For several years, the Court has pursued an ambitious environmental policy, designed to meet the highest standards of sustainable development and environmental conservation.
As in every year, the Institution provides an account of developments through the most recent indicators at its disposal, namely those for 2020.
Underpinning the management of the Institution’s building complex, and the day-to-day management of the resources and tools at its disposal, is the constant commitment to respecting the environment, as shown, since 2016, through the Court’s EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) registration. The EMAS registration, established by an EU regulation and granted to organisations that satisfy strict conditions relating to their environmental policies and their efforts in relation to the protection of the environment and sustainable development, is a clear recognition of the Court’s ecological commitment and of the significant environmental performance achieved.
In its annual environmental statement, the Court presented a detailed account of its environmental performance and of current and future ecological projects within the Institution. For example, the Court has developed an online training module through which it informs all new arrivals of the environmental aspects associated with their daily work, encouraging the adoption of good habits in connection with information and office technology, energy use, water and waste processing, and also in their own personal transport choices.
Amongst recent concrete actions, the Court has completely eliminated the use of single-use plastic bottles in courtrooms, deliberation rooms and meeting rooms since November 2020.
The ‘e-Curia’ application (see p. 30) used widely for exchanging judicial documents between the parties’ representatives and the Courts of the European Union also has a positive environmental impact. For example, if all the pages of procedural documents submitted to the Court of Justice and the General Court by e-Curia in 2021 (more than a million pages) had been lodged in paper form, including the necessary sets of copies, the documents generated would correspond to several tonnes of paper, which, moreover, would have had to be physically transported to Luxembourg.
- Test phase for collecting used office supplies for recycling
- Participation in the Veloh' self-service bicycle system and support for bicycle travel
- Water saving -37,5% m3/FTE in 2021
- Waste reduction (offices and catering) -67,3% kg/Full Time Equivalent (FTE) in 2020
- Continued replacement of light bulbs with LED technology
- Reduction of paper consumption -63,7% kg/FTE in 2021
- Reduction of electricity consumption -20,8% kWh/FTE in 2021
- 2 958 m² of photovoltaic cells for production of 381 586 kWh in 2021 equivalent to the annual requirements of 65 families
- Reduction in carbon emissions
Full Time Equivalent (FTE) is a unit of measurement of occupational activity independent of the disparities in the number of hours worked each week by staff members resulting from their different working arrangements.
The environmental indicators for water, waste, paper and electricity match those for 2020. Variations are quantified by reference to 2015, the reference year.
The substantial decreases in waste and resource consumption are explained by the exceptional situation occurring in 2020 as a result of the health crisis.