Latest News

John Winchcombe

1 June 2022

3 min read

Cash and Payments: The Sustainability Forum

The inaugural Cash & Payments Sustainability Forum, which will take place 15-16 November in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh, will share best practice, promote cooperation and address specific environmental challenges and solutions in the cash and payments arena.

Events Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 June 2022

4 min read

The Green Banknote – Sustainability at Every Level

Giesecke+ Devrient launched its Green Banknote Initiative earlier this year. At the Global Currency Forum, it followed this up with the presentation of the Green Banknote - a physical token of this initiative printed on Hybrid ADDvance®.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

4 min read

Moving Sustainability Centre Stage

Across industry publications, conferences and reporting, sustainability now sits alongside other key topics such as security, technical excellence, efficiency, value for money etc. This industry has done a great deal of work and made a real difference in its operations across the key areas where it affects the environment.

Comment Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

3 min read

Royal Mint’s E-Waste Recycling Moves Forward

The UK’s Royal Mint has announced plans to build a new plant in Llantrisant, South Wales, to recover gold from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Coins Free Sustainability Free

CCL Secure

1 May 2022

4 min read

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle for a Green Cash Cycle

Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish and Recycle are the five widely-accepted elements of a circular economy. This article from CCL Secure covers three of them.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

4 min read

Is a Fully Circular Approach to Banknotes Possible?

At the Banknote & Currency Conference in February, Swiss substrate manufacturer Landqart revealed new research it has been carrying out on how to dispose of banknotes at the end of their life in an environmentally sound way.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 April 2022

2 min read

KURZ Issues Sustainability Report

Optical security feature and foil manufacturer KURZ has published a report – Communication on Progress – which presents the company’s sustainability performance to date in detail and also discusses its goals and plans.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 April 2022

3 min read

G+D’s Green Banknote Initiative

According to Giesecke+Devrient, the sustainability revolution has accelerated to embrace an ever-growing range of environmental and social issues.

Companies Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 April 2022

2 min read

The Role of Cash in War

In Russia and in Ukraine people have turned to cash, with large queues at bank branches and ATMs. The National Bank of Ukraine enacted a temporary cash withdrawal limit of 100,000 Ukrainian hryvnia per day — the equivalent of about $3,339 – and both countries have imposed capital controls.

News Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 April 2022

3 min read

Environmental Impact of New Swiss Banknote Series – Complexity Offsets Savings

The Swiss National Bank has conducted a Life Cycle Analysis on its 9th series of banknotes. The study looked only at those elements of the life cycle directly under the control of the SNB, the manufacture, wholesale distribution and disposal of notes.

Studies, Reports Sustainability

Lachlan McDonald

1 April 2022

5 min read

Sustainability – a Better Way to do Business

One of the major challenges facing every business today is to operate sustainably. But it’s not enough simply to have a stack of policies, fine words, and good intentions to hand. Actions need to demonstrate that the policies are being put into action.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 April 2022

1 min read

De La Rue Publishes SBTi Targets

De La Rue has recently submitted targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, consistent with limiting global temperature increases to no more than 1.5°C.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 Feb. 2022

2 min read

Progress on ECB’s Environmental Cash Programme

The Banco de España has issued a press release about meeting the European Central Bank’s (ECB) waste goal for banknotes. It puts this in the context of the ECB’s wider programme.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

1 Feb. 2022

1 min read

The Green Banknote Initiative

Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) and Papierfabrik Louisenthal have been working on reducing the environmental impact of their banknote production and cash cycle related activities for many years.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

23 Dec. 2021

2 min read

Cape Verde Goes Clean and Green with New Disposal System

As part of our regular update on technologies and programmes for sustainability in the cash cycle, we report this month on the news that Banco de Cabo Verde has invested in an HKU 4510 from Swiss company Hunkeler Systeme for the secure, clean and energy efficient disposal of banknotes.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

18 Nov. 2021

2 min read

Pakistan Proves Waste and Manure Combination as Answer to Banknote Destruction

As noted in the recently published special report ‘Cash: A Roadmap to Sustainability’, there is an environmental cost to the removal and disposal of banknote waste during production and at their end of life.

Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

28 Oct. 2021

4 min read

Hot Air, Hard Data

COP 26 is taking place next week in the UK. The leaders of the world will be in attendance (most of them at least – the Russian and Chinese presidents aren’t turning up) along with around 30,000 others – from negotiators and journalists to lobbyists, NGOs, businesses and even protesters – from 200 or so countries.

Comment Free Sustainability Free

Astrid Mitchell

28 Oct. 2021

2 min read

Royal Mint to Recycle Precious Metals from Electronics Waste

Experts believe that as much as 7% of the world’s gold may be contained within the circuit boards of e-waste, most of which ends up in landfill or is incinerated.

Coins Sustainability

John Winchcombe

28 Oct. 2021

5 min read

‘Cash: a Roadmap to Sustainability’

With the UN Climate Change conference, COP 26, taking place through early November, we thought it would be appropriate to review the environmental work of stakeholders in the cash industry over the last few years.

Sustainability

Tod Niedeck

17 Oct. 2021

5 min read

Sustainability: A Hallmark of Cash

An early memory, when beginning my career at Crane Currency, was noticing long rows of steaming compost in the fields adjacent to the company’s banknote paper mills. I learned that much of this organic material was made up of solids from the papermaking process – cotton and flax ‘fines’ that, when mixed with other field and yard waste, produced a rich and valuable compost.

Comment Sustainability