ABSTRACT
Austria was the first country in the European Union whose banking industry was allowed to participate in the European Eco-management and Audit Scheme. Kommunalkredit is the investment bank for Austria's municipalities and handles all environmental support programmes of the Austrian Ministry of the Environment, especially those concerned with municipal water supply and waste-water treatment, remediation of contaminated sites, energy supply using renewable resources and cleaner production projects. The Raiffeisen banking group was originally formed from agricultural lending co-operatives and has very strong roots in natural resource-related industries. Osterreichische National bank banknote printing facilities were certified to ISO 14001 in December 1997. The daily banking operations, apart from the printing facility, have two significant environmental aspects, one being the energy consumption of the storehouse and computer areas' air-conditioning system, and the other being the scrapping of paper money, which requires special precautions to be taken.
