CERN’s first public Environment Report
"It was released today and covers 2017-18. It details the current status of CERN’s environmental footprint, along with objectives and projects for the coming years"
“CERN aspires to be a model for environmentally responsible research.This report underlines our strong commitment to environmental protection, both in terms of minimising our impact and applying CERN technologies for environmental protection”
Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director-General
The report has been prepared according to the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards. It covers energy, emissions, ionising radiation, waste, noise, environmental compliance, biodiversity, water and effluents, knowledge transfer.
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.
For example, CERN accepted and financed an objective to reduce its 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. CERN is also implementing energy recovery systems at the LHC, and pioneering the use of superconductivity on a large scale, which could improve the efficiency of electricity distribution networks.
CERN already has an Environmental Protection Steering Board with a mandate to identify and prioritise environmental issues to be addressed, propose programmes of action, and follow-up their implementation. Also, for many years, CERN has been reporting quarterly to relevant Host State authorities on the results of its environmental monitoring. The goal of the new report is adding transparency and accountability.
CERN will publish an environment report every two years. The next will cover the period 2019-2020, and be published in the second half of 2021.