UNESCO Headquarters receives international sustainable building certification

The “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” (BREEAM) is an internationally recognized certification that assesses the sustainable management and performance of buildings. The UNESCO Fontenoy site, comprising four of the eight Headquarters buildings in Paris, underwent an international audit in 2022 and received the certification in September with the rating “good”.

BREEAM assesses the sustainability of a building in two parts: The first part focuses on the performance of the building, in areas such as energy and water consumption, accessibility, resilience to disasters or intrusion and recreational facilities. The second part assesses the building management performance, for example whether measures are in place to monitor and decrease energy consumption, ensure the comfort of building users, reduce pollution, and correctly treat waste. The “good” rating was obtained by UNESCO both in the first and in the second part. 

The certification, valid for a period of three years, is a recognition of the forward-looking work done over the past years to improve the environmental performance of UNESCO’s facilities. For example, electricity use has decreased by 35% and water use by 56% since 2010. Additional environmental measures are planned for the coming years in the framework of UNESCO’s Environmental Management System in order to further reduce UNESCO’s environmental footprint, both at Headquarters and in Field locations.