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 2021.
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, is 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. It 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 described 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.
Among recent concrete actions, the Court provided its staff with a network of water fountains with the aim of drastically reducing the use of plastic bottles. At the time of the return to the office post-pandemic, the Court also distributed reusable flasks in order to encourage use of these fountains. Indeed, the system for supply of drinking water precludes the use of plastic bottles.
As for paper consumption, the Court for the first time set quantitative targets for 2022-23: in 2022, a 10% reduction as compared with 2019 and, in 2023, an additional 5% reduction. Moreover, in September 2022, the EMAS Committee decided to reduce the number of personal printers by 50%. The first steps in this exercise were launched in December 2022.
The ‘e-Curia’ application, 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 2022 (around one million pages) had been lodged in paper form, including the necessary sets of copies, the documents generated would have corresponded to several tonnes of paper, which, moreover, would have had to be physically transported to Luxembourg.
- Continuous improvement in the recycling of waste: selective waste sorting and recycling of office equipment (pilot project)
- Participation in the Vel’OH self-service bicycle system and support for bicycle travel
- Continued improvement of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning infrastructures
- Reduction in waste (offices and catering) - 59.8% kg/FT E
- Reduction in water consumption - 38.2% m3/FTE
- Reduction in paper consumption - 58.4% kg/FTE
- Reduction in electricity consumption - 5.9% kWh/FTE
- 3 466 m2 of solar panels producing 380 041 kWh: equivalent to the annual electricity needs of 69 families
- Reduction in carbon emissions - 34.3% kg CO2/FTE
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 2021. Variations are quantified by reference to 2015, the reference year.
The major fluctuations in various indicators are explained by the exceptional situation occurring in 2021 as a result of the health crisis.