Awareness

• For the Communication to succeed, staff engagement to implement the actions is key. This also goes hand in hand with adopting sustainable ways of working and behaviour, with which many are already familiar. The Commission recognises and encourages its staff to be innovative and embrace changes in ways of working with the ambition of setting a good example in implementing new innovative green solutions.
• Greening the Commission and achieving corporate climate neutrality by 2030 is intended to set a good example and raise awareness of the need for ambitious climate action at all levels. The Commission’s green actions are also fully part of the Human Resources strategy as a key priority to increase further the attractiveness of the Commission as an employer.

Staff participation - setting a good example

Leadership and commitment

During 2023 the Commission's senior management took an active role demonstrating leadership and commitment to the environmental management system and environmental issues in general. Examples of Commission support for Europe-wide and Commission initiatives are presented below:

EU Green Week 2023 (03-11/06): Delivering a net-zero world

Over 250 partner events focusing on skills for sustainable, resilient and socially fair communities were organised across Europe and beyond, allowing everyone to be part of the celebrations and debates. Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries noted ahead of the event: "Green Week is about how to make the Green Deal happen for people, for businesses and for future generations of Europeans. Since the Green Deal was announced the Commission has proposed an impressive number of legislative proposals to safeguard biodiversity, advance the circular economy, and strive for zero pollution. This is the moment to push through and finish up what we have started. This is not a sprint but a marathon. We cannot win a medal for running 10 kilometres, but we certainly can if we run the full 42".

EU Mobility Week (16-22/09): Save energy!

In 2023, EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK broke its record for campaign participation, with 3,351 towns and cities registering activities to raise awareness about sustainable and active mobility. Towns and cities from 45 countries in Europe, and beyond, participated during the main event week, including Argentina, Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, Peru and South Korea. As Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean said: "Cities may only occupy 4% of EU land area, but 75% of EU citizens call them home. By transitioning to more sustainable and efficient mobility solutions, the cities can make a difference for their inhabitants and those beyond - be it in terms of less pollution, and better connectivity for all. As many as 3,000 cities take part in European Mobility Week this year and they are living proof of their power to change things." The Commission participated as usual with events during the week.

Fourth award ceremony rewards innovative, green Commission events

Following the success of the previous three editions, the award ceremony of the 4th corporate competition on sustainable conferences and events was held, in the presence of Commissioner Hahn for Budget and Administration and the Directors General of DG Human Resources and Security (DG HR), Gertrud Ingestad and DG Interpretation (DG SCIC), Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, with a record number of applications submitted (almost double than in 2022!) by DGs/services and EC Representations. Commissioner Hahn, in his motivational video, concluded with the words: “Be inspired, be bold, be innovative, be enthusiastic in your quest for sustainability. I already look forward to next year's competition."

Communication to staff

Corporate campaigns

The EMAS spring campaign 2023: Invest in our Planet

This year’s EMAS Spring campaign (19-26/04), built around the International Earth Day (22/04) with the theme 'Invest In Our Planet', highlighted the importance of dedicating our time, resources, and energy to solving climate change and other environmental issues in order to pave a path towards a prosperous and climate neutral future.

Taking stock of valuable lessons learned and the experience gained one year following the adoption of the Greening the Commission Communication and action plan, we invited colleagues to participate in a wide variety of events and activities. The programme included: (a) a Corporate Photo competition #Invest in our Planet!, (b) a Beyond EMAS… game-based workshop on novel greening projects: led by the JRC Living Lab for Testing Digital Energy Solutions, addressing main aspects of the selected new greening projects proposed by the newly created GREEN Transition Multipliers Community, (c) a webinar on "What is the EC doing to further green itself?", where the EMAS coordination team (HR.D.7) and the EMAS site coordinators for Brussels, Luxembourg, JRC-sites and EC Representations shared the main highlights and their success stories for the first year of the Greening the Commission ambitious project towards the 2030 climate neutrality target, (d) the award ceremony of the corporate sustainable events competition, (e) a webinar on Greener Conferences and Events – Walking the talk on sustainability and (f) the organisation of multiple “green' local actions in several DGs/services/sites/EC Representations such as: an Interinstitutional Repair Café in Luxembourg, a “Bioblitz day" and creation of wooden hiding places for small animals (amphibians) at JRC Geel, Plogging activities at Ispra: a mix of a sport and environmental activity, where colleagues will collect waste in collaboration with the municipality in Ispra and one NGO and a 'Clean-up' walk on the beach at Petten.

In Brussels, DG RTD organised a Knowledge for Sustainability talk on “Regrounding Humanity in the Anthropocene – Tackling the cultural drivers of the planetary emergency”, in collaboration with the staff association EUStaff4Climate with the help of Active Seniors in the research area, ERCEA Greening Group organised a lunch conference for the Earth Day on "greening the city via nature based solutions and climate/biodiversity governance" and DG ENV & DG CLIMA set up a Plant and Seed Fair.

“Less Waste, More Action TOGETHER” 2023: Waste Reduction Campaign

The Commission's Less waste, more action TOGETHER annual campaign (18-26/11) focused on the lessons learned and success stories on circular economy across EC-sites, but also looked forward concerning future challenges in view of our 2030 climate neutrality target.

The main themes of the campaign were: Corporate Waste Stories – Circular Economy Success stories by the EMAS site coordinators; Waste sorting quizzes and games ("back to basics" local campaigns) by the EMAS Network; Digital mindfulness tips and tricks & Paperless practices by DIGIT; Sustainable food choices/cooking with leftovers and cooking demonstrations (by EMAS Correspondents & the Sustainable Eating Community).

Moreover, we revamped the Greening the Commission Learning Challenge with additional references and quiz games to put the knowledge into practice, as well as a new chapter of to how to further green our homeworking. The Executive Agencies in Covent Garden organised a Green Week including the flagship "Toys, toys, toys" action, an information session on Digital Frugality and a collection of small household appliances. Additional actions included: a Green Pills workshop, with DG DIGIT showing how to be more mindful about our digital waste, and corporate success stories such as using carpets to make window seats, and implementing New European Bauhaus principles at OIB. Also featured were the repairing of damaged office furniture and a textile collection in Seville, and plogging (picking up rubbish whilst jogging) in Ispra.

The week also saw 'Climate Fresk' workshops, others organised by the sustainable eating community and organisation of sustainable eating demonstrations by a TV celebrity chef and an interinstitutional repair café in Luxembourg.

Climate Fresk workshops

The Climate Fresk card-game, which aims to raise awareness about climate change challenges, is a world phenomenon, with more than 1.5 million people having participated since its creation in 2018. Its cards are based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and it is widely recognised as a reliable and powerful educational tool.

The idea of setting-up Climate Fresk workshops in the Commission was initially proposed in the GREEN Transition Multipliers Community workshop in December 2022, and organised under the Greening the Commission action plan, and was broadly supported by participants. It became a corporate action, thanks to the practical support of the EMAS coordination team in HR.D.7 and associated funding, with a project manager in RTD.

Considering the size of the European Commission and the potential to deploy this tool inside the institution, it is worthwhile developing an internal pool of Climate Fresk facilitators, and to be able to train other facilitators internally, without the need to repeatedly engage the services of the Climate Fresk NGO. The Commission therefore signed a contract with the Climate Fresk Association, to train internal facilitators and certify one of them as internal trainer, who will be able to train other facilitators within the Commission in the future. Following a call for expressions of interest, more than 90 staff members volunteered to train as Climate Fresk Facilitators, of whom 30 were selected, starting their training in November 2023.

It was expected that there would be 35 internal facilitators (including those trained externally) and 1 trainer by the end of March 2024 available to organise workshops as standalone events or as part of team building activities.

The aim is to involve 2 000 participants in Climate Fresk workshops in the next few years. The first large scale Climate Fresk workshops were scheduled to take place during the EMAS Spring campaign 2024 in late April - June 2024 in Brussels, Luxembourg and Ispra.

Dialogue with internal stakeholders

The Commission has a corporate register of internal questions and suggestions submitted via the EMAS in EC functional mailbox, Staff Fora and EMAS for all! Teams Channel, which recorded 1 169 entries (compared to 1 066 in 2022, 537 in 2021, 158 in 2020, 328 in 2019, 185 in 2018, 188 in 2017 and an average of 40-60 entries during the previous years), all of which received responses. This tremendous increase demonstrates the effectiveness of the EMAS internal communication campaigns and the transparent and open staff dialogue.

Communication among EMAS correspondents and site: Overall, 36 of 47 EMAS teams demonstrated a performance above average (with a score of 6 (or more) out of 10), representing 85% of the total Commission population (compared to 75% in 2022). This is mainly the result of (i) the environmental awareness support by the local volunteer groups, currently active in 7 sites and in 20 DGs/services (in relation to 21 in 2022), (ii) the large number of local EMAS action plans in 8 sites and 20 DGs/services (compared to 22 in 2022), (iii) the setting up of local environmental actions in all 9 sites and 28 DGs/services (compared to 23 in 2022), (iv) EMAS team contacts with senior management currently in all 9 sites and 31 DGs/services (compared to 27 in 2022). This resulted once again in high average performances of 6.9 out of 10 for the EMAS teams in all DGs/services/sites and 8.3 out of 10 for the 6 Executive Agencies (REA, ERCEA, EISMEA, EACEA, HaDEA and CINEA).

Additional campaigns

The corporate energy saving campaign, as a contribution to European solidarity in times of energy scarcity, in alliance with the EU member states commitment to a voluntary 15% reduction in gas consumption across the bloc over the until March 2023. This included:

• Buildings Energy Saving Together (BEST) actions help further reduce the Commission’s energy consumption and maintenance during a period of low office presence (during the summer and at the end of the year), through the closing of several buildings. Electricity, ventilation, and air conditioning are switched off in the closed buildings and colleagues are able to work from one of the designated building hubs
• The greening your summer action
• UN Biodiversity Day: EU award-winning virtual reality experience "Can you imagine a world without pollinators?"
• Communication to staff on the EMAS highlights (via the Great EMAS Online Quiz Game)
• The “Keep it Green this Christmas” campaign

Other corporate communication

• Six articles published in the Commission’s on-line news portal “Commission en Direct”;
• Four articles published on the new "People First" section on Commission’s intranet (My IntraComm);
• Several announcements on the Commission’s intranet under “Practical Information” and “Events";
• Revisions to the overall structure and further improvement of the internal EMAS webpages;
• The Inter-institutional Green Public Procurement (GPP) helpdesk event on 19/09 on sustainable goodies;
• VeloMai 2023: The ever-popular interinstitutional Velomai challenge was bigger than ever in 2023- thanks to the participation of a record-breaking 19 EU institutions, agencies and bodies. The nearly 2 400 people who took part pedalled almost 485,000 kilometres in total, the equivalent of more than 12 times around the Earth!

EMAS Correspondents' communication actions

EMAS Correspondents organised local environmental actions in the 28 DGs/services (compared to 23 DGs/services in 2022) and in all 6 Executive Agencies. Typical examples included:

(a) Waste reduction actions: including waste collection and recycling events, collection of textiles, household appliances, technical devices and bottle caps, collecting toys and all kinds of items for charity, book exchanges, plogging activities, installing waste sorting stations, anti-food waste trainings, internal campaigns to avoid paper cups (bring your cup and distribution of porcelain cups).

(b) Sustainable mobility initiatives (targeted communication and training actions on sustainable commuting during EU mobility week and VéloMai corporate events).

(d) Internal communication and training actions to raise staff environmental awareness and promote staff engagement related to various topics, such as: EMAS related corporate trainings, events, campaigns, and policy (reduction of missions…), digital waste, energy saving, biodiversity, and adopting a greener lifestyle (food, sustainable commuting).

EMAS site coordinators' communication actions

In Brussels, the OIB participated in most of the activities promoted by DG HR and organised dedicated training sessions for specific targets, namely the EMAS Correspondents in the DGs, on subjects such as energy saving actions, waste and data collection.

In Luxembourg, OIL participated in Vélomai and produced a video on cycling and road safety. To promote soft mobility a video was in which local authorities explained how Shared space is put in place in Bertrange. A mobility conference was organized together with the Ministry of Environment and Mobility focusing on the new 'Mercier-Post' building and its features. During 'Waste week' a very successful culinary workshop was hosted by Anne Faber, known for her shows on RTL TV. She created 2 “Zero Waste” menus in front of staff, using food leftovers from the refrigerator. In addition, the OIL Communication team released the video of the cooking show. The OIL hosted the highly successful Interinstitutional Repair Café.

As for the JRC's various sites, colleagues in JRC Seville organised a very successful textile collection through a local charity and arranged two-day session bike workshops to promote commuting by bike, and which were popular. Geel saw a campaign to refresh knowledge on waste sorting. In Ispra, lunch-box delivery via the autonomous robot Yape, developed by an Italian start-up company, was pilot-tested for two weeks within the context of the Living Laboratories programme. The initiative is due to be replicated also in 2024 and 2025, this time for longer periods (2-3 months), potentially helping to reduce the number of colleagues driving their cars to the canteen at lunchtime.

Trainings

EMAS training for all staff

The virtually delivered on-line EMAS basics for all course continued with great success in 2023, reaching out to a steadily high number of 729 participants (in 8 sessions, compared to 935 in 2022 in relation to 517 in 2021) from all EC-sites. The training addressed for the first time the environmental impact of teleworking and how to be "greener" at home.

There have been: (i) three online introductory training sessions for new EMAS Correspondents (ECORs) and EMAS site coordination teams with a total of 34 participants (27/02, 110/03 and 08/09), ii) 3 online EMAS Regulation training courses (8 hours each, on 4-5/04, 16-17/05 and 20-21/09) with a total of 42 participants and 2 online “Preparing for EMAS Internal or External Audits” training courses (4 hours each, on 01/03 and 24/11) with a total of 20 participants, iii) three online training sessions on EMAS internal audits and external verification audits with a total of 11 participants (06/10, 18/10 and 24/05), also addressing the new EMAS teams in EC Representations and (iv) one info-session on the compilation of the Sound Environmental Management section in Management Plans 2024 with 40 participants. In total, 147 members of the EMAS teams (compared to 91 in 2022) have attended an introductory and/or specialised EMAS training.

No. of different trainings on offer by EMAS site coordinators (for local staff with high environmental impact potential)

No of training beneficiaries (among local staff with high environmental impact potential)

Staff benefitting from training (%) offered by EMAS site coordinators

External communication

Greening the Commission and achieving corporate climate neutrality by 2030 is intended to set a good example and raise awareness of the need for ambitious climate action at all levels. The Commission’s green actions are also fully part of the Human Resources strategy as a key priority to increase further the attractiveness of the Commission as an employer.

External communication

Environmental statement and websites

This is the main reference document for responding to most questions. It contains information from all the EMAS sites and is subject to external verification. It is published on DG ENV’s EMAS website under the EMAS in EU Institutions sub-section. Moreover, it is also accessible via the "Greening the European Commission" webpage under the New HR Strategy webpages on Europa, including the communication documents and factsheets.

Press announcements and parliamentary questions

The highlights of the Commission’s environmental performance, as well the Interinstitutional EMAS Days 2023, have all been promoted through the EMAS in EU Institutions section of the official EMAS website on Europa that is managed by DG ENV. The EMAS coordination team (HR.D.7) responded to three Parliamentary questions in 2023, all related to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of European Commission's/Commissioners' professional travel and responded with the support of the Paymasters Office (PMO).

Communication with external stakeholders

HR.D.7 responded to all 79 external queries recorded during 2023 via the EMAS in EC functional mailbox and the GIME Teams Channel (compared to 78 in 2022, 69 in 2021 and typically 30 to 40 the previous years). The significant increase in the Commission’s EMAS team outreach is due its more visible role as coordinator of the interinstitutional EMAS communication workgroup, in the framework of the Group Interinstitutional de Management Environnemental (GIME) and its highly appreciated supporting role to the Greening Network of Decentralised Agencies.

Interinstitutional online EMAS Days 2023

The Interinstitutional EMAS Days 2023 were by far the most successful and inclusive collaboration event to date involving the EMAS teams of the EU Institutions and agencies. Staff from 18 EU institutions and agencies joined forces from 28 to 30 November by creating a platform for sharing their climate neutrality strategies and action plans, energy efficiency of EU buildings, mobilizing the EMAS networks and groups of volunteers, as well as setting up common projects and joint surveys.

From staff engagement brainstorms the topics also included Green Public Procurement, the Global Reporting Initiative, European Sustainability Reporting Standards and EMAS reports and how to prevent greenwashing. Senior managers and EMAS coordination teams from EMAS–registered EU Institutions and agencies also shared their commitment to support the European Green Deal to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy in common videos inviting EU Institutions and bodies to "Let's get more sustainable together"!

In addition, the following external communication activities took place in 2023:

• Chairing the Interinstitutional Group on Environmental Management (GIME) (3 meetings)
• Setting up a new interinstitutional group on greening and missions in the frame of CCA (Collège des chefs d’administration)
• Collaborating with the UN Sustainability Group – UN Greening the Blue
• Participating in the virtual Inter-agency Greening Network and providing technical support
• Setting up a "greener" EU Open Day 2023 and hosting the European Green Deal Village

Information for suppliers and sub-contractors

In 2023, the Commission continued to (i) disseminate information about its environmental management system (EMAS) and its climate neutrality objective to its main suppliers and sub-contractors; (ii) as well as promote and implement the main principles of Green Public Procurement (GPP) in its own tenders/contracts via the support of the Inter-institutional Green Public Procurement Helpdesk coordinated by the European Parliament.

Greening Government Initiative (GGI) and Net Zero Government Initiative (NZGI)

The Commission followed the activities initiated by the USA and Canada governments to create a global community of administrations to share information on greening. The Commission committed to joining the NZGI for which government administrations require a long-term carbon reduction target and must publish the roadmap showing how they will achieve it.

Site coordinators' additional external actions