Sustainability Centre Stage in Edinburgh

This year the profile of sustainability has increased, with climate volatility evident in many countries.

Last year’s white paper on the cash industry's work showed that much has been done and this industry has been doing good work for some time (Cash: a Roadmap to Sustainability). At least four central banks, including the European Central Bank (ECB), are working on Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and almost every industry association now has a sustainability charter and working groups.

Despite that, a survey being carried out by Reconnaissance International, co-publisher of Currency News™, reveals that less than half of central banks have a sustainability policy, and even fewer issue departments, fewer than a third, include anything about sustainability in their procurement of banknotes, while the disposal of unfit banknotes in landfill remains a key conundrum at the end of life.