Following the inaugural conference from last year, the Central Bank of Hungary (MNB), in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is organizing the Central European Green Finance Conference also in 2020, as part of the outreach activity of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). The main goals of the event are to support financial institutions in the CEE region to incorporate environmental aspects into their business strategy and risk mangement, and in particular to help the scaling up the financing of investments needed for environmental sustainability.
The topics of this year’s conference will be quantification and management of climate and environmental risks, and financing a post-COVID green recovery.
https://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/MNB.png170450Takacs Ivetthttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngTakacs Ivett2020-09-21 11:25:202022-10-21 16:17:12Central-European Green Finance Conference on 12 October
Mapping and assessment of Aluminium-rich residues in the Eastern-South Eastern Europe Region
In the framework of EIT KIC Raw Materials RIS ALiCE (Aluminium-rich industrial residues for mineral binders in ERSEE region), Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd organising a free webinar for Aluminium-rich residue owners, potential end users, and stakeholders.
The project aims to launch a free online registry for Al rich residues in the Eastern-South-Eastern European region. The RIS ALiCE online registry will be introduced to the users and relevant stakeholders in a webinar on October 14, where experts and stakeholders will discuss the actual situation of waste utilization from circular economy point of view.
DATE: 2020.OCTOBER 14. 14:00-16:00
For further information and registration information, click here:
https://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Bay.png170450Takacs Ivetthttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngTakacs Ivett2020-09-21 11:08:412022-09-16 11:12:32Alice webinarium – Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research
Unilever took significant steps towards its pledge of net zero emission from its products by 2039. Magnum’s recycled plastic packaging and the elimination of fossil fuels in cleaning products both serve this goal.
Last year, Magnum became the first ice cream brand to use recycled polypropylene plastic rPP) in its packaging. This year, they will be rolling out over 7 million of the tubs across Europe. The advanced recycling technology that makes this possible transforms previously unrecyclable plastic waste into a valuable resource. The rPP waste can be re-processed infinitely, as the closed-loop recycling method preserves the quality of the material, thus reducing the need for virgin plastic. According to the plan, these new tubs will be available all across Europe by the end of 2020, while saving 160.000 kilos of virgin plastic. Moreover, by the end of 2025, every Magnum tub will be recycled and recyclable.
€1 billion Clean Future investment will drive a complete transition away from fossil fuel derived chemicals in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products by 2030, while also unlocking new ways of reducing their carbon footprint. This is a critical step towards Unilever’s pledge of net zero emissions from its products by 2039. The chemicals used in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products make up the greatest proportion of their carbon footprint (46%) across their life cycle. Unilever expects this initiative alone to reduce the carbon footprint of the product formulations by up to 20%. The Clean Future investment, which is additional to Unilever’s new €1 billion ‘Climate and Nature fund’, is focused on creating affordable cleaning and laundry products that deliver superior cleaning results with a significantly lower environmental impact.
The Carbon Rainbow
Central to Clean Future is Unilever’s ‘Carbon Rainbow’, a novel approach to diversify the carbon used in its product formulations. Non-renewable, fossil sources of carbon (identified in the Carbon Rainbow as black carbon) will be replaced using captured CO2 (purple carbon), plants and biological sources (green carbon), marine sources such as algae (blue carbon), and carbon recovered from waste materials (grey carbon). The sourcing of carbon under the Carbon Rainbow will be governed and informed by environmental impact assessments and work with Unilever’s industry-leading sustainable sourcing programmes to prevent unintended pressures on land-use.
https://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Unilever.png170450Takacs Ivetthttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngTakacs Ivett2020-09-21 09:55:202022-09-16 11:08:02Unilever to eliminate fossil fuels in cleaning products by 2030
While there is more and more talk about sustainable lifestyle or sustainable transport, many consumers still do not think about the ecological footprint of their own household. Following the success of last year’s How to Recycle? educational booklet, this year Nestlé in cooperation with SPAR Hungary, will launch a new sustainability publication with a title How to become an environmental conscious consumer?
The main topic of the new publication is sustainable lifestyle and the ecological footprint of our household. In addition to the basic rules of separate waste collection, readers can get tips on how to reduce their ecological footprint when shopping and how to reduce the amount of packaging and food waste generated in their households.
The new booklet will be published in almost 75,000 copies, and will be included in four national magazines (Lakáskultúra, Éva magazine, HVG Sustainability Supplement, HVG Psychology Extra) but will also be available online on nestle.hu and sparafenntarthatojovoert.hu.
The digital pillar of the campaign is also expanding with an educational interface: Nestlé and SPAR will launch the content on Hova dobjam? blog where readers will find advice on more sustainable lifestyles and recycling.
For a 360-degree communication, the two company also made an educational film that draws our consumer’s attention to the importance of food packaging.
https://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Nestle-1.png170450Takacs Ivetthttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngTakacs Ivett2020-09-18 16:39:172022-09-16 11:08:53How to Become an Environmental conscious consumer?
Energy is vital to our daily lives. Over the coming decades, more people will gain access to energy and enjoy higher standards of living. At the same time, climate change remains a serious concern. Human ingenuity, innovation and technology are drivers to unlock more, cleaner energy for the years ahead.
Energy lights, heats and cools homes and businesses. It transports and connects people and goods. It is used in industrial processes that create steel and cement for the world’s infrastructure.
Energy use goes hand-in-hand with economic activity. It enables opportunities for a growing population seeking to improve their quality of life. But society faces a dual challenge: how to make a transition to a low-carbon energy future to manage the risks of climate change, while also extending the benefits of energy to everyone on the planet. This is a challenge that requires changes in the way energy is produced, used and made accessible to more people while drastically cutting emissions. This transition is under way. It will move at different paces and produce different outcomes in different countries depending on local factors such as available natural resources and weather patterns, national policies that address climate change and local air quality, economic growth and which technologies and products companies and consumers choose. Unexpected events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may create additional challenges or provide opportunities to accelerate progress.
Fundamental changes need to happen across the global economy, especially in power, transport, buildings and industry – four major areas where energy is consumed and that produce significant energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Increasing use of renewable sources of energy is essential to reducing emissions. But they chiefly produce electricity, which today meets just under 20% of total energy for end use. For renewables to have a bigger impact, the use of electricity will need to be extended to a larger range of activities.
The move to using electricity generated by low-carbon and renewable sources will be relatively straightforward for some sectors of the economy, such as the manufacture of clothes and food. These require low-temperature processes and mechanical activities, which electricity is well suited to deliver.
Other sectors, such as industries that produce iron, steel, cement, plastic and chemicals and certain types of transport, currently rely on the unique ability of hydrocarbons like oil, natural gas and coal to provide extremely high temperatures, chemical reactions or dense energy storage. As of today, many of these cannot be electrified at all, or only at a prohibitively high cost.
The global energy transition, therefore, will span decades and require unprecedented collaboration between policymakers, leaders from business and non-governmental organisations, and consumers. To accelerate change, governments need to introduce long-term policies that reshape the main sectors of the economy, as well as enable the development of lower-carbon and renewable sources of energy supported by transformative technologies, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).
A significant contribution to the energy transition could be done right now via growing role of natural gas in transport, heating and lighting homes, and in power industries. Natural gas emits between 45% and 55% lower greenhouse gas emissions than coal when used to generate electricity, according to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), and less than one-tenth of the air pollutants.
It is expected, that energy companies producing gas will also at the same time continue to produce oil and its related products in a responsible way to meet the needs and demand of its customers, today and in the foreseeable future. Many parts of society are seeking to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. We as Shell have an ambition to keep in step with that action and it aims to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, or sooner, in step with society.
BIM, or Building Information Modeling, is the most significant innovation in the construction industry in the last fifty years that contributes to sustainable development more relentlessly than ever before.
How? Construction has an immense role in achieving at least five of the 17 global sustainability goals:
But how does it appear at the level of daily practice? Where is this kind of utilitarianism where without short-term interests in a tender can immediately erode long-term benefits of an investment?
Before joining BCSDH, we held a sort of self-examination – do we really meet the standards of the organization, are we really “worthy” to enter? Motivated as an office, we have been moving towards a sustainable direction for a long time. Therefore, we are now sitting on ergonomic chairs and sipping purified water under a lighting system controlled by Loxone, working on a supplier qualification system in a nearly paperless and plastic-free office environment. This is where we feel comfortable, the company’s culture is founded on respect for the environment and the people – and frankly, we do not mind working like that.
However, this is not the point.
We are working in an industry where these steps are not even the tip of the iceberg, but the sugar cube on top of that.
As an organization, we do not primarily get those bonus points for sustainability in the register because of our culture but with the buildings that we design as an engineering office. Why?
Virtual gold
There is a construction phenomenon that assumes that if we noticed an error sooner, it would cost less to correct it.
It indicates that if a problem was noticed on tracing paper, we would just crumple the paper, throw it in the trash and then redraw the concept in minutes. If the defect was discovered at the end of the Building Permit Drawings, it would result in a week of additional work for 20-30 architects, furthermore, a month of extra work at the end of the construction plan. And when problems arise at the construction site, the damages are far more brutal – prefabricated elements arriving in vain, the additional work and fees of engineers and workmen, the 2-3 weeks of delay, the penalty and the tension. And finally the moment, when recognizing that the problem is irreparable… nobody wants it.
(source: Pinterest)
We all know the phenomenon because that’s what construction is like, right? We have to calculate well in advance with the errors, for which at least 15-20% additional material and time must be arranged aside. Well, it is fine, that is how we plan; there is nothing else to do.
But there is. Plus, it’s truly spectacular.
With BIM methodology, we not only build the building in the virtual space but we “launch it”, which means that we simulate its operation. The building is analyzed through maintenance, ventilation, loaded and solar path while measuring all kinds of emissions under different conditions. With this method, we manage to respond to the errors not on the construction site, but half a year earlier instead. Converting a technical solution in virtual space is much more simple, hassle-free and affordable. A professional would fix the error in half a day which would otherwise take two months of work by 20-30 engineers and executors on the construction site.
We have been working with BIM methodology for three years, and our experiences are lining up with international studies. Therefore, we can fearlessly share the following rule of thumb. For a facility worth 10 billion HUF, the design fee is traditionally approximately five hundred million HUF; this is roughly double with BIM with a cost of almost 1 billion HUF. The difference is vast, but at the end of the day, surprisingly, we come out much cheaper. In fact, you don’t even have to wait for the end of the day.
In case of BIM, we don’t have to calculate with the 1-2 billion HUF of additional work resulting from those errors, the accompanying delays and tension – this section is simply omitted. We experienced it with two very similar projects; therefore, we had a foundation for comparison and the difference was shocking.
This means that extra design cost is regained 2-3 times already during construction within a year. In the methodology, we also simulate the planned systems and the operation of the entire facility, with which we can optimize the building’s energy consumption, material use and much more. It does not only mean that less has to be installed during construction but – and here comes the most crucial argument – the energy consumption will also be 10-15% less, which will practically return the total construction cost of the building within its lifespan of 25-30 years. Not to mention, the higher level of comfort that the building provides and the much higher value of the property.
Solar radiation average analysis at 9 AM and 3 PM: Radiation values vary between the bottom level and the top. (Source: Autodesk blog)
Examining the cost? The energy consumption of a building worth 10 billion HUF equals to a smaller part of the city, in which a 15% reduction can bring back the total construction cost. The ecological impact? There will be up to 50% less harmful emissions across the entire construction. The quality of life? The much safer construction process, the better quality of the built environment and the less stress are priceless.
It is the reason why in Western Europe and the Scandinavian region, in North America, in the Middle and the Far East, BIM methodology is already more thoroughly regulated, and it is a mandatory methodology for large investments in all its attributes.
In such a size, a project can save approximately 2-4 billion HUF in wasted energy, hidden costs, unnecessarily prefabricated materials, heat load, demolished building parts and garbage. Of course, it is not worth the investment for everyone. In scenarios of real estate buildings for sale, a real estate developer would follow a completely different business and development strategy than a factory owner, who will produce in that particular plant for the next 20 years.
The dice has been cast?
The added value of BIM towards sustainable development is brutal. As individuals, we prefer to build houses from straw and live in a passive house. Thinking as an organization, we do everything for the smallest ecological footprint and excellent quality of life of our employees. Nevertheless, as a responsible architectural office, with each project, we are aspired to economize with the amount of energy – that sometimes easily can equal to an entire district’s in Budapest. All three aspects are essential, but the latter is what is visibly shaping reality even for our children.
And this is no longer the level of sugar cubes, but the added value that can be interpreted globally.
The article is based on a conversation between Dr Attila Breznay, business strategist and coach, and Csaba Livják, the founder and managing owner of BuildEXT. Listen to the full podcast here.
https://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Buildext.png170450Takacs Ivetthttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngTakacs Ivett2020-09-18 14:56:472022-09-16 11:09:48Spot the iceberg under the Sugar cube
We welcome our newest member company, the Central Bank of Hungary, which was founded in 1924. The main activity of the company is the conducting of monetary policy, tasks related to money circulation and the supervision of financial organizations in Hungary, and is represented by the Minister of Finance. The bank has more than 1400 employees, and its number one leader is Dr. György Matolcsy.
The Central Bank – as an institution supporting financial stability and long term economic growth – has set a new strategic goal to facilitate Hungarian sustainable investments and their financing (be it bank- or capital market based), and to align all of these with policies and the opportunities of real economic actors. Their goal is to promote the development of banking and capital market products, that support the spread of climate-friendly energy, industrial, agricultural, water management and waste management technologies. For this purpose the Department of Sustainable Finance was established in 2019 to perform these tasks. In 2019, the Bank obtained the Green Office certification, while the environmental impact of its conferences is compensated by WWF Hungary‘s habitat restoration ecological investments. It is planning to achieve its operations’ total carbon neutrality with a similar solution.
The Central Bank’s Environmental Declaration has been publicly available since 2011, and its transparent operation is ensured by the audits of the Court of Auditors, annual reports and press conferences. Its Statute and Ethics Committee ensures ethical operation.
The second pillar of their Green Program include the cooperation with domestic and international organizations, thus they would like to support the implementation of domestic climate and sustainability efforts through their BCSDH membership. They believe BCSDH is an excellent platform to communicate and consult with domestic companies.
https://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/MNB.png170450adminhttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngadmin2020-09-08 10:36:062022-09-16 11:10:25Our newest member is the Central Bank of Hungary
Our new member company is BuildEXT Ltd., which was founded in 2008 with a core activity involving engineering activities and consulting. The founder of the organization is Csaba Livják, has doubled the number of employees and sales revenue of the company in recent years, thus in 2019 they achieved a sales revenue of more than half a million HUF.
BuildEXT is an organization that brings together the most advanced players in the Hungarian architectural market and provides architectural services for investments dealing with complex industrial facilities, office buildings and public institutions. The architectural methodology (BIM) they use is based on simulating and optimizing designing and construction processes using digital models. The construction and operational costs of buildings designed using the BIM methodology will be one third less, the implementation 20% faster and will have 50% less environmental impact over the entire life cycle of the facility, while providing a better quality of life and a safer working environment for the ones involved.
Their company has internal rules that clearly clarify the required organizational culture, responsibilities, and rules of office conduct. Regular workshops support the flow of fair organizational information, equality, and all employees get an opportunity frequently to speak out anonymously with also getting response. In their day-to-day operations, they pay special attention to maintain their activities with the lowest possible ecological footprint. They have minimized the number of cars in their fleet with combustion-engine, thus preferring clean and alternative transport instead, such as electric cars, electric scooters, public transport and bicycles, as well as Greengo service.
A professional blog was launched in order to inform the future generation of architects about the role of architecture in creating a sustainable future. By joining BCSDH, their goal is to promote the spread of the architectural approach in Hungary, according to which sustainable development is not only the key to our future, but also a natural path to our development.
https://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Buildext.png170450adminhttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngadmin2020-09-01 07:51:432022-09-16 11:11:07Our newest member is the BuildEXT Ltd.
