Internal Operations

Fostering a cohesive working environment

In 2018, the Bank put in place a Gender Strategy.

In 2023, the CEB obtained the second highest level of the EDGE Global Certification for Gender Equality, EDGE Move, showcasing progress towards fostering a gender-equitable workplace.

Women’s representation in senior managerial roles rose to 39% in 2024, with 55% of Director or equivalent roles held by women. This achievement reflects the CEB’s commitment to fostering gender balance and inclusive leadership.

Since 2022, the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Group’s objective has been to raise awareness and promote a multi-dimensional approach on D&I at the CEB, including gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, physical ability, neurodiversity, education, social and national origins. The Group - composed of staff members from across directorates and job functions - provides inputs to D&I strategies, policies and actions and monitor their implementation at the Bank.

For more, see the GRI Report.

Procurement at the CEB

The Administrative Council approved the Guidelines for the procurement of Services, Goods and Works for the CEB’s own account in September 2023. These new rules underline the basic principles that procurement for the CEB has to respect equal treatment, non-discrimination, proportionality and transparency. They also aim to encourage more socially and environmentally responsible procurement at various stages of the process, from planning to contract management.

Over the course of 2024, the CEB integrated sustainable procurement criteria into several tenders. Collectively, these projects accounted for more than €2.5 million. These include tenders for electricity, high-speed internet access, data analytics and business intelligence, website development and maintenance, overnight batch monitoring, IT workstations and cloud migration and collaboration services.

The CEB’s own environmental footprint

The CEB’s approach for addressing its own environmental impact, and for setting priority areas for further improvement, is laid out in the Environmental Statement first in place since 2019.

In early 2025, the CEB has reaffirmed its dedication to limiting its climate and environmental impact through the Governor’s endorsement of this updated Environmental Statement. This framework document acts as a compass for CEB staff and specialised inter-directorate working groups, such as the Task Force on Aligning Internal Operations TFIO, to devise and implement initiatives aimed at reducing emissions and resource consumption - with the view to limiting the Bank’s own carbon footprint compared to a pre-COVID ‘baseline’.

The updated Environmental Statement structures the main avenues for action around three main pillars: building, mobility and procurement to foster environmentally-friendly behaviour, sustainable procurement and responsible use of resources.

In 2024, tangible steps included:

• Energy efficiency: The CEB continued its commitment to upgrading its historic office building’s energy efficiency by replacing a lot of ten windows. This effort is part of a broader plan to accelerate the transition to more energy-efficient windows, supported by an increased budget allocation for that purpose.
• Carbon footprint assessment: Further extending the scope of GHG assessment by adding the procurement of new IT servers to the list.
• Carbon contribution: Through a competitive process, the Bank has selected a new service provider for its annual carbon contributions (‘carbon offsetting’).

The CEB monitors and reports on its emissions following the GHG Protocol (see the CEB’s Sustainability reports).

In total, the Bank’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2024 stand at 706 tonnes of CO₂, representing 3.1 tCO₂e/employee, up from 604 tonnes of CO₂ (2.8 tCO₂e/employee) in 2022, but down compared to pre-COVID levels of 924 tonnes of CO₂ (4.5 tCO₂e/employee) in 2019.

A breakdown by GHG emission scopes 1-3 is available in the GRI Report, items 305-1 to 305-5.

For more on the CEB’s emissions from own operations, see here.

Climate contribution

For the Bank’s greenhouse gas emissions from internal operations, e.g. travel, commuting, office heating and cooling, we participate in carbon offset programs to balance our emissions, partnering with innovative companies that support environmental improvement projects.