CO2 Benchmark Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington
maart 2010
CFP voert CO2 benchmark uit voor de Nederlandse Ambassade in Washington D.C.
Persbericht 12 maart 2010:
Dutch Embassy in Washington Announces Goal to Cut Carbon Footprint by 25% at Sustainability Forum
Strengthening Sustainability in Urban Communities. Forum Calls Attention to Dutch and American Cooperation at the City, State and Transatlantic Levels.
(Washington, D.C.) — As the population of urban communities continues to grow and produce more carbon emissions, cities are exploring ways to become more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint. Washington, D.C. has a carbon footprint of 19.7 tons per person; the diplomatic community plays a contributing role to that footprint. The Dutch Embassy’s carbon footprint in Washington is 9.5 tons per employee. At an Embassy forum on sustainability, Deputy Chief of Mission Gerard van der Wulp announced the Embassy’s goal to reduce its footprint by 25% by implementing more efficient energy use and changing the way the Embassy works and travels.
To share best practices on the local, state and international levels, the Royal Netherlands Embassy hosted the Strengthening Sustainability in Urban Communities forum with representatives from the government of the District of Columbia, Virginia Tech and Dutch and American businesses. The forum highlighted the cooperation between the Dutch Embassy and the District of Columbia’s Neighborhood Sustainability Indicators Pilot Project (NSIPP), the Netherlands Institute for City Innovation Studies with Virginia Tech and the District of Columbia’s approach to sustainability.
The Netherlands, home to an aggressive policy on climate change, is working with other European partners to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% in 2020. In the United States, the Netherlands and Dutch companies such as Philips Lighting and Real New Energy are sharing their expertise with the federal and local governments and universities, as well as multiple private companies across the US.
The Embassy conducted a benchmark study (executed by CFP) and found that compared with 600 other similar organizations in the U.S., the embassy produced 9.5 CO2 tons per employee, 3% more than its benchmark average. “The Dutch believe we must integrate our sustainability practices where ever we live. One method of doing this means knowing how much CO2 we produce as an embassy and implementing ways to lessen our carbon footprint,” said Deputy Chief of Mission Gerard van der Wulp. “We pledge to reduce our carbon footprint by 25% this year by changing how we work, travel and commute as an embassy and we invite other embassies to join us in reducing the diplomatic community’s carbon footprint as a whole,” added the Deputy Chief of Mission.
At the forum, Andrea Limauro of the District of Columbia Office of Planning discussed the city’s Neighborhood Sustainability Indicators Pilot Project and its goal to help the community create a roadmap of strategies to build more sustainable neighborhoods. The Dutch Embassy and 12 other embassies are located in the NSIPP area. Limauro stated, “The area was chosen because it is a nice microcosm of the built and natural environment with high-rises, single-family homes, public transportation and large institutional land use.” Brendan Shane of the District of Columbia Department of the Environment discussed the unique challenges DC faces in sustainability and the city’s strategy to “green” DC. Two major challenges are that coal is the major source of power in DC and the District has the highest daily population growth of any large city with 400,000 people.
Joris Benninga of Real New Energy detailed sustainability projects in the Netherlands and noted how sustainable school buildings in Europe produce a total of 643,300 Euros annually in energy savings.
Gregory Kats, the author of the book, Greening or Built World dispelled some of the myths surrounding the green building sector such as the belief that it cost more to build using green techniques. According to Kats, “While many believe it costs 17% more to build green, the actual cost is around 2% or or per square foot. In fact, green building is more profitable than traditional building,” stated Kats.
Diane Dale of William McDonough& Partners used sustainability dashboards designed for the Treasure Island neighborhood in San Francisco and IJburg neighborhood in Amsterdam to illustrate viable sustainability plans in action.
See the Power Point presentations of the participants.
Fred Krimgold and Laurel Colless of Virginia Tech discussed the University’s work with the Netherlands Institute for City Innovation Studies to create an information exchange on successful sustainability practices with cities from both sides of the Atlantic.
The Strengthening Sustainability in Urban Areas forum is the second in the Embassy’s Dutch Energy Seminars programs.