Greening ITU

While supporting members to realize the benefits of green digital action, ITU is also actively addressing its environmental impact from within. ITU recognizes its responsibility to lead by example and pursue its mandate in an environmentally efficient and socially responsible manner by integrating sustainability considerations across its operations. ITU’s environmental sustainability policy sets out the organization’s vision:

To be the leader in environmental sustainability management in the UN system by systematically integrating sustainability considerations across ITU’s work, minimizing negative impacts on the environment and showcasing the power of digital technologies to drive climate action.

Building on resolutions and decisions of its governing bodies, ITU joined the UN-wide commitment to achieve the UN Sustainability Strategy 2020-2030. The strategy commits ITU to implement an Environmental Management System (EMS) as well as reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45% from its 2010 baseline. By implementing an EMS, ITU is systematically identifying and working to reduce its operational GHG emissions from key sources such as air travel, facilities, and events.

As well as actively working to reduce its environmental impact at its source, ITU is also offsetting its operational emissions, calculated in the annual GHG inventory, via the purchase of UN Certified Emission Reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism. Through this process ITU has been climate neutral in its operations since 2015.

To ensure efficient and environmentally sustainable operations, ITU is closely monitoring the use of heating, cooling, water, electricity, and waste management. While electricity at the headquarters comes from 100% renewable resources, steps are taken to reduce consumption by identifying efficiencies such as the use of light sensors and LED lighting.

In terms of waste management, one of the internal initiatives is to promote paperless operations, responding to a call from membership to make ITU a fully paperless organization. The paperless approach extends to ITU events and conferences, significantly reducing the use of paper resources. Similarly, ITU is actively working with event organizers and caterers to promote an environment free of single-use plastic.

ITU serves as a unique platform which brings together governments, industry, academia, and civil society to advance the world’s most pressing digital connectivity issues. For this reason, each year ITU organizes numerous conferences, workshops, and events at its headquarters and around the world.

To ensure sustainability considerations are integrated into all stages of event management, ITU uses the UN developed Event Sustainability Checklist as part of the UN Green Events Tool. For its main Plenipotentiary Conference ITU works closely with host organizer to ensure all aspects of the event, such as travel, accommodation, and energy consumption are considered in an environmentally efficient manner.

Furthermore, ITU has customized a virtual meetings platform to provide a consistent and efficient e-meetings service, aligned with the organization’s working methods. In addition to reducing the environmental impact of delegates travelling to physical meetings, this virtual meeting tool increases meeting accessibility by allowing more participants to join remotely.