Technical Specialist, Greening

Climate change is emerging as an important concern in UNDP as well as the broader UN system. More than a core environmental issue, climate change is seriously undermining efforts to achieve the MDGs. Its adverse impacts are already in evidence and are likely to disproportionately affect the developing countries where UNDP operates, particularly LDCs.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon states that “The UN’s ability to walk the talk on climate change is defining our credibility and, thereby, our ability to deliver our mandates” and pledged on World Environment Day 2007 that the United Nations system would become climate neutral. The UN agencies, funds and programmes have recognized their particular responsibility to ‘walk the talk’ on climate change mitigation and have decided to take action by joining forces to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions collectively. In October 2007, the UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) adopted a decision to move towards a climate neutral United Nations. In particular, it was committed to:

• Estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of UN system organizations consistent with accepted international standards;
• Undertake efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• Analyze the cost implications and explore budgetary modalities of purchasing carbon offsets to eventually reach climate neutrality.

Furthermore  the 17th Senior Officials Meeting of the Environment Management Group (EMG SOM) on 19 September 2011mandated the development of a Strategic Plan for Sustainability Management in the UN system and the adoption of agency-specific Environmental Sustainability Management Systems (SMS).

Within this scope, UNDP, as a leading organization in the fight against climate change, has made considerable progress over the past few years on ‘greening’ its operations: A rigorous GHG reporting mechanism has been established and GHG emissions from global UNDP operations have been assessed and reported annually since 2008. A comprehensive ‘Greening UNDP’ intranet space has been developed in teamworks to provide UNDP offices with background and guidance for taking action to reduce their environmental footprint. Furthermore, an Emission Reduction Strategy (ERS) has been approved for UNDP HQ and a ‘Green Pilot’ has been launched in which around 15 UNDP Country Offices and Regional Centers develop similar greening strategies under the guidance by Headquarters.

So far, ‘greening’ initiatives in UNDP are undertaken on an ad-hoc basis and depending on personal commitment of individual staff. UNDP is committed to mainstream environmental considerations systematically into its global operations and implement a comprehensive Environmental Sustainability Management System and to take action towards significantly reducing (and ultimately, offsetting) its GHG emissions towards a target of institutional climate neutrality.

BDP and BOM will continue their partnership in leading the ‘Greening UNDP’ initiative. The Technical  Specialist will manage and coordinate day-to-day ‘greening’ operations, support UNDP offices in implementing environmental strategies and contribute to and ensure compliance with ‘greening’ in the UN-wide context.

Develop proposal for an Environmental Sustainability Management System (SMS):

• Coordinate consultation with all relevant experts including UNDP colleagues at HQ, in Country Offices and Regional Centers, colleagues from other UN agencies and external experts. In particular, support BOM in reviewing and where relevant adjusting operational guidelines and frameworks and consult with BDP colleagues to ensure the SMS reflects accurate, latest and relevant technical expertise.
• Manage the ‘Green Pilot’ project including analyzing experience gained and lessons learnt to incorporate in the SMS proposal. Identify gaps and obstacles to implement ‘greening’ activities in various UNDP operational scenarios and develop proposals to overcome these. 
• Support the required procedure for obtaining senior management approval for the SMS proposal

Key result: A SMS that describes how environmental performance of global UNDP operations is managed, monitored and reported and which might be used for external communication and potentially verification of ‘UNDP greening’.

Coordinate implementation and manage the SMS:

• Support Country Offices and Regional Centers in developing and implementing Greening Strategies and ensure compliance with UNDP and UN-wide approaches, methodologies and targets.
• Support BOM in reviewing leases, contracts and agreements to incorporate ‘greening’ considerations and consult with UNDP, UN and external experts to facilitate best practice guidance and reflect latest developments in organizational greening.
• Support the implementation of the HQ Emission Reduction Strategy. In particular, ensure the procurement of carbon credits to regularly offset HQ emissions achieving full climate neutrality for HQ operations.
• Monitor and report progress regularly – internally and as part of UN ‘Greening’ – and support UNDP Communications in external reporting.
• Analyze success and failures and develop revisions and amendments for the SMS as appropriate.

Key result: Continuous and consistent improvement of UNDP’s environmental performance.

Build internal ‘greening’ capacity:

• Develop training materials (e.g. virtual classroom workshops, brown bag lunches, posters, senior management messages) for communicating greening strategies and progresses to colleagues throughout the organization.
• Develop training materials, tools and guidance for UNDP offices as needed. In particular, expand, maintain and regularly update the ‘Greening UNDP’ space in Teamworks.
• Manage the UNDP-UNEP partnership on developing a ‘Greening’ staff tutorial in close cooperation with the BOM Learning Resources Center. Continue to build on the initial tutorial to add further specialized modules (e.g. for facility managers, conference organizers, procurement specialists etc.) as needed and appropriate.

Key result: Secure staff support for ‘greening’ and empower staff to actively contribute to ‘greening’ UNDP.

Assess and report UNDP’s GHG emissions and other environmental impacts:

• Oversee data collection processes in UNDP offices, calculate resulting GHG emissions and summarize to a global UNDP assessment.
• Manage and further refine database to enable tracking and analyzing of GHG emissions over time.
• Support UNDP offices in data collection and continuously improve data collection processes and documents to incorporate experience gained to order to further improve data collection, reduce transaction costs and minimize assessment inconsistencies.
• Coordinate data collection in offices shared with other UN organizations to ensure efficient data collection and consistency among assessments.
• Analyze results for each office and support offices and BOM in finding office-specific solutions for improving environmental sustainability.
• Communicate results internally and as part of UN reporting systems.

Key result: Continue to consistently track UNDP’s environmental performance in order to draw credible conclusions on environmental improvements.

Contribute to UN ‘Greening:’

• Represent UNDP in the UN Issue Management Group (IMG) on Sustainability Management or succeeding inter-agency network or group.
• Participate in development of UN-wide approaches, guidance and targets.
• Ensure compliance of UNDP SMS and broader ‘greening’ approaches with UN-wide methodologies and targets.
• Communicate ‘Greening UNDP’ progress within the UN context to further demonstrate UNDP’s leadership in this initiative.
• To the extent possible and reasonable, advise external entities inquiring to replicate the UN/UNDP ‘greening’ approach on how to get started.

Key result: Ensure that UN-wide ‘greening’ approaches suit the needs and capacity of UNDP offices worldwide. Contribute UNDP’s technical expertise to the development of UN-wide approaches and guidelines. Position UNDP as a leading organization on ‘greening’ within the UN system.

Corporate Competencies:

• Strategic vision, sound judgment, strong technical skills and analytical capacities.
• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision, integrity and values and to corporate sustainability in particular.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Technical Competencies:

• Demonstrated ability to develop, implement and manage organizational greening efforts.
• Demonstrated knowledge of relevant international standards and protocols on greenhouse gas accounting and organizational environmental performance. 
• Demonstrated competence in quantitative and qualitative monitoring systems, analysis and reporting and communications.
• Proven ability in computer skills and managing databases.
• Sound knowledge of the UN and UNDP organizational structure and operational processes.

Functional Competencies:

Task Management Skills

• Demonstrated ability to produce quality outputs in a timely manner.
• Proven ability to analyze problems carefully and logically, leading to fact-based and practical recommendations.
• Demonstrates ability to develop creative solutions to particularly challenging issues.

Partnering and Networking

• Proven ability to advocate effectively, engaging others to take action in desired directions.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively across different constituencies.
• Commitment to team work and to working across disciplines.
• Demonstrated interest in new learning and keeping abreast of new developments in the relevant technical fields and to develop own skills.

Communications

• Strong analytical, writing, communication and advocacy skills.
• Ability to explain complex issues to UNDP staff and external partners.

People Skills

• Proven ability to recognize and respond appropriately to the ideas, interests and concerns of others.
• Demonstrated ability to respect individual/cultural differences.
• Proven ability to set clear performance goals and standards; and execute responsibilities accordingly.
• Proven ability to provide and respond constructively to feedback.

• Masters degree in environmental sciences or a related field;
• Additional specialized training in GHG accounting and environmental sustainability desirable.

• A minimum of 7 years experienced in a related field.  Experience working within the UN system and UNDP knowledge is preferred. 

• Fluency in English.