The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Sustainability

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Build the future

We measure our commitment to sustainability through Global Reporting Initiative standards.

Read the report

Sustainability is at the forefront of UNOPS work around the world. By providing infrastructure, procurement and project management services, we support climate action, build resilience, and foster equality and inclusion to better serve communities in need.

Sustainable Development Goals

UNOPS supports governments, the UN family and other partners in their efforts to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

With a mandate for infrastructure and procurement, we are committed to building a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient future for all.

We are committed to facilitating new kinds of investments that are needed to help close the gap and accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda.

Working closely with government partners, we help drive efficiency and value for money in public spending to ensure more funding is available to shift to low-carbon economies and help achieve long-term sustainable development.

Our climate

UNOPS works to support and protect our environment. We increase the resilience of countries and communities to withstand the shocks of natural disasters and extreme weather events brought on by climate change. And we help improve biodiversity and ecological resilience, and provide sustainable energy solutions using renewable resources.

We are committed to climate neutrality and have been climate neutral since 2012. We offset all of our emissions with the Gold Standard certification developed under the UN Clean Development Mechanism.

Building local economies

To help build the foundations for countries to achieve peace and sustainable development, UNOPS engages local communities and beneficiaries and ensures equitable access to project benefits.

Through our projects, we work to protect the most vulnerable and advance equality, inclusion and the empowerment of women and girls.

Our expertise in procurement helps develop local economies by encouraging local procurement across all of our projects. We actively enhance the diversity of our supply base and encourage micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to explore and unlock their potential.

The jobs we create

Few measures can describe UNOPS commitment to sustainability better than the jobs we create for local people.

Every year, UNOPS-supported projects provide millions of days of paid work for beneficiaries. At the heart of this is our commitment to improving gender equality and providing equal opportunities for women in the projects we support.

The knowledge we bring

A core contribution to social sustainability and developing national capacity is through passing our skills and experience to the people we work with on our projects.

We take pride in the fact that our expertise – from procurement to resilient infrastructure development – is grounded in international practices, norms and standards, and adheres to principles of transparency and accountability.

Every year, we provide tens of thousands of days of technical advice to stakeholders across a range of projects. This includes governments, NGOs, UN partners and community groups. In addition, we help develop local capacity by supporting training days for partners and beneficiaries.

To learn more about our annual results and commitment to sustainability, please see UNOPS Annual Reports to the Executive Board.

2021 highlights

  • Our climate

    UNOPS has been climate neutral since 2012. In 2021, UNOPS operations emitted 10,165 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, the common unit for describing greenhouse gas emissions. This is 849 more than 2020.

  • 36,000
    days of technical work
    The knowledge we bring

    A core contribution to social sustainability and developing national capacity is through passing our skills and experience to the people we work with on our projects.

  • Women play an important part of the road construction teams and make up over 60 per cent of the workers.
    The jobs we create

    Our commitment to sustainability is underlined by the jobs we create in the communities where we work. Of the 6.1 million days of paid work created for beneficiaries, 2.4 million of these days were undertaken by women.