Respect for heroes and the environment at the Juno Beach Centre

At Juno Beach in Normandy, France, the Allied landings can be discovered and relived in a museum that promotes sustainable development. Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the landings, the Juno Beach Centre is adapting to the concerns of our time. The museum is committed to reducing its carbon footprint, promoting the circular economy and preserving biodiversity. This European project has enabled the centre to reduce its CO2 emissions by around 14%, between 2019 and 2023, according to Maxime Bouché, the centre's deputy director: "In 2019, we were at around 1,100 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emitted by the Juno Beach Centre's activities, and in 2023 we were at around 950-960 tonnes of CO2 equivalent," he says.

Juno Beach was the codename given to this Normandy beach by the Allied Command. It was here that 21,000 soldiers -14,000 Canadians and around 7,000 British - landed during the Second World War. More than 5,000 of them died in the bloody battle to secure a foothold on this stretch of the northern French coastline. 

Today you don't a car to get to the museum. Access via a cycle path allows the visitor to respect the landscape, aswell as the memory of those who died trying to liberate it. The Juno Beach Centre carried out a carbon assessment which showed that 80% of CO2 emissions were linked to visitor transport. As part of this sustainable development project, in 2021 the museum became the first in France to offer a ‘low carbon’ fare, as . Maxime Bouché explains: "It's a discount of around 30 - 33% on admission to the museum on presentation of a train ticket for those coming by train to Normandy, a bus ticket for those coming by bus and a photo of the bicycle parked in the centre's car park at the museum reception