17,000 chocolate bars, 10,000 eggs, a tremendous amount of diapers, canned food, and cooking oil – these are just a few examples of the donations Coca-Cola’s regional representatives delivered last week across the country, using company cars. Since the beginning of May 2020, the Coca-Cola HBC Hungary has been helping the Hungarian Red Cross with its fleet and employees since the charitable organization is in a massive need of logistics support to deliver donations in time to the people most affected by the pandemic.

The partnership between the beverage company and the Hungarian Red Cross is becoming stronger by the day. At the beginning of April, Coca-Cola Hungary launched the “Ad to Aid” initiative, offering its advertising spaces and social media channels to the Hungarian Red Cross to help it reach as many people as possible with important public service messages about self-isolation, health protection, blood donation, and charity.

The company also provided financial support in April: The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company, donated 200,000 USD (approximately 65 million HUF) to the Hungarian Red Cross, which the Red Cross may use to support people who got in a difficult situation due to the pandemic. As might be expected, Coca-Cola has also donated beverages to the Red Cross: close to 9,000 bottles of water and soft drinks were delivered to the organization before the beginning of May to supply healthcare workers and people in need.

In addition to financial support and beverage donations, another phase of close collaboration started between the company and the charitable organization at the beginning of May. Five of the company’s regional representatives joined the Hungarian Red Cross with company cars to deliver donations from the organization’s regional warehouses to certain target groups: families in need, homeless shelters, mother’s shelters, and hospitals. An additional 16 regional representatives chose to volunteer for the Red Cross in their free time, using Coca-Cola’s equipment and resources.

“As Hungary’s leading beverage company, it was obvious for us to offer our products to the organization and people in need. By now, we have delivered donations worth around 14 million forints to 16 hospitals and 3 NGOs. We immediately realized when the outbreak started that providing water, juices, and other beverages we produce is an effective way to help,” said László Békefi, General Manager of Coca-Cola HBC Hungary. “The health and wellbeing of our employees is our highest priority, and one of our main goal is to ensure work for all of them in these difficult and challenging times. Closing the HoReCa outlets put us in an unusual situation, providing us with the opportunity to reallocate some of our regional managers to the Hungarian Red Cross’s logistics work, so they can use this time beneficially. Needless to say, Coca-Cola is providing them with the required equipment.”

The five regional representatives support the Hungarian Red Cross’s work in and around Budapest, Kaposvár, Mályi, Szeged, and Veszprém. They have various tasks: delivering cooked food to elder people, loading and delivering cooking oil, chocolate, and canned food to mothers’ and homeless shelters, and hospitals. Furthermore, they are taking disinfectants and textile masks to where there is a shortage of those.

“Our collaboration with Coca-Cola started 10 years ago. They have provided a supply of water, soft drink, and juice to all of our nationwide programs, and they have become our strategic partner during the years. The most beautiful event in the course of our collaboration was when they supplied water to our colleagues and volunteers who were working on the dams during the floods. Our partnership is based on three pillars right now: significant financial aid, the spreading of our messages via all of their communication channels, and logistics support. With the active involvement of Coca-Cola’s employees on every front of course. Their help means a lot, especially now, it is the most effective way they can support people in need!” said Diána Török, head of corporate relations and donation management at the Hungarian Red Cross.

As a result of much positive feedback, ALTEO Group has obtained and donated an additional 10,000 medical protective face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Part of the donation was again received by municipalities in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén counties: Tiszaújváros, Ózd, Kazincbarcika, Felsődobsza and Gibárt, where most of the company’s power plants are located and where the municipalities are in greatest need for help. The remaining masks were again donated to the Online Organization of General Practitioners, this time providing protective gear to doctors over the age of 65 returning to work.

From its establishment, the store chain is actively dedicated to environmental protection. Thanks to its sustainability strategy, plastic waste resulting from the operation of the company is decreasing which is further reduced with leaving the caps of certain own brand milks, the covers of sour cream and the polystyrene and plastic packaging of certain fruits and vegetables and changing the bottle of the own brand SPAR cooking oil. By the measure, more than 25 tonnes of less plastic waste is generated. The active environmentally conscious approach is also reflected in the paper usage of SPAR.

“In the interest of the sustainability of our environment worth living, besides material, technologies and workflows applied during its operation, SPAR encourages its customers to a more environmentally conscious behaviour. Our plastic-reduction strategy contributed with several steps over the years to that significantly less disposable plastic waste is produced. Eco-friendly packaging is becoming more important at all of the product types, this is what is happening now in case of certain own brand milk products and cooking oil and several fruits and vegetables. We pay similarly great attention to that we use recycled paper to our advertising flyers” – said Márk Maczelka, Head of Communication at SPAR.

A new important measure of the sustainability strategy of SPAR is leaving the plastic caps from the packaging of the own brand 1 litre S-Budget 1,5% and 2,8% UHT milks. The company reduces by this environmentally friendly measure the used plastic volume with more than 6.7 tonnes in terms of annual turnover. The environmental burdens can be alleviated with the very significant reduction, while the products continue to guarantee the usual quality, durability and taste.

From 1st March 2020, the company switched to not only in case of milk products, but also in case of the distribution without plastic cover of the 450-gram SPAR (12%) and S-Budget (20%) sour cream products. With this measure, the plastic volume is decreased further with almost 8 tonnes annually. The consumers can preserve the quality of the unfolded dairy products with the reusable silicone closing covers that can be purchased in the stores.

The store chain applies economical, alternative solutions not only in case of plastics, but also in case of the use of paper in its operation and in terms of information material and product packaging. It is rare in the domestic retail practice today that a business group produces its informative advertising leaflets mainly from recycled paper. SPAR can be considered to be a pioneer in this respect: 75% of its weekly flyers is made of recycled paper. The store chain prints its flyers onto eco-friendly paper. The used paper products have the Ecolabel certificate of the European Union (EU). The label is awarded on the basis of strict rules and criteria defined by product groups. According to the relevant regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council made on 25th November 2009, exclusively those products deserve the Ecolabel certificate which products concerning their entire life cycle burden only minimally the environment.

SPAR has already earlier reduced the quantity of plastic waste with the use of paper egg trays. The company prefers paper over plastic in connection with packaging for a long time. One of the alternative, eco-friendly packaging solutions is the application of recyclable pulp materials, for example in case of chicken egg trays, which materials are reusable, carbon-neutral and completely biodegradable. Based on sales data, SPAR calculates with significant amount of plastic load reduction by the use of recycled paper.

SPAR changes the previous plastic foam tray of the 4-piece tomato to paper boat tray. The store chain replaces even 235 kilograms of polystyrene in one year with this, and it offers already in the season of 2020 this product with the paper tray. The company also changes the packaging of the 3-piece sweet pepper and hot pepper. Knowing the last year’s numbers, the switch to the 100% degradable packaging means for the former product 660, while for the latter product 1015 kilograms of plastic saving.

The company reduces more and more the used plastic in case of other vegetables. The half a kilogram bio lemon is taken onto the shelves in environmentally friendly net packaging made of thread instead of net packaging made of plastic because of which almost 686 kilograms of less plastic is generated this year according to the plans.

Plastic material is also removed from the packaging of the 1-kilogram bio orange, thanks to which more than 152 kilograms of plastic saving develops in one year.

The company will save further significant amount that is 7.2 tonnes of plastic annually with that the 1-litre own brand SPAR cooking oil is filled into weight-reduced bottle that ensures the usual holding. The supplier reduced with this development together the size and weight of caps as well by using even less plastic during production that results based on the annual demand another significant plastic-saving.

During its activities, SPAR applies more environmentally conscious solutions and promotes them among its customers. The company offers reusable storage bags for fruits and vegetables in the stores from last year, and it contributes with further important steps to the reduction of the environmental burden such as replacing the plastic freezer bags to paper insulation bags or reducing the weight of PET bottles of certain own brand mineral waters.

In addition to the 2019 financial results, ALTEO’s second Integrated Report includes the company’s sustainability report as well. Thanks to persistent building of operations, ALTEO has become one of the defining players of the domestic energy sector in 2019.

The company continues to strengthen its position among so-called ESG companies who focus on sustainable mindset and keeps utilizing the business opportunities of the energy segment. (The abbreviation ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – refers in international practice to companies, investors and investment firms who place special emphasis on sustainability in their operations.)

The three-year investment cycle announced in 2016 has come to a close in 2019, during which the company realized in excess of HUF 20 billion investment and development volume, mainly focusing on renewable energy sources. The solar power investments in Monor, Nagykőrös and Balatonberény have been delivered, and with the purchase of the wind farm park in Bőny, an acquisition has also taken place. As a result, the power plant portfolio leaning on renewable energy has expanded to a total of 54 megawatts, which translates to over 50 percent of the entire power plant capacity of the company. The reconstruction of the hydroelectric plant in Gibárt was also launched in 2019.

The company has launched its Waste Management Division in the spirit of circular economy. In addition, reacting to the problem of energy storage, one of the greatest challenges of our time, ALTEO has – following a successful test operation in Zugló – unveiled its electrical energy storage facility with 6 MW capacity, one of the first in the CEE region and completed its integration into the company regulatory center.