2024 Review - Sustainability as a Strategic Priority
Since the first Cash Sustainability Forumâ„¢ in November 2022, sustainability related activity and interest has increased and matured, although the Forum remains the only event dedicated to cash related sustainability. It feels as if a whole industry has sprung up around sustainability and regulators around the world have introduced increasingly prescriptive reporting requirements. The June 2024 Frankfurt Forum was, therefore, a good opportunity to pause, reflect and think about where the cash industry is.
The Forum started with an afternoon workshop considering how the cash cycle is changing around the world and the risks and opportunities for sustainability that this is bringing. Given how much of the environmental impact of cash lies in this area, it was good to hear from stakeholders such as Brinks Global AMS, Diebold Nixdorf, Oberthur Cash Protection, G+D and Cash InfraPro, as well as the South African Reserve Bank. A white paper on this subject will be published at the beginning of September with input from central banks and a very wide range of cash stakeholders, followed by a webinar.
The format and nature of the Forum, and the sustainability topic, allows people time and the opportunity to compare notes and to discuss options. About a quarter of the speakers were from outside of the industry so that fresh thinking and different perspectives were shared. The mix of organisations who attended, made up of 22% central banks, 36% producers, 26% cash cycle and the balance external speakers from 24 countries, meant that the whole cash cycle was here along with a wide range of views.
Challenges discussed included who should lead, what to measure and how to introduce that into tenders needs more work, the implications of new regulatory requirements and how to encourage, or require, cash cycle stakeholders to make changes, for example encouraging the buying of green energy, standardising packaging and electronic data interchanges, investing in cash handling equipment with a lower carbon footprint, organising cash handling to be more local etc.


Evidence that progress is being made can be illustrated by developments in recycling unfit cotton banknotes. After the 2022 event we published a white paper on recycling options. At this event the range of options has increased rapidly and significantly across substrate makers, printers, machine manufacturers and central banks. Beyond just this example, at the end of the Forum there is strong evidence that organisations are doing a great deal to reduce their environmental impact. There were examples of actions taken and results achieved, both small and large scale, that all could consider for their own organisations. While some central banks are deep into change programmes, others are starting out. Again, there was something for everybody.Â
After the white paper, ‘Cash and the Environment: Cash Cycle Recirculation and Recycling: from Policy to Practice’, and its webinar, in June 2025 at the High Security Printing Conference in Brazil there will be a day dedicated to sustainability.
Gallery
Attendees
Programme
Monday 24 June
13:30 – 17:00 Cash Cycle Recycling and Recirculation Workshop
This workshop, which is open to all, will consider the key activities, principles and options open to a central bank to ensure cash recycling and recirculation delivers fit and genuine banknotes and coins for the public.
If cash can be recycled and reused at, or close to, the point of sale, then that cash can be transported less and its velocity in circulation can increase, delivering significant environmental and cost benefits to all. The introduction of machines capable of fitness checking and authenticating banknotes, and even counting equipment, often has this capability now, giving those at the point of sale the ability to maintain standards to a consistent and defined level. But how can this be assured?
At the same time circulation models are changing. Better data and communications are allowing new business models, such as Smartsafes that enable fewer pick ups. This changes risk profiles and cash holdings. Higher circulation velocity can also mean banknotes experience more wear. Do specifications need to be amended to ensure banknotes are as durable as they can be?
The spectrum of cash management models ranges from central banks fitness checking and authenticating all banknotes returned from circulation through to the complete outsourcing of these activities with, at most, sampling of returned unfit banknotes before destruction. But with cash returning less frequently to cash centres where high speed sorters, with their many detector system are used, data on cash holdings is further removed from what is actually circulating, more unfit notes circulate and counterfeit reports are delayed.
No one economy is the same. Culture, economic behaviour, banking systems and flows, cash and commercial infrastructure, rules and regulations, specifications etc. are all different. However, there are activities that have to happen – fitness checking, authentication, data gathering, accounting etc. – and principles that apply.
This workshop will also look at elements that are directly under the central banks control, such as the specification of notes and coins, denominational structures, cash distribution models etc.
It will then examine a range of different models from totally in-house to completely decentralised cash systems. In the context of developing business models, it will look at a number of case studies of how different central banks run their cash cycles. It will also consider the implications of these rules on commercial banks, cash management companies, ATM operators, cash in transit companies and retailers.
The session will also touch on environmental factors beyond the movement of cash, to consider single-use plastics, security seals, containers, other packaging materials, recycling data gathering, and more. These are areas where central banks often regulate and so, therefore, have direct control of their environmental impact.
This will be an interactive session with a range of speakers. Given every country will have different experiences, this is a useful and interesting opportunity to share experience.
This workshop is free for all delegates
Tuesday 25 June
Underlined text on the programme is interactive, click for the abstract or biography popup.
Keynote
09:00
Welcome & Introduction
John Winchcombe
Reconnaissance International (UK)
09:05
Cash and Climate – Insights from the Deutsche Bundesbank
Ralph Rotzler
Deutsche Bundesbank (Germany)
09:25
The Banknote Product Environmental Footprint and the Work of the ECB
Bernadette O'Brien
European Central Bank (Germany)
09:45
Pioneering Sustainability in Currency Management
Tendamudzimu Nemusombori
South African Reserve Bank (South Africa)
10:05
Re-thinking Co-operation to Save the Planet
Rupert Pearce
Rewired Earth (UK)
10:25 Session Q&A
Measurement
11:10
Navigating the Evolving Sustainability Landscape: Effective Environmental Target Setting for Financial Institutions
Toby Green
MyCarbon (UK)
11:30
CSRD Regulations – A Burden or Opportunity for Carbon Reduction?
Thanos Patsos
Verco (UK)
11:50
Role and Contribution of Rating Agencies
Tanja Reilly
EcoVadis (France)
12:10
Measurement and Actions to Reduce Environmental Impacts
Harsha Mary Thomas
De La Rue (United Kingdom)
12:30
Getting to Know your Emissions – A Practical Approach
Boštjan Kolar
CETIS (Slovenia)
12:50 Session Q&A
Panel – Tenders
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EcoVadis
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Orell Füssli Security printing
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CCL Secure
Manufacturing Excellence
15:20
Eco-Design of Future Euro Banknotes
Antonio Arrieta
European Central Bank (Germany)
15:35
Do Nothing, a Little bit or Something That Makes a Difference?
Lachlan McDonald
CCL Secure (United Kingdom)
15:50
The Core Challenge of Our Business Industry – Be The Change We Want To See In The World
Benoît Renault
Oberthur Fiduciaire (France)
16:05
An Energy Supplier’s Perspective on Saving the Planet
Gareth Metcalf
NPower Business Solutions (UK)
16:20
Sustainability in the Cash Cycle
Marcus Ohnemus
Giesecke+Devrient GmbH (Germany)
16:40 Session Q&A
Wednesday 26 June
Cash Cycle
09:00
Driving Change in a Bank and Across an Industry
Leeann Shanks
Natwest Group (UK)
09:15
Navigating Carbon Offsetting: Methods, Legal Frameworks, and Supply Chain Collaboration
Adam Lowe
THG Eco (UK)
Jason Petrou Brown
THG Eco (UK)
09:30
Optimising the Cash Cycle
Jens Eberhardt
Cash Infra Pro (Germany)
09:45
First Report on New Zealand’s Community Cash Services Recycling Trial
Ian Woolford
Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Te Pūtea Matua (New Zealand)
10:00
Sustainability in the Paper Making Process; an Innovative Security Fibre That Reduces Waste and Cost
Gary Spinks
Security Fibres Ltd (UK)
10:15 Session Q&A
Cash Management
11:00
Minting with Care: The Royal Canadian Mint’s ESG Commitment
Michael Groves
Royal Canadian Mint (Canada)
11:15
Putting the S into ESG
Andrew Mills
The Royal Mint (UK)
11:30
Recirculation of Potted up Money and Cash Stuck Abroad.
Mario Van Poppel
Leftover Currency (UK)
11:45
Banknote Processing Solutions that Support Green Sustainability Targets
David Hawkins
CPS Group Support Limited (UK)
12:00
Cash automation: How Innovation is Serving Retailer’s Quest to a Greener Tomorrow
Marie-Carmen Hughes
Tellermate ()
12:15 Session Q&A
Repurposing & Recycling
13:45
Circular Economy in Cotton Banknotes: New Possibilities, Expanding Life Cycles
Alexandre Ambrozio Gilberti
Blendpaper (Brazil)
Nathalia Salles Ruivo de Barros
Casa da Moeda do Brazil (Brazil)
14:05
Composting Unfit Cotton Banknotes
Syed Faizan Haider Shah
Pakistan Security Printing Corporation (Pakistan)
14:25
Hyperspeed Composting of Banknotes: Turning Waste Notes into a Raw Material
Richard Perera
Landqart AG (Switzerland)
14:45
Green Cash: Exploring the Sustainability of Banknotes
Astrid Drexler
Louisenthal (Germany)
15:00 Session Q&A
Panel – This House Believes That Central Banks Need to Lead on Cash Cycle Sustainability