On 9 September, CERN’s first public Environment Report was published, outlining the Organization’s commitment to becoming a role model for environmentally responsible research and setting out concrete objectives for environmental stewardship over the coming years. The report details CERN’s environmental record over the years 2017-2018 and was prepared following the internationally-recognised Global Reporting Initiative Standards. The report contains environmental topics identified as high significance by internal and external stakeholders, their status and associated action plans and objectives. They include both Global Reporting Initiative disclosures, as well as specific topics important to CERN and its stakeholders.

Production of the report was lead and coordinated by members of the CERN Environmental Protection Steering board, CEPS whose mandate is to identify and prioritise environmental areas to be addressed, propose programmes of action, and follow-up their implementation. For instance, the CERN management accepted and financed an ambitious objective to reduce CERN’s direct greenhouse gas emissions by 28% by the end of 2024. Among the actions being taken to achieve this, CERN has for several years been developing environmentally-friendly cooling systems that have potential for applications in other domains.

As well as managing its environmental footprint responsibly, CERN also wishes to make a positive impact on environmental issues through the technologies it develops. The report covers some of the innovations made at CERN that are being adapted for environmental protection.

You can read the report online here or download it in PDF here.

The next Environment Report will cover the years 2019 and 2020 and will be published in the second half of 2021.