Reportedly, China’s overarching goal for ecological civilization and green development is to build itself into a ‘Beautiful China’. Against this backdrop, a green transformation is quietly taking place at Nanchang Banknote Printing Co Ltd (NBPC). A subsidiary of China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM), it is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and is progressively shifting from a traditionally polluting banknote printing facility into a ‘national-level green factory’.

One of the highlights of the Currency Technology Symposium was the tour of Louisenthal’s paper mill and features production centre just south of Munich, and in particular the chance to see its award- winning Banknote Fiber Extraction (BFE) system in action.

At the recent HSP Latin America conference in Rio de Janeiro, a new category was introduced to the Regional Banknote of the Year Awards, namely – Best Environmental Project. CCL Secure received a special commendation for its Banknote Waste Management programme. This article gives the background and detail of the initiative.

The Cash Sustainability Forum has to date been held as a standalone event in Europe but, this year, it went regional for a one day workshop at HSP Latin America, held in conjunction with the International Currency Association.

The Bank Indonesia (BI) office in Bali has come up with a novel – and appropriate – way to recycle end of life banknotes – by turning them into medals that were given to participants in the QRIS Summer Run Bali fun run.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBS) has published its Banconota Spring/Summer edition dedicated to one subject, sustainability. The focus of the piece is how KBBS is helping its customers reduce the environmental impact of what they do.

Reconnaissance, co-publisher of Currency News™, launched a new website on 22 April (World Mother Earth Day) as a cash community asset to capture and consolidate initiatives, work and research from every part of the cash cycle and provide tools to support organisations on their pathway to a greener future.

Mark Wind of the Dutch National Bank (DNB) reported on the sustainability work of the Joint European Tender (JET) group at the Intergraf Currency+Identity conference. This is a tangible banknote specific example of an approach to using procurement to drive change.

Biobanknote – the Colombian developer of solutions for composting banknotes and banknote waste – is planning to carry out a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to evaluate the manufacturing and use of banknotes compared with digital transactions, in accordance with the internationally recognised standards ISO 14067 and ISO 14040.

According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), last year it withdrew and disposed of 474.89 million damaged or contaminated banknotes, amounting to a total value of KRW 3.3761 trillion won, a 1.9% reduction over the previous year. The disposal of these notes is part of its ongoing efforts to maintain the integrity and quality of the currency in circulation, the central bank said. It also disposed of 101.53 million coins.