Benefits of GUARDIAN™ ENVIRO

GUARDIAN ENVIRO builds on a legacy of greener cash cycles. Since their inception in 1988, GUARDIAN banknotes have been recycled. Their durability drives down procurement volumes, which reduces raw materials use and emissions while simultaneously increasing seigniorage. That’s why GUARDIAN remains the first step to increasing sustainability in the cash cycle.

Initial savings from polymerisation can then be re-invested to drive a deeper transition with GUARDIAN ENVIRO. A proportion of fossil feedstocks will be replaced with greener alternatives, including used cooking oil, and tall oil, which is a byproduct produced by the forestry sector.

All bio-renewable feedstocks comply with rigorous and independent reporting requirements.

The environmental advantages of alternative feedstocks are accredited through International Sustainability & Carbon Certification – an independent and globally recognised framework.

ISCC also provides the methodology, rules and guidelines to track accredited sustainable feedstocks across the supply chain, including through an active auditing process.

This provides central banks with a transparent, verifiable and standardised method of documenting sustainability gains, and supports credible communication with key stakeholders.

Mass Balance

There are several schemes under the broader umbrella of ISCC, reflecting the variations between industries and enabling flexible approaches to achieving sustainability goals.

GUARDIAN ENVIRO complies with the ‘mass balance’ method. It’s a chain-of-custody model that support incremental improvements within the existing production process. This is because sustainable feedstocks must be chemically identical to the fossil equivalents that they replace.

Mass balance does not guarantee sustainable feedstocks are ‘physically’ there. Instead, it relies on detailed bookkeeping to track these as a proportion of all feedstocks used. This ensures central banks are provided with accurate information about the percentage of final product produced using sustainable feedstocks, as opposed to more traditional fossil raw materials.

Watch this short video to understand how mass balance works.

All GUARDIAN ENVIRO products will be certified through the ISCC process up to the point of dispatchment to state or commercial print works. Under ISCC rules, certification of the final banknote would require subsequent stakeholders in the value chain to be accredited too.

The ISCC mass balance method requires alternative feedstocks to be chemically interchangeable with their fossil equivalent, since the two are mixed in one industrial process.

This means central banks can be assured GUARDIAN ENVIRO will perform to the same level as traditional GUARDIAN banknotes in terms of design, durability, and security features. Both banknotes deliver:
• durability three-to-five times greater than cotton-paper
• security features proven to prevent counterfeits
• environmental benefits including lower emissions, reduced use of raw materials, and globally demonstrated pathways to recycling all banknotes once they reach end-of-life.

The only material difference is that GUARDIAN ENVIRO reduces the use of fossil feedstocks.

CCL Secure’s sister company, Innovia Films, plays a key role in producing GUARDIAN ENVIRO. This is because the sustainable feedstocks are incorporated during the production of film.

Innovia Films is the sole producer of film for substrate and finished banknotes produced by CCL Secure. The company has extensive experience working within the ISCC mass balance method, and this in-house expertise was extensively leveraged to select the most efficient sustainable feedstocks. Innovia’s experience also informs ongoing compliance and product development.

Central banks can have complete confidence GUARDIAN ENVIRO will provide a cost effective, compliant and efficient pathway to reduce their use of fossil feedstocks within the cash cycle.