Snapshot of ILO's environmental sustainability achievements

Efforts to reduce ILO’s Carbon Footprint

Renovation works in the ILO headquarters’ building in Geneva implemented several measures that contribute to reduce the overall environmental impacts of the building, including the greenhouse gas emissions. Examples of implemented measures include:

• Improved thermal efficiency of facade and roof
• Highly efficient glazing
• Automatic control of blinds to save energy
• LED lights throughout
• Dimmers for office lighting and presence detectors to switch off lights when not needed
• Glazed partitions to maximize the use of natural daylight
• Water and energy saving taps
• Ventilation units with high-performance heat recovery system
• In external offices, environmental sustainability criteria have been taken into account in renovation plans, such as in the renovation works in the Brasilia and Abidjan offices.

Waste Management

Waste management is a key element in our efforts to improve environmental sustainability.
In the headquarters in Geneva, a centralized waste management system was implemented with the purpose of increasing the recycling of major waste streams. Waste recycling centres with bins for organic, paper, glass, aluminium, PET and batteries were placed in strategic areas on each floor and replaced individual waste bins. The strategy is accompanied by campaigns for the sensitization and engagement of staff to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.

Thanks to the new system, the ILO now recycles or composts 80% of the waste volume in the headquarters. A growing number of external offices are replicating this successful system. In this view, the ILO carried out a project to support the development of effective waste management procedures in selected external offices. This project helped them to improve methodologies to assess waste production and put in place concrete actions to further reduce, re-use and recycle waste in their locations.

Water Management

Reducing water consumption and ensuring appropriate waste water disposal is a priority in ILO premises, in particular in water-scarce locations. We monitor and report water consumption in ILO-owned premises and actively explore means to use water more efficiently.

The ILO headquarters has installed water saving features in toilets and kitchens. In external location, some owned premises are engaging in harvesting rainwater for irrigation and to be used in ponds.

Other Environmental Measures

In addition to assessing ILO’s impact on the environment, the ILO achieved important environmental performance outcomes in areas such as reduction of resource use, promotion of ecomobility, and several activities for awareness raising and engagement with ILO staff.

Promotion of sustainable printing production and reduction in paper use:

• More performant printers with reduced environmental impacts were installed in the print shop at the ILO headquarters;
• The implementation of performance work plans resulted in the reduction of paper waste in the print shop
• The use of official electronic correspondence increased 37.5% in 2016, and 41.3% in 2017.

Promotion of Ecomobility:

• Air compressors for bikes and additional bike racks were installed
• Charging stations for electric cars
• Promotion of annual Bike to Work and bike repair workshops

Staff engagement, capacity building and awareness raising:

• Organization of the ILO Green Week in 2019
• Campaigns for the World Environment Day
• Frequent communication through internal communication channels to inform staff about ILO greening efforts

The ILO in the UN joint efforts to promote environmental sustainability

The ILO is actively engaged in interagency initiatives to improve environmental sustainability in the UN system, in particular in the activities organized under the United Nations (UN) Environment Management Group (EMG). The EMG is a system-wide coordination body on environment and human settlements and has the mandate to identify issues on the international environmental agenda that warrant cooperation, and find ways of engaging its collective capacity in coherent management responses to those issues.

With respect to environmental sustainability of facilities and operations, the ILO participates in the activities organized by the EMG on Environmental Sustainability Management​ that supports and coordinates UN entities’ efforts to go green and become climate neutral.

Notably, the ILO has been involved in the EMG processes to develop an UN internal sustainability vision and strategy beyond 2020 and to raise the UN’s own ambitions and intensify internal efforts to combat climate change. The resulting UN Sustainability Strategy 2030 had its first part adopted and endorsed by the Chief Executive Board in 2019. The Environmental Sustainability Committee of the ILO currently works to align ILO’s future action on environmental sustainability to the UN Sustainability Strategy.