Climate change and increasingly frequent periods of drought are putting growing pressure on urban green spaces, while trees play a vital role in creating cooler, more liveable urban environments. The FŐKERT and BeEco Volunteer Watering Programme provides a community-based response to this challenge, with E.ON Hungária Group joining the initiative this year as its title sponsor and supporting it with its own awareness-raising campaign. Running from 1 July to 30 August, the initiative engaged local residents in caring for young urban trees: using the BeEco app, anyone could locate trees in need of watering and nearby water access points. Last year, the programme mobilised 1,500 volunteers, who watered 10,000 trees with more than 500,000 litres of water; this year, the initiative expanded beyond Budapest to include Pécs and Veszprém.

In addition, E.ON Hungária Group carries out tree-planting initiatives at its own sites and places particular emphasis on protecting trees, creating green corridors and choosing solutions that minimise disturbance to forested areas when developing its electricity networks. For example, the new transmission line currently under construction between Zirc and Litér is being built along the route of the existing 400 kV network rather than creating an entirely new corridor. Where tree removal cannot be avoided as part of network development, E.ON compensates through replacement afforestation: following network construction works in the Bakony region, for example, the company is planting a new contiguous forest near Lake Balaton.

The Hintalovon Foundation and SPAR Magyarország have launched a unique awareness-raising partnership aimed at providing practical support to parents through everyday shopping situations. The “Everyday situations, real answers” campaign is designed to help families turn the often-challenging moments experienced in shops into learning opportunities rather than sources of tension.

Shopping with children is rarely just about shopping. Queueing, decision-making situations or unexpected conflicts can all test parents’ patience. The year-long campaign offers clear, practical and immediately applicable guidance for these real-life situations. As part of the collaboration, experts from the Hintalovon Foundation will create educational content every month for SPAR Magyarország’s social media platforms. The topics specifically focus on situations that arise in stores: what parents can say instead of simply prohibiting something, how conflicts can be prevented, how children can be involved in shopping, or what parents can do when faced with a difficult situation at the checkout with a tired and frustrated child.

One of the campaign’s greatest strengths is that it addresses familiar, everyday situations experienced by families and offers professionally grounded yet easy-to-understand solutions. The aim is not merely to “manage” these situations, but to help parents and children learn from them together, encouraging a more conscious, child-centred approach in the long term.

“Our foundation’s mission is to make children’s wellbeing part of everyday life, and this partnership is exactly about achieving that. Shopping is a regularly recurring situation in which the relationship between parents and children can truly develop – it can become a source of tension, but it can also become a shared learning experience. We are delighted that SPAR Magyarország is a partner in this change of perspective and that we can share the Hintalovon Foundation’s professional expertise with families through such a widely accessible platform,” said Kinga Rohrböck, managing director of the Hintalovon Foundation.

“For our company, it is particularly important not only to support families through our products, but also through initiatives connected to everyday life situations. This collaboration demonstrates that a supermarket can also function as a learning environment, where experiences gained during shopping can contribute to children’s development and parents’ confidence,” said Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR.

Through this initiative, SPAR Magyarország goes beyond the traditional role of a retailer by actively contributing to making everyday shopping not merely a routine task, but a shared

experience through which families can develop and discover new ways of dealing with challenges. The collaboration also demonstrates that partnerships between the civil and business sectors can create genuine social impact. Over the coming months, the social media channels of SPAR Magyarország will feature numerous practical tips and inspiring pieces of content to help families handle shopping-related situations in a more conscious, calm and cooperative way.

About the Hintalovon Foundation

The Hintalovon Children’s Rights Foundation is dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of children living in Hungary.

Since 2016, the Foundation has been working to ensure that every child is well and feels safe. Its goal is to encourage greater attention to children in all areas of life and to help adults and institutions respond appropriately to children’s needs.

Its key activities include protecting children from abuse and violence, strengthening children’s online safety, and increasing awareness of children’s rights. Through the NEMECSEK Programme, the Foundation creates safer communities and supports the operation of the child protection alert system. The Hintalovon Academy strengthens responsible adults through training programmes and provides practical tools and examples. During its Children’s Rights Advice Days, the Foundation offers guidance to parents and professionals seeking support. Its professional materials make children’s rights more widely known and easier to understand. Each year, its Children’s Rights Report summarises the most important events, legislative changes and children’s rights issues that have shaped public discourse during the year. Through its Child Participation Programme, the Foundation incorporates the opinions and experiences of its child volunteers – known as Junior Colleagues – into as many aspects of its work as possible.

The Foundation is a member of major European child protection organisations and civil cooperation networks, and since 2020 it has represented ECPAT in Hungary – the world’s largest organisation dedicated to combating sexual exploitation of children.

The team consists of a diverse group of highly qualified professionals, as well as Junior Colleagues aged 13-17 and 70 volunteers.

For the first time, MBH Bank presented its “Journey to a Sustainable Future” Award (Fenntartható Jövő Útja), recognizing corporate and agri-food sector clients that have implemented exemplary sustainability initiatives. This year’s award winners included companies that have achieved outstanding results in sustainable hospitality, social responsibility, ESG-based corporate governance, and the circular economy.

The awarded projects clearly demonstrate that sustainability has become a key driver of competitive business operations, innovation, and long-term value creation. MBH Bank views the transition to a sustainable economy as a shared responsibility and, as a financial partner, aims to play an active role alongside its clients in promoting future-proof and responsible business solutions.