| A 193-Country-Sponsored Eco-Agreement? |
| Written by Dave Burdick | |
| Tuesday, 28 August 2007 | |
 OK, so they're just renovating the UN headquarters. Somehow it's not totally impressive that there's been a plan 10 years in the making to get the home of the UN up to snuff, but EcoGeek understands how difficult it is to get all those leaders to sign a piece of paper before one of 'em is deposed or whatever. It's a race against the clock (and, of course, the tumultuous, tangled web we've woven).
From a BusinessWeek article: The Secretariat building is leaking air through its glass exterior walls, interior structures are riddled with toxic asbestos (although there's allegedly no immediate health risk as it's embedded in the insulation material, this will prove an issue when interiors are ripped up). The heating and cooling systems are erratic, and the entire IT system is outdated. Wow. And here I was thinking my needlessly wasteful air conditioning situation was going to be a pain to fix. P.S. How cool would it be if there were a spin-off sculpture like that knotted gun where somebody's tied off an exhaust pipe? Via Inhabitat Image from flickr user sciamano Comments
(4)
I hope they're going to recycle the IT s
written by weee recycling , August 28, 2007
I wonder if they'll look at low-power non windows PCs when they build the new infrastructure...
I've been reading a fair bit about this.
written by Rob , August 28, 2007
... and I gather that the party that's least keen on signing up to doing anything about the building is the US. There have been various plans to do new things on the site -- planning permission denied across the board. Etcetera.
I think the rationale is that if the building fell apart (which apparently it's actually very close to doing), there couldn't be a UN any more (in anything but name, as it would have nowhere to live), and we all know how much a certain country would like that to happen...
Good Governance?
written by marguerite manteau-rao , August 28, 2007
Just wondering how many of the government buildings are up to green standards? Does anyone know?
I just wrote a post in my blog on the importance of good governance ("The Kind of Buthan")! marguerite manteau-rao http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com
Well, finally!
written by Ashley L. now F. , August 29, 2007
I'm not surprised by the speculation that the building is about to fall down -- I've never been inside a more decrepit structure in my life. On the one hand, I suppose I should appreciate that the UN hasn't spent exorbitant funds on updating the structure every few years -- but I'm pretty sure there was a serious lack of oxygen in the lower levels, and I have to question how well the diplomatic brains might be operating when they're practically suffocating.
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