Resilience and Determination to Serve: The Story of Canada’s No. 2 Construction Battalion
- Feb 16, 2023
- History
CARBON EMISSIONS & CLIMATE CHANGE
The Mint is committed to investing in solutions that reduce our carbon footprint, improve waste diversion and minimize the environmental impact of our operations.
We’re innovating to make our facilities and products greener
Our state-of-the-art Winnipeg facility will be carbon neutral by 2030, meaning all of our domestic and foreign circulation coins from that point onward will be carbon neutral.
In 2021, the Winnipeg facility received ISO 14001:2015 certification for environmental compliance. The certification — awarded to organizations around the world that prove they have effective frameworks for environmental management — was the result of extensive efforts to integrate sustainable and responsible measures across the Mint’s operations.
Our certification is a major step forward in the Mint’s work to become a more environmentally responsible and sustainable organization, but it’s not the end of our process. We’re committed to innovation and continuous environmental improvement in the quest to make the Mint as green as possible.
Carbon Emmisions & Climate Change
The Mint is focused on reducing carbon emissions throught our entire value chain, including those from suppliers as well as our own transportation and business travel.
The Mint has made a commitment to have a carbon neutral circulation coin business by 2030. This means that improvements to the operation of our Winnipeg facility will ensure that Canadian circulation coins, as well as those produced for other countries, are carbon neutral.
ISO 14001 certification is increasingly required by central banks and foreign clients in their bid process to ensure the Mint has suitable environmental management systems in place. In 2022, the Mint successfully recertified its Winnipeg facility and completed preparations for certification at our Ottawa facility, which is anticipated for fall 2023.
The Mint continues to search for new ways to divert more waste from going to landfills, while establishing waste diversion and recycling targets and key performance indicators (KPIs) for our manufacturing waste.
The Mint is focused on reducing everyday waste at its locations by encouraging employees to reduce, reuse and recycle. Employees are both challenged and encouraged to create and lead their own initiatives to help make the Mint greener — and employee engagement in these grassroots initiatives is growing.
The Mint is identifying and implementing water consumption reduction opportunities to achieve a goal of 5% reduction over 3 years.
The Mint is working collaboratively with other international Mints to identify opportunities to reduce our environmental footprint related to the packaging of our numismatic, circulation, and investment products.
Not only does the Royal Canadian Mint produce all of Canada’s circulation coins, it also manages the national coin supply. From weekly forecasting, to production, recycling and eventual retirement, our end-to-end oversight of inventories across the country enables us to effectively deliver a reliable and inclusive payment option for all Canadians. We are proud to ensure there are never any coin shortages and that coins are available when, and where, Canadians want or need to use them.
As Canadians adopt electronic payments as an alternative to using cash, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic, our job managing circulation coins is more essential than ever before – especially in remote and rural regions with limited banking access and inconsistent internet connectivity.
Other key elements of the Mint’s ESG commitment are our coin recycling and redistribution programs, which have reduced the average annual new coin requirements to support trade and commerce.
Welcome to the ESG Blog!
This section will be continually updated with articles, photos, videos and more. There will be new content to share in the weeks and month ahead, so be sure to check back often.
Investments to achieve carbon neutral circulation business by 2030.
Establish and monitor KPIs for manufacturing waste, recycling and composting.
Identify opportunities to reduce water consumption by 5% over 3 years.
0 major incidents.
We are committed to acting responsibly by minimizing our impact on the environment, cultivating safe and inclusive workplaces and making a positive difference in the communities where we operate.