European Patent Office joins City of Munich’s climate pact to cut CO2 emissions

https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/news/european-patent-office-joins-city-munichs-climate-pact-cut-co2-emissions

European Patent Office joins City of Munich’s climate pact to cut CO2 emissions

22.10.2019

The European Patent Office (EPO) yesterday, 21 October 2019, joined a City of Munich initiative to reduce CO₂ emissions. As a signatory of Klimapakt² (Climate Pact²) the EPO is one of 15 major businesses and organisations that are to voluntarily implement measures to protect the environment.

Together with the other signatories, the EPO will work to reduce CO₂ emissions by at least 20 000 tonnes, which will contribute to Munich’s objective of becoming climate neutral by 2050, as well as cooperate on the implementation of common measures to protect the environment. This is the City’s second initiative of this kind and will run until 2021.

Following the ceremonial signing, the first of a series of specialist workshops took place in which the signatories are to develop further climate protection measures. The series will help enable the EPO’s Munich operations to build upon its environmental activities to date by cooperating closely with the City of Munich and share knowledge and best practices with the major Munich organisations involved.

In addition to the EPO, Klimapakt² was signed by Allianz, Bayerische Landesbank, BayWa, BMW, Deutsche Telekom, Giesecke+Devrient, Knorr-Bremse, MAN Truck & Bus SE, MTU Aero Engines, Munich Re, OSRAM, Siemens, Telefonica / O2 and Versicherungskammer Bayern. It receives additional support from Munich Airport, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria and SWM (Munich City Utilities).

The EPO joins the initiative as part of its corporate sustainability policy to fulfil its role as a responsible public institution by utilising its resources to generate benefits for local citizens and society as a whole, as set out in the Office’s recently adopted Strategic Plan 2023.

This also forms part of the EPO’s long-standing commitment to the environment because, in parallel, the EPO will continue to apply rigorous environmental auditing procedures to evaluate, report and improve their environmental performance. Over the past decade of implementing this scheme, the Office has reduced its annual electricity consumption by 13%, water consumption by 9%, residual waste generation by 24%, heat energy consumption by 20%, total paper consumption by 3.9% and CO₂ emissions from energy consumption by 68%.