Blog: Our Power. Our Planet. Your ATMs.

This distant perspective is a powerful reminder of our planet’s fragility and of our shared responsibility to protect the only home we have. For Diebold Nixdorf, Earth Day is every day.

For us, this responsibility takes shape through concrete actions aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of the self‑service banking channel. From improving energy efficiency to designing more sustainable products and reducing CIT‑related emissions, we believe the ATM ecosystem can play a meaningful role in advancing a more sustainable financial industry.

Here’s how financial institutions can take meaningful steps toward a better ATM ecosystem for the planet — and how Diebold Nixdorf is helping lead the way.

Reduce Power Consumption
Energy consumption is one of the levers for banks to act on — and often one of the most overlooked. Here are five effective ways to reduce it. 

• Upgrade to energy-efficient ATMs: Replace older, less efficient ATMs with newer ones that are designed to be more energy-efficient.
• Implement power management software: Configure ATMs to enter sleep mode during idle periods and remotely power them down during low usage hours, such as when branches or retail locations are closed, to significantly reduce energy consumption.
• Implement remote monitoring and maintenance: Leverage remote monitoring tools to track ATM energy consumption and uncover efficiency opportunities. For instance, monitoring temperature and humidity in ATM rooms enables better optimization of heating and cooling systems, reducing unnecessary energy use.
• Reduce lighting with high energy consumption: Switch to energy-efficient LED lighting around ATMs and use motion sensors to turn off lights when no one is present.
• Use renewable energy sources: Power ATMs with renewable energy, such as solar or wind, to reduce carbon footprints and promote sustainable energy use.

Reduce CO2 emissions
Cash-in-transit (CIT) operations generate a significant share of CO₂ emissions because each transport run requires fuel, logistics and physical handling.

• Optimize ATM cassette configurations to match withdrawal volumes and usage trends to considerably reduce CIT visits. Specifically, adapt the denomination types: If an ATM has high withdrawal volumes, offer higher value notes to reduce the number of notes dispensed per transaction. In many cases, a full All-In cassette is the reason for a CIT visit, so extend the deposit capacity to help avoid this.
• Enabling cash recycling to reduce CIT visits. Allow customers to refill ATM cassettes and cut CIT visits significantly, depending on the relationship between deposits and withdrawals. In some cases, this reduces CIT visits by up to 75%.

Choose sustainable ATMs
What makes one ATM more sustainable than another? We mentioned LED technology and power management capabilities before, but there are other factors to consider: 

• A smaller ATM can help you optimize your physical branch footprint – and in some cases function “as-the-branch.”
• Optimize service processes: IoT-enabled ATMs can give valuable information about their status and possible issues – even before they happen. When an on-site visit is necessary, it can be enriched with actionable data, leading to faster incident resolution and fewer on-site visits.
• A sustainable product lifecycle is also important, from the suppliers and materials used to product development, production processes and how products are treated at the end of life and – ideally – recycled.

At Diebold Nixdorf, these principles guide the design of our latest ATM generation, from material selection to modular engineering and recycling workflows.

Support Financial Inclusion
Apart from these ecological considerations, you can also take actions to promote social sustainability through financial inclusion.

• Address access and inclusion for people with different abilities. ATMs should be accessible to the widest possible range of users, despite varying requirements for reach, visibility, audio support and interaction. While regulations and standards establish a baseline, some devices can go further to include more users than required. Consider a bring your own device approach and implementation to help accommodate diverse accessibility needs.
• Strengthen your mix of physical and digital channels. Some customers feel more comfortable conducting their financial transactions via a physical channel than via a digital one.
• Educate consumers through outreach and access. This includes education and knowledge about available channels, access to and use financial services and support at the ATM if required, for example via video-on-demand.
• Ensure financial access in underbanked areas. Access to cash remains essential, but many remote or sparsely populated areas lack reliable availability. Financial institutions can access this gap by sharing branches, sharing ATM networks or creating mobile branches. Other options include mini-branches or ATMs that function “as-the-branch.”

Choose the Right Partner
The right partner should display a commitment to sustainability. At Diebold Nixdorf, we have been committed to improving sustainability for years, as reflected in our recent EcoVadis score. We achieved silver medal status, placing our company in the top 15% of more than 130,000 companies evaluated globally by EcoVadis – a leader in business sustainability assessment. 
 
How have we reached this score?

• We work to provide world-class service and innovation for our global banking and retail customers.
• Being a responsible corporate citizen remains at the core of everything we do.&
• Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) program continues to embody this commitment through three pillars: Environmental responsibility, social accountability, and governance excellence.
• Our hardware, software, and services are designed to advance ESG priorities, such as improving energy efficiency, supporting inclusive access and enabling sustainable operations across the financial sector.
• We continue making progress in reducing energy use and resource consumption, especially within our production processes. By prioritizing recycling, sustainable product design and operational efficiencies, we continue to reduce our carbon footprint while reinforcing everyday decision-making that supports a healthier planet.

Time to act!
Protecting our “pale blue dot” requires collective action — and the ATM channel offers real opportunities to make a difference. If you’d like to learn more about how Diebold Nixdorf can help you improve your self-service channel sustainability, download our Sustainability Guide, or let’s have a chat. 

When we stand together, there is much we can do for our little blue dot!

Originally featured in Global Business and Finance Review.