Lights out at the EIB
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is one of 20 EU institutions and bodies (seven more than in 2016) that will be supporting the Earth Hour 2017 campaign on 25 March 2017. The EIB will symbolically be switching off the lights in our main building on the Kirchberg campus in Luxembourg to demonstrate our commitment to fighting climate change globally.
On Saturday 25 March the EIB will switch off lights on facades of the main EIB building and operate a minimal lighting scenario within the building between 20h30 and 21h30. Although the EIB already operates minimal lighting at weekend, we will use this occasion to review our systems to verify the correct operation of this scenario.
Furthermore, we will encourage staff to go the extra mile, switching off all unused appliances in a bid to encourage energy saving and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
At the EIB we have been measuring and managing our carbon footprint since 2007. We have taken actions to reduce it through the implementation of video conferencing, low energy lighting, on demand printing and many other measures. We report annually on our carbon emissions and the reduction measures in our carbon footprint report.
Climate action is firmly embedded in the EIB’s operational activities, accounting for over 26% of our annual lending volumes - EUR 19 billion in 2016.
Earth Hour is an initiative launched in 2007 by WWF.
For further information on EIB Climate action activities please see www.eib.org/climate