A Green Facility
The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi is a proud member of the League of Green U.S. Embassies, comprised of American embassies from all parts of the world. Member embassies have paid special focus to managing their waste, promoting efficient use of resources and developing alternative energy sources.
In New Delhi, the Embassy leads the diplomatic community through its innovative efforts. Environmental considerations factor into all major facilities and housing decision-making. Through these efforts, the Embassy has achieved one of the lowest rates of energy consumption, per person and per square meter, of all U.S. government facilities in the world.
A few examples include:
Rainwater harvesting: With drought afflicting much of northern India, water outages are common in New Delhi for much of the year. To help meet this challenge, Embassy New Delhi completed a rainwater harvesting project in 2005, which now captures, filters, and recycles nearly 2.4 million gallons of water per year.
Energy efficiency: Energy efficiency has been a key driver in all of Post’s major facilities projects, and the impact has been tremendous. Besides broader efforts to install efficient A/C units in residences, there are currently no incandescent lamps in the Embassy offices - all bulbs are fluorescent.
Solar technology: Since 1994, the Embassy has installed solar hot water heaters on Embassy residences. These solar heaters have led to an estimated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 6.15 tons/year.
Recycling: Nearly all of the Embassy’s waste is recycled, including paper, plastic, metal, and construction and gardening debris.