Our newest member is VOLÁNBUSZ Zrt., founded in 1927 under the name MAVART, represented by Zoltán Pafféri, with HUF almost 84 billion sales revenue with 18066 employees for 2020. VOLÁNBUSZ Zrt. is a passenger bus company with a history of more than 90 years; it provides its services with more than 6,200 vehicles nationwide, making it the third largest state-owned company in Hungary in terms of the number of employees.

The basis of the company’s environmental responsibility is sustainable technology change. According to the company, the future of quality public transport is the application of sustainable, environmentally friendly technologies and, at the same time, the provision of a high-quality service, which is a real alternative to individual modes of transport powered by fossil fuels.

In the name of sustainable development, VOLÁNBUSZ Zrt. constantly strives to procure the most modern environmentally friendly and zero-emission buses. The company aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 113,000 tons per year by 2050. VOLÁNBUSZ Zrt. also considers it important to promote the development of green areas in workplace communities, therefore at the end of 2020 it announced an internal tender for the flowering of its bus stations. Greening was carried out at more than thirty bus stations as part of the tender, by employees.

VOLÁNBUSZ Zrt. does not only provide but also encourages selective waste collection at its sites. The shuttle bus plays a key role in domestic public transport, providing the basic supply of bus transport in the country. The company’s basic goal is to function as a professionally prepared, efficient and economical transport company that meets the needs of travel and customers which can open up new markets.

The basic goal of their membership is to cooperate with like-minded partners and professional organizations.

In 2021, the GreenDependent Institute, in cooperation with the Pécsimami Association, calculated the carbon footprint of 21 households around Pécs to demonstrate how lifestyle changes can reduce the carbon footprint of households. As part of the program, reduction options were discussed, than the participants planted native fruit trees at the closing event.

The main goal of the initiative, implemented with the support of Daikin Hungary, is for the participating households to understand the size of the carbon footprint associated with their daily lifestyles, and start exploring reduction opportunities, and during the programme receive support for developing a climate-conscious lifestyle.

The average carbon footprint per capita of the families is 2.74 t CO2 for 2020, which is a very encouraging result and supports the possibility to live on a smaller carbon footprint than a year’s footprint of an average of 6.2 t CO2e / capita. In the light of this, the target of 2-2.5 t CO2e / capita / year agreed for 2030 under the Paris Agreement does not appear to be unachievable if the reduction is maintained, further increased and this low-carbon footprint lifestyle is widely disseminated.

Beginning of November, after a short report on the carbon footprint calculation of the GreenDependent Institute, the 21 households participated in an event organized by PécsMami Association to plant native fruit trees together with representatives of Daikin Hungary. Through this symbolic tree-planting participants also indicated that we all have a responsibility of our lifestyles, part of which is to reduce our carbon footprint in order to limit global warming to the 1.5 ° C set in the Paris Agreement.

The PécsiMami Association provides families with news and pieces of information for their daily lives, living in Pécs and county Baranya.

The mission of the GreenDependent Institute is to research, develop and disseminate sustainable lifestyles, methods and consumption patterns. One of its most important target groups is citizens. Lately the calculation of carbon footprints, offsetting possibilities including  tree plantings has gained more ground.

Daikin is committed to sustainable development. The company makes great efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its operations, at the same time offers HVAC-R products and solutions for partners to reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions. That is the main reason for Daikin to support awareness-raising programs that also draws attention to the importance of our individual decisions to protect our environment

GreenDependent and Daikin are proud of the cooperation, especially of the Pécs community and their contribution. The families participated in the project are setting a good example for other communities and families as well.

Fotók: ©PécsiMami, ©GreenDependent

Today in Hungary the rate of cardiovascular diseases is extremely high and diabetes also becoming more common. Many people are overweight or obese – and the problems begin in childhood. Nestlé Hungária’s dietary intake study conducted earlier this year on the dietary habits of Hungarian children found that children aged 4 to 10 eat less than the recommended amount of vegetables, fruit, dairy products and whole grains, while consuming more fat and salt than necessary. These poor dietary patterns, often adopted from parents, can contribute to the development of the above-mentioned diseases with age.

As one of Hungary’s leading food companies, Nestlé Hungária is committed to working with industry and health organizations to improve dietary and lifestyle habits of the Hungarian population, with a particular focus on children.

But what exactly is Nestlé doing?

We reformulate and analyse all our products with the help of a nutritional profiling system, which is a science driven way to make our products more nutritious. Our aim is to help consumers meet national and international nutritional recommendations for salt, added sugar and saturated fat intake.

 To give a concrete example, we have reduced the sugar content in many of our products in recent years; for example, in the case of SMARTIES hollow chocolates, the reduction in 2019 was 8%.

When developing our products, we also pay attention to our adult consumers, which is why we have made significant changes to our product portfolio since 2017. Over that period, we have reduced the sodium content of our products portfolio by 3.5%, which is equivalent to the removal of 13 tonnes of salt. In Hungary, we used 181.7 tonnes less added sugar, which also corresponds to a reduction of 3.5% for the entire portfolio and for this period. Since 2017 our products have been 100% compliant with the dietary recommendations for saturated fatty acids.

The cause of behind the increase of special dietary and consumer needs is partly due to the negative effects of civilisation and partly to the rise in environmental awareness, to which we respond with targeted product development. We produce more and more dairy and gluten-free products, but our range also includes organic and plant-based examples, as well as products with higher fiber content. Our over 50 years of protein research has also resulted in a growing range of foods for special medical purposes.

Besides scientific developments, we also pay attention to providing information and education

Beyond the compulsory regulations, at Nestlé we provide detailed nutrition information panels, portion- and balanced eating guidance on relevant packs, to help our consumers in making healthier choices.

Our educational initiatives, a considerable part of which concerns children, are also an integral part of providing information. They have been implemented since 2018 as part of our global Nestlé for Healthier Kids program, launched at that time, to empower parents, caregivers, and teachers to foster healthy behaviours in children. Starting in 2015, in cooperation with the Hungarian Dietetic Association, we ran the GYERE® program for 5 years, involving more than 5,200 Hungarian children under 18, along with their caregivers and teachers.

This year we have launched two new educational programs for primary school children. Our educational program called Smart Snack uses smart cards to educate children about balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. Through the program implemented in the form of after-school activities, we seek to address as many school-age children as possible in the coming years. Our second program, Feed Your Mind, is a playful way for children to learn about healthy and sustainable lifestyle through online and offline activities.

Within the „Start Healthy, Stay Healthy” program we educate Hungarian paediatricians and midwives about the importance of the first 1000 days of life, furthermore we have created a knowledge base of nearly 300 articles for pregnant moms on the Nestlé Baby&me platform. The latter goes beyond infant feeding to provide a full range of support for pregnant women and parents.

At Nestlé we unlock the power of food to enhance quality of life for everyone, today and for generations to come.  We believe food does not only have to deliver great taste and high quality, but it must have a favourable composition and nutritional value, which sets a definite direction for our product development.

Following previous traditions, Folprint Zöldnyomda (Green Printing House) has once again calculated its carbon footprint.  This time the carbon emissions for 2020 have been determined.  This year again, the calculations were carried out by Denkstadt experts. The good news is that we have managed to reduce our carbon footprint to 121.64 Tons CO2 Eq compared to previous years.

As a matter of course, this year we will also offset our total emissions in order to continue providing audited carbon neutral printing services to our customers, therefore, we support a Gold Standard rated biomass project.