ECB Installs Insect Hotels and Bat Houses in Biodiversity Drive

(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is taking a literal approach to making the institution more environmentally friendly -- by installing beehives, insect hotels, and bird and bat houses at its Frankfurt headquarters.

While officials are still hashing out whether they can use monetary policy to help the fight against climate change, staff have pressed ahead with more immediate changes, outlined in the 2020 annual report on Wednesday.

The ECB has also adjusted irrigation patterns to reduce water consumption, and is striving to reduce residual waste despite the complications caused by hygiene requirements during the pandemic. It is in talks to “sustain the reduction in business travel” even after virus restrictions end.

It will report on its overall sustainability starting in 2022, “thus going beyond its environmental performance,” according to the report.

Policy makers are currently working on a broad strategy review that includes whether and how monetary tools such as their multi-trillion-euro bond purchases and bank-lending operations should be deployed in the climate-change battle. They are expected to finish in the second half of this year.

“The ECB is exploring all possible ways within its mandate in which it could contribute to limiting the potentially substantial economic and social consequences of climate change,” Lagarde said in a statement in the report.

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