Measuring Climate Change

There is that saying, ‘you do what you measure’ and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) objectives are part of all our lives. Measurement matters.

When it comes to the environment, particularly carbon emissions, significant work has been carried out to try and establish standardised measurements.

However, how do we apply this to the measurement of emissions for highly specialised banknote printing and cash cycle operations? Central banks are good at measurements relating to monetary policy, but what about the environment?

BioBanknote, the Colombian specialist in reducing the environmental impact of banknotes, has developed a tool designed specifically. The bioGHG Tool is a web-based application for central banks and printing works that captures the full carbon footprint of the currency life cycle organised around banknote manufacturing, distribution and logistics, end-of-life currency processing, and administrative operations.

The application is based on five modules:

• Settings – defining complex organisational structures (vaults, plants etc.) adapted for countryspecific emission factors. It covers direct and indirect emissions
• Data entry – set up for monthly input and providing evidence for audits 
• Recorded data – centralised repository for verification and quality control
• Annual report – a consolidation of emissions and trends for audits and public disclosure
• Executive dashboard – visualisation of absolute (total tCO2e) and intensity (per process) emissions.