Green Ticket, environmentally friendly tickets

Sustainable banknotes are already a reality. The “Green Ticket”, as it has been baptized by Giesecke+Devrient, allows CO2 emissions into the atmosphere to be reduced by 29% throughout its life cycle compared to previous generation tickets.

Presented at the Global Currency Forum, which is being held this week in Tarragona, the banknote is obtained from a printing that, for the first time, uses inks based on vegetable oils and, therefore, free of mineral oils.

“The development of this particularly environmentally friendly solution is part of our recently established Green Ticket Initiative and which we want to use, together with our customers and partners, to make the cash cycle greener,” explains Bernd Kümmerle, General Manager of the Banknote Solutions Division of G+D Currency Technology.

green ticket

G+D’s “Green Ticket” uses certified natural fibres, as little plastic as possible and an optimized production process. During the presentation of the new banknote, G+D has exposed the four fundamental and differential characteristics.

• Its paper core is made of a mixture of organic cotton fibers and cellulose from European forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which reduces carbon emissions by 63% compared to banknotes based on fibers created with conventionally grown cotton.
• The film that supports the threads (RollingStar i+) and other security elements (varifeye ColourChange holographic patch) of paper money. Specifically, in the case of this “Green Ticket” the material of this film is recycled polyester and comes from a recycling circuit that certifies the reuse of 70% of the waste of this polymer that reaches it.

G+D launches a new generation of “Green Ticket” bank notes that generate 29% less CO2 emissions throughout their life cycle

• Covered with a PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) film, thinner than previous generations of banknotes to achieve greater durability of the cash cycle. These last two characteristics make it possible to reduce the plastic content of the new banknote by 38% compared to the previous ones.

Study Based Manufacturing

The “Green Ticket” has been developed taking into account the results of a study carried out by the G+D subsidiary, Louisenthal, which has calculated the carbon footprint and the water footprint associated with various substrates throughout the life cycle of the cash.

The results of the study, which analyzes the total impact of the carbon footprint of three types of banknotes throughout the six phases that make up the life cycle of a banknote (production of cotton, substrates, banknote threads , printing, distribution and use) show that hybrid solutions based on natural fibers offer the best combination of durability, sustainability and banknote security.