Ambassador David H. Thorne Remarks at Green Embassy Event, Rome, February 15, 2012
Ambassador David H. Thorne
Green Event Initiative
Rome, Villa Taverna
February 15, 2012
Allow me to welcome you all to Villa Taverna, my home, and the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Rome. The primary focus of this event is on the villa itself, and how it has been updated again, this time to save energy and protect the environment. This is a very historic building--parts of it date from the 16th century. But this event is not about looking backward as much as taking a step toward a better future.
Today I want to make a simple but important point--we can all contribute to a global effort to protect our environment. Even in the historic setting of Rome, and without sacrificing comfort, we can reduce our environmental footprint and reduce costs by installing smarter technologies in our older buildings.
I am proud to be able to inaugurate these changes with you today, and I am even prouder to make this an Embassy-wide effort. Our embassy is a member of the League of Green Embassies, and we are determined to advance President Obama’s mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. government buildings and to showcase innovative U.S. products to do so.
Before getting into the details about what we have done here, I would like to thank the League of Green Embassies and its current chair, my fellow Ambassador, Bruce Oreck, the U.S. Ambassador to Finland. I will let him explain more about how it fits into a Europe-wide effort to green our embassies.
But first let me also thank the League’s great partner in this initiative, the Alliance to Save Energy, and all the vendors whose technology was used in this upgrade. I thank each of these innovative U.S. and European companies for their participation in this initiative. Please get to know these companies and the work they have completed in this home.
I am also happy our event coincides with the “M’illumino di meno” campaign organized by the Caterpillar program on Radio2Rai, taking place on Friday, when Italians will turn off the lights to increase awareness of energy efficiency.
What Are We Doing at Villa Taverna?
Ours may not be a very typical Roman residence, but it demonstrates that we can all achieve major savings without lowering our quality of life, by applying smarter technologies in our homes. You may have already had a chance to see some of the improvements we are making to this residence, but in brief they include:
better lighting , using LED technology from Philips indoors and by installing Beta LED/Cree Exterior lights;
more efficient appliances in the kitchen (refrigerators and microwave) and laundry (clothes washers/dryers) from Whirlpool;
smart radiator valves from Danfoss, (a Danish firm);
insulating window film from 3M, to keep heat in during winter and keep us cooler in summer; and,
power strips from Belkin, to better regulate our use of electricity from TV and computers.
They may not be revolutionary, but taken together (and combined with just turning off the lights we don’t need), we hope to reduce our electricity bills by up to 48%, saving up to 111,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity and $22,000 per year.
We have complemented our energy efficiency efforts with other measures making this residence more sustainable. Inside the villa we are conserving water using special faucets provided by Niagara Conservation, while outside we capture rainwater and use it to water the gardens. We have also set aside a portion of the garden to create an organic “orto,” helping to feed ourselves and our guests with locally grown, healthy produce in the summer months.
While my wife Rose and I offered our home as a showcase, the Embassy’s energy efficiency efforts go well beyond this residence. At the Embassy on Via Veneto, we have reduced our carbon footprint by installing more efficient lighting, heating and air conditioning, and new insulated windows; we have also purchased alternative fuel vehicles.
At the Naples consulate we are installing LED exterior lighting to lower our consumption and improve security.
Our Department of Defense is also intent on greening our military presence in Italy. In Vicenza, the new base at Dal Molin uses innovative design to reduce water usage by 36% and annual energy costs by 42%, making it the largest project in Europe eligible for LEED Silver certification. The base in Sigonella has added five electric vehicles to its fleet and installed solar panels to reduce energy consumption by 30%, saving up to $1.3 million over 20 years.
What we are doing here today at Villa Taverna reflects a commitment to make ourselves more energy-efficient. In December, President Obama announced the latest step toward our goal of improving energy efficiency in America’s buildings by 20 percent by 2020— a $4 billion effort involving the government and private sector, as part of the President’s Better Buildings Initiative. These measures are expected to reduce government energy bills by $40 billion per year, and create up to 114,000 jobs.
On Earth Day Secretary Clinton launched our Greening Diplomacy Initiative to reduce the State Department’s environmental footprint at home and abroad. Her goal is to reduce the State Department’s environmental footprint 20% by 2020, while also putting the environment on the forefront of our foreign policy agenda.
A key role for the Department of State is to lead international negotiations to address the challenges of global climate change. We are convinced that the world took a major step forward towards meeting the global climate and clean energy challenge at the UN climate conference held in December in Durban, South Africa. Looking ahead, we are pleased to have helped to launch a process– the "Durban Platform"—to reach a new agreement applicable to all countries, by 2015.
We also firmly believe the transition to energy efficiency and cleaner energy that is needed to address this global challenge has the potential to grow our economies and create millions of jobs. So I would like to encourage U.S. and Italian firms to work together to explore new opportunities in this area.
So that’s what it’s all about--working together to build a more sustainable future. I thank you so much for coming, and urge you to take a look around, speak with the product representatives we have here today. It is now my pleasure to ask my friend Ambassador Bruce Oreck, who was instrumental in getting this initiative off the ground, to say a few words.