Leading the change on World Environment Day 2026
A CEO conversation on why environmental responsibility belongs at the heart of the sector, and how lotteries can turn good intentions into measurable action.
To mark World Environment Day on 5 June 2026, the EL Environmental Initiative brought two lottery CEOs in for an important and meaningful conversation.
Featuring Romana Girandon, EL President and CEO, Loterija Slovenije and Edgars Lediņš, Chairman of the Management Board, Latvijas Loto, the discussion explored what environmental leadership means for the lottery sector, as well as practical insights on how sustainability commitments can be translated into action.
In its latest report, EL members contributed a record €29.4 billion to society, from funding sport, culture and education to the arts and community projects. European lotteries operate with a clear mission: to generate funding for society while upholiding the highest sector standards of consumer protection and responsible gaming. Together, these principles form the foundation of the positive societal impact created by European lotteries.
Moderated by Laura Da Silva of digitalRG, the supporting Partner of the EL Environmental Initiative, the key question of the conversation is:
With that much trust and reach, where else can lotteries lead?
Small steps, real influence
For EL President Romana Girandon, this is not a box to tick. Lotteries are not heavy polluters, she happily concedes, but she does not think that lets anyone off the hook. Climate change has stopped feeling abstract, and a sector that has spent decades building a reputation for responsibility cannot suddenly be choosy about what the word covers. What excites her more, though, is influence. Lotteries are trusted, visible, and in front of millions of people every single day.
”Lotteries in every country are trusted organisations with extremely high daily visibility and millions of interactions across Europe. This is giving us reach and influence that we should use to encourage broader awareness and change.”
That belief sits behind the EL Environmental Initiative. Launched in 2022 and entirely voluntary, it has now drawn in 38 EL members, more than half the membership. The asks are deliberately practical: use paper from certified sustainable sources, measure your greenhouse gas emissions, and set real targets to bring that footprint down.
Members are already showing what that looks like. The Belgian National Lottery simply made its tickets smaller. It sounds almost too modest to mention, yet the change cut paper use, lowered transport emissions and trimmed costs, all without players noticing any difference. The Croatian lottery took a different route, starting with energy efficiency and improving its data one step at a time rather than holding out for the perfect system. Girandon’s takeaway is a liberating one: you do not have to get everything right to get going.
”We don’t need perfect data to start moving forward. Once you start measuring seriously, you suddenly see your operation differently. You can see inefficiencies, and you can see where small decisions create real impact. ”
None of this, she is quick to add, comes at the expense of responsible gaming. If anything it pulls in the same direction, sharpening efficiency, building resilience and giving people something to be proud of. Employees want to know the place they work is genuinely doing something, not just talking about it.
Lessons from Latvia
Edgars Lediņš is not your typical chief executive. He has earned a biology master’s that sits alongside his degrees in economics and public management. When the office door closes, he heads out into nature to do bird research, which is how, he says, he keeps his head clear. That instinct shows up in the way he runs Latvijas Loto.
The company is a state-owned lottery of around 160 people in the centre of Riga, turning over roughly €106 million last year. Online sales now make up about 60% of the business, comfortably ahead of retail, and Lediņš is quietly pleased about the environmental dividend that brings: less paper, less driving, less waste. For him, none of this is new. Not wasting resources was the company’s habit long before he joined the initiative.
”In 30 years, we have never burned a single unsold lottery ticket. We are just not spending paper to throw it away. We started with the environment long before it was popular.”
Today every scratch card, coupon and roll of thermal paper is FSC-certified, a label Lediņš says Latvians recognise and respect after years of public debate about responsible forestry. By 2030 he wants the company to be climate neutral, and he talks about the milestone with real warmth, only half joking about throwing a party for the lottery CEOs who get there alongside him.
The serious work, though, is in the numbers. Using the digitalRG Carbon Measurement tool EL makes available to measure emissions in tonnes of CO2 equivalent, Latvijas Loto set a baseline and then went after it, cutting its scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 26% in a single year. First you understand where your impact really sits, then you reduce it.
”We always want to do something more, to be more responsible, to be better. So let’s do something for the environment… it’s a good way to be better. A good way to be good.”
From commitment to measurement to reduction
Different lotteries, same path: commit, measure, reduce, and only offset what is genuinely left over. To make that first step easy, EL has sponsored the digitalRG’s carbon measurement tool to all 70 of its members. Once a lottery can see where it stands, it can aim its effort where it counts, exactly as Belgium, Croatia and Latvia have done.
And there is a bigger prize. Both leaders are convinced this is how the sector proves that doing the right thing and running a strong business are the same conversation, not competing ones. Few organisations are as trusted or as visible as lotteries. That is precisely why they are so well placed to set an example others follow.
Wherever your lottery sits on this journey, Girandon and Lediņš land in the same place: do not wait for perfect. Start measuring, keep reducing, and keep moving, a little further every day.
GET INVOLVED
The strength of this sector has always been its willingness to share what works. Here is how to be part of it: Sign up and join the 38 members; join the monthly webinars, and; read the case studies behind the examples here.
