Home A whopping 70 percent of Dutch companies leave the lights on at night in their empty buildings. Urgenda is calling on them to turn off the lights, following in the footsteps of people with big ideas seeking to make the world a better place. Who are these idealists? Find out by watching this video.

Urgenda's website describes our behaviour when it comes to energy consumption and light pollution. Rob Vermeij, responsible for sustainable operations at ABN AMRO, including energy consumption at our offices, tells more.

"Our lighting policy is one of the most visible ways in which we are reducing our carbon emissions. That's why we think Urgenda's campaign is a good way to show that wasting energy has no place in today's world," Rob says, explaining why we're participating.

We have been making our business operations more sustainable for quite some time - the transition to sustainability is even one of our bank's strategic goals. We're doing this together with our clients, and we always try to set a good example, for example by making our office buildings more energy-efficient.

ABN AMRO wants to Paris-proof all its buildings by 2030, Rob continues. "Changing our lighting policy so that the lights only go on if people are present on a floor will help us get there. We're tackling this step-by-step and will gradually make sustainability improvements - installing smart technologies and LED lighting - as materials need to be replaced. Our approach is circular - we don't want to destroy any materials as long as they're in working order. So we're constantly balancing energy reduction and circularity. This is a gradual process, so unfortunately we don't have any specific figures on how much energy will be saved with a new lighting policy."

"One of the issues we're running up against is that security officers need to make the rounds through our buildings in the evening for fire safety and security reasons, and the sensors activate the lighting. This also applies to staff working overtime - the lights go on wherever they move throughout the building. We're still finding our way around this problem and exploring ways to improve things."

The full story about our initiatives is available on theUrgenda website.

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ABN Amro Bank NV published this content on 25 March 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 29 March 2021 08:39:07 UTC.