The Embassy goes green!
The Green Embassy project was launched ahead of the COP21 in 2015. The project is both progressive and global, and aims to limit the ecological footprint of French embassies abroad. Six major topics have been defined, among which each embassy can define its priorities. These topics are mobility, purchases, energy, biodiversity, waste management and water.
Embassies can provide a list of their good practices and inspire other embassies to follow them. The projects already implemented by the French administration abroad are numerous and very diverse. Some have chosen to install beehives, others to acquire hybrid vehicles. Still others have made waste management a priority by installing a compost plant.
For the next four years, the French Embassy in Australia has decided to prioritise three pillars and therefore applied for a call for project in order to get funds. We want to reduce our energy consumption, but also to reduce our consumption of drinkable water. We applied for a tender and were awarded €20,000 to install several water tanks. This will allow us to drastically reduce our consumption of drinkable water, which is very important to us.
Finally, the park has a rich biodiversity. If we pay attention, we can see two natural beehives and a pair of gang-gang Cockatoo, for instance. We want to be involved in preserving and promoting the ecosystems in our gardens, and we will therefore make the preservation of biodiversity one of our three priorities for the coming years.