European Lotteries has urged its members to increase their action towards helping the environment and acting sustainably.
Showcasing its Environmental Initiative program unveiled earlier this year, the body noted that National Lotteries play a ‘crucial role’ in sustainable and responsible business practices and stressed that environmental action is required on both a continental and global level.
Environmental Initiative is designed to ‘create a collective dynamic among EL members on concrete commitments in the environmental field’.
EL aims to implement measures across its membership, including monitoring the use of paper from certified sustainable forests for paper instant games and the regular monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions throughout core operations.
The summer of 2022 saw climate change thrust to the top of the news agenda as wildfires burned across Europe, with France’s Gironde area, Portugal’s Algarve region and the Greater London area all facing wildfires linked with climate change.
Climate change-related issues also appeared in Germany, Croatia, Turkey, Italy and Greece amongst others.
European Lotteries is keen to ensure that its members are acting responsibly and sustainably when it comes to environmental issues, and is calling upon lotteries to act under the slogan ‘Reunited Responsibly’.
Romana Girandon, EL 2nd Vice President and Supervisory Chair of the EL CSR-RG Working Group and Arjan van ‘t Veer, EL Secretary General, commented: “The new EL Environmental Initiative aims to create a collective dynamic among lottery members on concrete commitments in the environmental field – such as the use of paper coming from certified sustainable forests for gaming products (i.e., scratch tickets), and the regular monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., an action plan to reduce carbon emissions).
“Sustainability, responsibility, and integrity are in the DNA of lotteries and together we can act to safeguard the future of our planet. All EL Members are warmly invited to join this voluntary project.”
The climate is, of course, not the only crisis facing Europe this year; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused an energy crisis, with prices soaring across the continent as supply issues have been severely hit.
In response, EL’s ‘Reunite Responsibly’ tagline reflects the EL and WLA’s aims to ‘work further on sustainable projects with care for the environment, diversity and inclusion’.
The collective is also calling upon members to adopt a model ‘based on subsidiarity, consumer protection and public order’.
An EL statement read: “As sustainability is important in the lottery model, now is the time to act. EL Members are invited to confirm their voluntary commitments to the Environmental Initiative in order to prepare the next steps for future action.
“At the European level, work also continues. Developments on the new CSR and reporting initiatives from the European Commission will be followed closely upon their possible implications of the annual CSR reporting obligations of the EL Members within the EU.
