4 April 2018: The UN’s ‘Greening the Blue’ initiative launched a campaign to improve waste management practices in UN offices throughout the world. ‘Say Yes to Less’ will engage UN staff in improving waste management practices, and suggest ways to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. In 2016, the average UN staff member produced 554 kilograms of waste.

The campaign promotes the “three Rs” approach to waste management: reduce, reuse, recycle. It suggests behaviors that UN staff can adopt to affect the amount of waste produced and support the SDGs. The website provides logos and posters that can be adapted for each location, as well as fact sheets and a guidance manual for staff with responsibility for facilities and environmental management.

In another initiative involving UN staff, the UN Food Gardens (UNFG) have been established at UN Headquarters in New York, US, upon a voluntary staff initiative. The Gardens promote environmental responsibility, food security, small-scale urban agriculture and community building, while also showcasing how to grow food in an urban landscape.

UNFG is engaged in various partnerships and initiatives to achieve these aims. It exchanges its produce for coffee grounds from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Cafeteria, to use as compost, and in the last half of 2017 the efforts brought composting capacities to 400 kg. With UN-Habitat, UNFG hosted ‘Feed Your City,’ which showcased small-scale urban agriculture initiatives in the Americas. The project aims to motivate policy actions related to SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and well-being, SDG 1 (no poverty) and SDG 15 (life on land), as well as to the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The project has reached around 30,000 people.

UNFG also hosts an annual youth event, which focuses on urban agriculture, resilience, community engagement and food security, and aims to ensure that the voices of youth are heard in implementation of the SDGs. In northern summer 2018, UNFG will launch a partnership with the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) to showcase equipment used by small-scale farmers in the field, highlighting the importance of technological innovation to promote food security. UNFG also partners with the NYC GreenThumb Programme, Brooklyn Grange, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), among others. [‘Say Yes to Less’ Campaign Website] [‘Say Yes to Less’ Campaign Materials] [UN Food Gardens Website]