UNESCO's Environmental Commitment and Policy
NEW PUBLICATION
UNESCO’s 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report is now out. This report gives a full assessment of the Organization’s environmental footprint in 2024, including greenhouse gas emissions from facility use, travel and transport as well as water and waste management, paper use and procurement. It also showcases efforts by the UNESCO Offices worldwide to improve environmental performance.
UNESCO's environmental sustainability management
Environmental protection and climate action are at the core of UNESCO’s mission and mandate. These considerations are embedded within both its programmes in support of Member States as well as its own operational conduct. By integrating ambitious environmental criteria and targets into UNESCO’s management strategies, administrative policies and operations, the Organization’s environmental footprint has been substantially reduced compared to 2019.
In order to fully integrate and mainstream environmental and social sustainability standards and safeguards into all UNESCO’s programmes, the Organization has also recently developed an Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework (ESSF) that will see comprehensive implementation from 2026.
Key objectives of UNESCO’s Environmental Sustainability and Management Policy:
- Fully account for the externalities imposed by UNESCO’s own operations and facilities.
- Minimize any possible negative impact on the environment through targeted measures and continuous improvement, and contribute positively to protecting the environment and communities in which the Organization operates.
- To fully compensate for UNESCO’s unavoidable environmental footprint by systematically measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, and offsetting all emissions which remain.
Key Figures
Key Achievements in Management
UNESCO is implementing a global Environmental Management System (EMS), in line with the UN’s 2020-2030 Sustainability Strategy. This has driven the development of a holistic framework to plan and conduct activities, aiming to minimize the negative impacts on the natural environment and foster continuous improvement. While this agenda encompasses both increasing efficiency and integrating ambitious operational measures, it has embedded environmental sustainability across the management of UNESCO’s global operations.
Some of the key achievements include:
- Adoption of UNESCO’s first organization-wide Environmental Policy
- Creation of Environmental Management Board to direct strategic objectives
- Establishment of an internal carbon tax on air travel financing a Special Account for Environmental Action
- Review of administrative and management procedures, for example regarding travel, procurement and printing
- Coordination of a global environmental inventory process to monitor and account for operational impacts on the environmental
- Systematic expansion of UNESCO’s EMS to the Field Network in over 50 countries
- Specific emission-reduction projects in over 20 Offices (solar panels, energy audit, eco-friendly air-conditioning…)
- Comprehensive annual public reporting
- Continuous staff action and engagement campaigns
Action in the Field
To support UNESCO Field Offices in pursuing their sustainability agenda, a financial mechanism facilitating funding from the Special Account for Environmental Action was established. Funding applications are assessed on a biannual basis with over 30 projects supported since 2024. These support varying environmental needs relating to energy efficiency, water preservation, waste management and biodiversity conservation, to name a few.
Action at Headquarters
Roughly 40% of UNESCO’s work force is housed at Headquarters based in Paris, France. Consequently, there is a significant capacity to institute large-scale sustainability measures and establish a comprehensive approach to the environmental management of the facility. Some of the key achievements at Headquarters include:
- The establishment of an Environmental Commission bringing together colleagues in key functions to create a cross-sectoral strategy for the EMS of Headquarters.
- The curation of an on-site biodiversity and vegetable produce garden, contributing to the urban biodiversity objective of the City of Paris and fostering staff awareness, wellbeing and ownership over its own environment. A first ecological study in 2025 highlighted the vast biological diversity, including different types of bats and birds, present on side and put in place a biodiversity management plan.
- The Fontenoy site obtained the international sustainable building certification BREEAM-in-Use in 2022 with a “Good” rating highlighting improvements made to the building’s functional efficiency as well as its management.
- Individual office bins were removed in 2020 in favour of central waste recycling stations with five different bins, leading to an increase in the waste sorting rate by 10%.
- Both sites are running on 100% attributed green electricity, and comprehensive energy efficiency measures were put in place in 2022, to contribute to significant savings already achieved since 2010.
- A complete external energy audit was carried out in 2023, followed by a water audit in 2025, to identify further axes of improvement.
Latest news
Resources
This report gives a full assessment of UNESCO's environmental footprint in 2023 - including greenhouse gas emissions from facility use, travel and transport as well as water and waste management, paper use and procurement - and showcases efforts by the organization's Offices worldwide to improve environmental performance.
This report gives a full assessment of UNESCO's environmental footprint in 2022 - including greenhouse gas emissions from facility use, travel and transport as well as water and waste management, paper use and procurement - and showcases efforts by the organization's Offices worldwide to improve environmental performance.
This report gives a full assessment of UNESCO's environmental footprint in 2021 - including greenhouse gas emissions from facility use, travel and transport as well as water and waste management, paper use and procurement - and showcases efforts by the organization's Offices worldwide to improve environmental performance.
This Policy provides the framework and overarching principles to guide the mainstreaming of environmental sustainability considerations into UNESCO’s activities worldwide and is a strong commitment from senior management.
In this guide, UNESCO's staff as well as other concerned individuals find concrete tips on how to reduce their environmental footprint in their daily work and actively contribute to greening UNESCO. The guide contains good practices from and specific recommendations for both Headquarters and Field Offices.
Phase I of this Strategy sets common objectives, indicators and targets for all UN System organizations regarding Environmental Sustainability in the area of Management.
Face-to-face meetings have a considerable impact on the environment, caused mainly by the associated travel, facilities, catering and accommodation and support material. While shifting meetings online or hybrid is the best way to reduce their environmental impact, this is not always possible. Therefore, UNESCO has developed Guidelines for Green Meetings to help minimize the environmental impact of meetings and events organized by UNESCO.
Contact information
Any person or entity that is aware of or concerned by possible harm to the environment caused by UNESCO’s facilities, operations, programmes or projects, may contact environment(at)unesco.org