As part of the “Farnesina Verde” (“Green Farnesina”) project which sees the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and its diplomatic and consular network committed to promoting environmental sustainability, the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Manlio Di Stefano, and the Secretary General of the MAECI, Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, today presented the new drinking fountains installed on every floor of the Farnesina building at the presence of the Undersecretary for the Environment, Salvatore Micillo. The project, co-developed with the Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea Protection, aims to reduce the consumption of plastic by the average 2,000 employees and visitors that the Ministry hosts every day.
Thanks to the environmentally sustainable practices put in place at the ministry’s canteen, almost 2 tons of plastic and more than half a ton of aluminium were saved in 2018. This saving avoided the consumption of 10,890 litres of water and of 1,473 kilograms of CO2 necessary to produce plastic and the saving of aluminium produced an environmental gain of 19,618 litres of water and 5,681 kilograms of CO2. By installing drinking fountains and distributing water flasks to the personnel, the goal is to double the above-mentioned savings in 2019. “We are proud to launch the ‘Farnesina Plastic-Free’ project as part of the ‘Green Farnesina’ programme, which aims to gradually abandon the use of plastic by this Administration. This Christmas, our gift will go the Environment,” said Undersecretary Di Stefano.