The Foreign Service Journal, April 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2014 37 Sharing Best Practices While energy efficiency has led to significant financial savings, this is only an indicator of progress toward the primary objective. The most important goal is to make the building as environmentally friendly as possible, and in that way increase the awareness of energy-effi- ciency issues among the visitors and the many organizations the embassy deals with each day. Our embassy in Washington is not alone in its greening efforts. Our counterpart mission, the U.S. embassy in Helsinki, “Going green” is all about little steps and small, environmentally friendly actions. opened a new Innovation Center in February 2013. This center is one of the most energy-efficient embassy buildings in the world, and it is the embassy’s primary location for meetings, information sharing and cultural programming. When Finnish President Sauli Niinistö spoke at the inau- guration of the American Innovation Center, he observed: Embassy of Finland The Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C., at night.