By 2020, more than 80% of the windows at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy have been replaced. This follows from a years-long committed effort, starting in 2011, to replace all office windows at headquarters. Today, positive benefits are already yielded:  

1. improved safety,  

2. reduced expenditures on energy, and  

3. reduced emissions of greenhouse gases.  

The old windows were 3 mm pane glass on iron frame dating back to the 1940s. Due to the windows’ age and safety concerns, it was decided that all windows would be replaced with ones that were safer and more modern. In addition, it was agreed that the new ones were to be more energy efficient. Consequently, the new windows have thermal joint frames, a 75 mm aluminum profile thickness, specially treated double glazing, a blast protective film on the inner pane, and an external self-cleaning treatment on the external pane. This ensures high levels of acoustical insulation and solar heat transmission.  

For the year 2020, the replacement of old windows is estimated* to have resulted in a consumption reduction of 1,133,098 kWh and 122,703 standard cubic meters of gas (SCM) when compared to 2011. This translates into an avoidance of 610 tCO2e emitted, and a cumulative cost savings of USD 262,974.  

Over the course of the windows’ minimum lifetime of 30 years, the windows are estimated to result in cumulative cost savings of USD 2,731,494 and emissions savings of 6,366 tCO2e. These avoided emissions are roughly equivalent to the emissions of over 1,375 passenger cars driven for a year.