21 July 2010: The US Mission to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, has announced it will be greening their grounds in August 2010, with the help from nine landscape architecture students.

The US students, who will be assisted by three Swiss students and three American landscape architecture professors, will develop a sustainable landscape design that will be implemented over a five-year period. The US Mission building in Geneva is described as the ‘Flagship Post for Energy and Sustainability’ by the US State Department. Some of its features include the largest solar energy installation ever undertaken by the US Department of State abroad, and a unique magnetic levitation (MaglevTM) chiller air conditioning system that runs a virtually friction-free compressor. In 2009, the US Mission in Geneva was the first State Department facility to earn a certificate from the US National Wildlife Federation for Wildlife Habitat as a result of their conservation efforts.[Information on the Landscape Project] [Greening the Blue Press Release]