Banknote logistics: how the Banque de France is using its real estate portfolio as a lever for decarbonization

Every day, millions of banknotes pass through the hands of French and European citizens. Behind the stability of the European single currency lies an industrial and logistics infrastructure on a scale that is rarely appreciated. A central pillar of the Eurosystem, the Banque de France operates the continent’s largest banknote printing facility. From inventory management to the final destruction of currency, it runs a state supply chain whose efficiency underpins monetary confidence.

This system relies on a dense network of industrial sites and cash centers throughout the country. Their mission? To guarantee a public currency service everywhere, including during potential periods of crisis. At the heart of this sovereign system, the scale reflects the stakes: every year, the institution’s paper mill produces more than 4,600 tons of secure paper. This impressive volume feeds the production of billions of banknotes intended to supply the national economy. To maintain the quality and security of currency in circulation, the Banque de France operates a constant flow. Around 300 tons of used banknotes are thus withdrawn from circulation in France every year to be shredded in its high-security centers.

This massive flow is supported by precisely engineered transportation. The centralized management of consumables alone (the seals, bags, and containers needed to transfer funds) is such an extensive operation that its recent optimization saved 25,430 kilometers of road travel in a single year. Whether sending paper to the printing facility or redistributing new banknotes to commercial banks, the institution manages a continuous flow of secure shipments. The system ensures that cash is immediately available across the country.

For the Banque de France, this logistics capacity must now meet a new requirement: achieving carbon neutrality by 2050*. Aligned with the ambitions of the European Union, this target applies in particular to industrial activities (paper production, printing, sorting, and destruction), which currently account for nearly half of the institution’s greenhouse gas emissions. Real estate plays a leading role in achieving it. Speaking to Plateformes Magazine, an in-house expert explains that this commitment has translated in recent years “into a complete renovation of all buildings and major efforts to streamline and optimize energy consumption, the beneficial effects of which are already widely apparent.” This approach makes it possible to modernize industrial facilities without incurring the substantial carbon cost of a complete rebuild, thereby preserving the embodied carbon stored in historic buildings. And without altering the Banque’s dense territorial network, which ensures its ability to “supply banknotes throughout the country, whatever the circumstances.”

* Source: Banque de France Sustainability Report: “The Banque de France’s strategy is aligned with the European Union’s (EU) ambitious carbon-emission reduction targets, which aim to cut emissions by 55% by 2030 (compared with 1990 levels) and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The “Refondation” project, which plans to bring a new printing facility into service in 2027, illustrates this drive for performance through logistics real estate. By locating the infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of the Europafi paper mill in Auvergne, the Banque de France is turning the building into a tool for reducing flows. “The choice of site reduces the distances traveled to deliver paper to the printing facility, saving approximately 70 kilometers per round trip,” we were told.

Beyond location, bioclimatic design guides the technical choices. The building is designed to optimize internal circulation and limit consumption through aerothermal energy (editor’s note: a method that captures the heat naturally present in outside air to heat or cool a building) and heat recovery. The goal is ambitious: to reduce energy consumption by 50% compared with 2019. Managing the indoor environment has become a science of precision: “At the printing facility and in the sorting workshops, the Banque de France manages the fresh-air supply process and humidity and temperature control systems with a view to optimizing energy consumption through these levers.”

Consideration of the real estate portfolio extends to the final treatment of used banknotes, a critical point in the supply chain. The network of cash centers throughout France is a key lever for limiting distances traveled at the end of banknotes’ life cycle. Once shredded and demonetized, the residues are transported by conventional waste-management providers to energy recovery facilities. Tenders for incineration are organized by geographic area to encourage short supply chains. Currently, 100% of shredded banknotes are incinerated with energy recovery.

However, the institution does not stop there and is exploring new ways of recovering materials from annual waste. By optimizing access to treatment centers through its real estate network, the institution ensures that even the destruction of banknotes contributes to the local economy, for example by supplying district heating networks. The Banque de France is completing its transformation to become Europe’s “most modern, efficient, and environmentally friendly banknote production center.” A reminder that, despite the dematerialization of payment methods, cash still accounted for 43% of transactions in France in 2024.