July 2006) - The first UN entity has now prodused a report on progress made in critical areas of sustainability. The 2004-2005 Sustainability Report entitled ‘Learning by Doing’  presents a shapshot overview of the organizational sustainability performance of the United Nations Environmental Programme Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics (UNEP/DTIE).

The report has been developed by the internal Sustainability Team of UNEP/DTI over the last two years, following agreement by the UNEP Executive Director. The result presents a model that can be considered by other UNEP Divisions and UN offices, including UN managers involved in internalizing the UN Global Compact principles. It is the 1st sustainability report based on the GRI Guidelines by a UN office.
 
The report includes a number of references to the UN Global Compact, and presents for instance the following results:

• evidence of the indirect economic impact of the organization as can be seen in high benefit-to-cost ratios of investments in selected Rural Energy Enterprise Development (REED) projects;
• mission / travel-related, carbon dioxide emissions of 348 tonnes in 2004 and 406 tonnes in 2005 for the Paris office;
• an estimated 9,52 tonnes of office waste (paper, plastic containers, bottles etc) produced by the Paris office in 2005;
• early steps taken to green meetings, e.g. arranging public transport tickets for our major annual meetings’ participants;
• social performance findings from our 2004 “Express Yourself” employee survey with a 55% response rate, including the largest portion (30%) of respondents giving highest priority to further training in “computer skills”.

The report is a comprehensive, foundational report on which we can build. It will be posted on UNEP DTIEs website, as annex to the UNEP DTIE Activity and Performance Report. Alternatively, you candownload the report here .