VietNamNet Bridge – The Embassy of Finland to Vietnam officially received the Green Office Certificate from WWF Greater Mekong yesterday, in recognition for taking responsibility for their own "carbon, footprint".

The embassy is the second member of the Green Office Programme in Vietnam, which began in the later part of 2007.

The embassy started working with the WWF Green Office Programme in September 2007, a programme that steers offices towards environmentally friendly practices.

The embassy has now successfully implemented a short-term environmental management plan, which includes reducing waste and consumption of electricity, mitigating transport emissions, and training their staff to think in more environmentally friendly ways.

The Green Office Programme was established in 1997 by WWF Finland. It is a light international environmental management system aimed for both the public and private sectors.

The programme aims to take a simple and practical orientation and a learning by doing approach. The programme not only strives to influence decisions made by top-level management but also raises environmental awareness among the whole staff, enabling the employees to make more environmentally-friendly decisions and reduce green-house gases and waste in the office, at home, and even in traffic.

Rapid economic growth, coupled with increasing demands for energy and natural resources, in Vietnam has caused adverse environmental impacts, not the least of which being a contribution to climate change.

Through this programme, WWF hopes that corporations and organisations can try to be a part of the solution to environmental threats.

"It is very important for governments, international organisations and companies alike not only to know the measures to be taken in the field of ensuring environmental sustainability and curbing climate change in political and ’in principle’ levels, but also to have experience in taking the actions by themselves in everyday life," said Pekka Hyvonen, Ambassador of Finland to Vietnam.

Through this programme, both WWF and the Finnish Embassy want to encourage other embassies, organisations, businesses and governmental offices to do their share by putting their "hands on the environment". WWF will soon expand the programme to Laos and Cambodia.

(Source: Viet Nam News)