Support Mapping & Curating Projects for the MARG Green Buildings Repository

UNEP’s mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

For five decades, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been a leading advocate for the environment, a steadfast partner and a trusted adviser with a mission to inform, enable and inspire nations and peoples to improve their quality of life – without compromising that of future generations.

UNEP monitors the state and health of the planet, ensures that science remains at the centre of decision-making processes, and that environmental rule of law continues to underpin global environmental governance.

Together with its partners, UNEP has made significant progress, yet there is no denying that today, environmental challenges have reached unprecedented levels. Unsustainable patterns of consumption and production have led to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

The science is clear: human health, prosperity, equity and peace are all under threat. We must urgently transform our economies and societies – and our relationship with nature.

UNEP is here to lead this transformation with its 193 Member States, and in partnership with other UN agencies and stakeholders. With its experience, expertise, dynamic programmes and forward-thinking strategy, and with its dedicated staff, UNEP is uniquely positioned to be your partner in addressing and reversing the triple planetary crisis.

As UNEP relies on voluntary contributions for 95 per cent of the funding, the work is made possible by partners who fund and champion its mission.

In collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), UNEP supports initiatives that promote sustainable and environmentally responsible development.

MARG (Mainstreaming Alliance for Green and Resilient Buildings) is a collaboration between UNEP & IFC bringing together relevant partners and stakeholders to advance green buildings and strengthen the enabling ecosystem. The repository is intended to provide a structured and accessible platform for identifying, organising and exploring information on green-building projects and related initiatives.

The effectiveness of the repository will depend on the quality, completeness and consistency of the underlying project data. While participating organisations and partners will subsequently be able to contribute and update information on their own projects, an initial project dataset will need to be developed, populated and quality-assured by the MARG team.

The Online Volunteer will support this initial data-building phase by identifying relevant projects from agreed sources, collecting and structuring project information according to the MARG data fields, verifying information across available sources, identifying gaps or inconsistencies, and preparing the resulting dataset for integration into the MARG digital repository.

The assignment will establish a reliable initial project database that can subsequently be expanded through direct contributions from partners and project owners.

Desk/literature review, mapping

We are looking for an Online Volunteer to support the initial project mapping and data curation for the MARG Green Buildings Project Repository.

Working under the guidance of the designated IFC–UNEP focal point, the Online Volunteer will: • Review and understand the agreed MARG project-data structure, fields and classification framework; • Develop, refine or use an agreed project mapping and data collection template in Google Sheets; • Identify relevant green-building projects from agreed public, institutional and partner sources; • Conduct desk research to collect available information on identified projects; • Record project information in the MARG dataset, including agreed fields such as project name, location, organisation/implementing entity, project type, green-building characteristics, status, scale, relevant links and other agreed metadata; • Cross-check information across available sources and verify key project information before inclusion; • Identify duplicate, incomplete, inconsistent or insufficiently substantiated project entries and flag these for review; • Apply agreed data-quality and classification criteria consistently across the dataset; • Identify gaps in project information and, where appropriate, undertake additional research to fill them; • Maintain source references for project information to support future verification and updating; • Prepare the cleaned and structured dataset for integration with the MARG Google Sites repository and its underlying Google Sheets data layer.

The single deliverable of the assignment will be a structured, quality-checked initial MARG project dataset, populated with verified project information and source references, ready to serve as the initial data layer for the MARG Green Buildings Project Repository.

Candidates should have strong desk-research, information-gathering and data-organisation skills, with the ability to identify relevant projects from multiple sources and systematically capture and verify information.

Required skills: • Strong desk research and online information-gathering skills; • Experience working with Excel or Google Sheets; • Ability to collect, structure and organise information according to defined data fields; • Strong attention to detail and ability to identify inconsistencies, duplicates and missing information; • Ability to assess the reliability of information from different sources and retain appropriate source references; • Strong analytical and organisational skills; • Good written and verbal English.

Desirable: • Familiarity with green buildings, sustainable construction, energy efficiency or the built environment; • Experience in project mapping, database creation, market research, desk research or data curation; • Familiarity with development-sector or institutional project documentation; • Experience working with structured datasets or online repositories.

English, Level: Fluent, Required

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