April 20 - As we celebrate Earth Day this week, I wanted to inform blog readers about how the Embassy is trying to reduce our waste and carbon footprint in an effort to become a "Green Embassy." Embassy employees themselves came to me with this idea one year ago, inspired by President Obama's push to promote environmentally responsible policies in government.
After assessing our energy consumption, we began replacing inefficient light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights and light-emitting diode bulbs in the Embassy. To encourage this switch in our community housing as well, we began a light bulb trade-in program whereby residents can exchange incandescent light bulbs for high-efficiency bulbs for free.
We held a children's art contest for Earth Day a few years ago, and this was one of the winning works. [See it bigger]
Adopting a best practice from the Japanese government, we also implemented a "Cool Biz" dress code last summer and set our computers to shut down automatically at night. In addition, we began an education program in the Embassy and housing compound to teach employees and families how to save energy and resources both at work and at home.
So far, our actions have enabled us to reduce electricity use by about 10 percent from last year, with a corresponding reduction in the Embassy's carbon footprint. This is a good start, but we have much more work ahead of us to become truly a "Green Embassy."
Until next time,
Jim
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