The Vatican installs photovoltaic panels
The Vatican has installed photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall to produce green energy. The Vatican encourages the use of electric and hybrid vehicles and has eliminated the use of toxic pesticides in gardens.
The priest Fernando Vérgez Alzaga explained at a press conference that vehicle traffic has been gradually limited since 2014. In fact, only employees who live than two kilometres away from the Vatican can circulate with polluting vehicles within Vatican territory. In addition, the use of green cars is being promoted with the installation of a charging infrastructure network for electric and hybrid cars.
The Vatican State Government has adopted home automation systems, which automatically turn off the lighting at the end of the working day.
The Vatican publishes its manual of the good ecologist.
The document calls for the fight against food waste, based on the idea that "throwing food away is equivalent to 'stealing it from the poor'. It calls for fighting land grabbing, large polluting agribusiness projects, child labour, undeclared work and "new forms of slavery ".
This 200-page document reiterates "the need for that ecological conversion, a change of mentality that leads to caring for life and creation."
To avoid wasting water, closed circuits are used to recycle the precious water destined for the sources of the Vatican Gardens and the fire fighting network within the Leonine Walls. The automation of the irrigation of the Gardens has saved about 60% of the water resources.
In the small State of 44 hectares, waste recycling, care of green areas, saving water and energy consumption, the choice of renewable sources, among other initiatives are applied.