This year, Legrand is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Hungary. We are looking back a bit at the past this year, but we are also heading towards the future.

Our company, Legrand Hungary, which grew up on the foundations of the former Kontavill, not only successfully integrated from a state-owned company into an international group of companies, but has also become an equal partner of the other subsidiaries, and we have even opened new doors.

The tremendous growth rates of recent years have justified us, and it also played a role in our success that, if necessary, besides our strengths we took on our weaknesses as well.

The world is constantly changing, always at a different pace. If we only look at the last three decades in Hungary, we can remember three situations rewriting everything, which fundamentally shaped the business and economic environment and presented our company with completely new challenges: regime change, the 2008 economic crisis and the Covid pandemic.

However, we believe that if a company was able to or is about to emerge stronger from all three, it is worth paying attention to what it does and how it does it. Legrand Hungary is exactly like this.In recent years, we have managed to blend tradition and innovation and stand in the race for both the graces of consumers and within the group.

We develop based on customer feedback, so we can turn dreams and needs into truly workable solutions.The most common topics in the media are innovations by global tech companies and startups. Anyone who listens to this will see that the future will belong to smart solutions, in our case to smart homes. However, this does not only mean that the devices we offer (switches, controllers, cameras, etc.) must be remotely controllable; we must pay attention to environmental awareness, energy savings and practicality, and to offer our customers user-friendly solutions at affordable prices and, of course, to preserve the Earth for future generations.E-mobility is playing an increasingly important role, with the spread of which various Green’UP ™ vehicle charging solutions have also appeared in Legrand’s offer. All premium chargers are equipped with Bluetooth communication by default, which provides the transfer of charging information and the ability to control charging through a mobile phone application, offering users a simple and fast solution.

In addition to switches and sockets, this is how Legrand Hungary can be present in almost every area of life with excellent solutions and products. Our slogan continues to be ‘Legrand, improving lives’, and we do that to make the lives of our customers and clients easier and better.

As part of its series of sustainability programmes for employees, MAVIR has made several short films having been made available to the general public. We have captured a variety of themes and special moments on our video sharing channel, drawing attention to the fragility of nature’s balance and, consequently, the importance of sustainable operation. Among the topics, we reported on the crane migration in Hortobágy, the Wild Goose Festival of Tata, while the footages shot at the veterinary station of the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden, our partner in the rescue and rehabilitation of birds, as well as our activities in the LIFE Danube Free Sky Project – installing bird diverter assemblies over the Danube with the help of drones and the study of bird mortality along transmission lines with a tracking dog – were also included.

Action for the protection of migrating birds with the help of drone technology and tracking dogs

After the ones at Gönyű, Győr, Ercsi and Szigetcsép, another section of the transmission line became bird-friendly: almost 600 bird diverters help the safe migration of birds at the Danube crossing in Százhalombatta. Work over the rivers requires a unique solution, for which we use drones, and, because of the complexity of the task, two drones perform the task parallely: one watching the transmission line and navigating the other that is picking up and installing the bird diverter assembly. This requires the coordinated and precise work of two pilots. In order to plan protection against collision, ornithologists also studied the mortality of birds under the transmission line sections to be found in the Fertő-Hanság and Danube-Ipoly National Parks with the help of tracking dogs. Activities of the LIFE Danube Free Sky Project, encompassing seven Danube countries (Austria, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia and Hungary), aim to make transmission lines over the rivers visible, with the next step of making the section of the just mentioned transmission line across the Little Danube visible for birds.

Red mud is a large-scale hazardous waste that, due to its metal content, is of great value, so its complex recovery is an increasingly urgent issue worldwide.

In the framework of the project  GINOP-2.2.1-15-2017-00106: „Extraction of rare earth elements and secondary raw materials production in the framework of the complex utilization of red mud” led by Martin Metals Ltd, through several years of work in our research institute, we have developed a laboratory-scale technology that has been able to extract and separate the most important (in terms of value) components with high efficiency.

The technology consists of easy-to-implement and scalable steps using accessible and inexpensive chemicals. We placed great emphasis on the recyclability of the chemicals we used, while also maximizing efficiency.

The recovered and separated components can be integrated into the production processes of different raw materials (Al-, Fe-, Ti-production) with little effort, and we obtained approximately one hundred times the enrichment of the most important micro-constituent (scandium) compared to the starting red mud.

Contact us: www.bayzoltan.hu

As we mentioned in our previous newsletter, EXPO 2020 will showcase outstanding examples of international collaboration and innovation through thematic weeks built around the themes of sustainability, mobility and opportunity. The event is the first world exhibition to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (the MEASA region): a global experience, a bridge to bring people, communities, companies and nations together; an inspiration, a challenge, a real solution to improve everyday life. But beyond all that, the World Expo is about innovation, collaboration and Dubai’s commitment to building a cleaner, more liveable and healthier future.

Continuing the October series, the Travel & Connectivity Week in January 2022 was organised by National Mobile Payment Plc. (NMP Plc.) activities to a targeted professional audience was further showcased at the EXPO “Hungarian Best Practices” event series, hosted in the Hungarian Pavilion. The aim of the presentations was to provide an insight into Hungarian best practices, such as the operation of the national mobile payment system, with a special focus on its relevance for national and regional sustainability.

During the presentations, business forums and professional discussions, NM Plc. staff contributed to the sharing of knowledge on regional and global innovative-technical initiatives, and participants had the opportunity to map working solutions and know-how, and to compare Hungarian working solutions with regional and global peer services.

The previous discussions at the regional level, in the framework of the V4 Smart Platform Project 2 (V4SP2), continued. The partners confirmed that the initiative is a good opportunity for the service sector as well, as they play an active role in the ecosystem of the emerging service model as part of the tourism sector, and are interested in creating interoperability of services and enhancing the customer experience.

A further conclusion is that there will be a need to maintain the professional dialogue of the V4SP2 community and to extend the communication of the project and the V4 region to the V4+ countries. For this reason, several V4+ countries have indicated their willingness to participate in further events of the project, and a thematic continuation of the project’s further events in 2022 is already being organised with the participation of these stakeholders.

The Buddy4All solution aims at fostering the wellbeing and active lifestyle of older adults. It motivates them to keep their mind and body trained via cognitive-physical exercises and supportive and fun cross-generational activities. Using a mobile app and novel mixed reality glasses, Buddy4All provides personal support via a multi-tiered buddy network. Buddy4All targets (a) cross-generational connection of older and younger adults, (b) cognitive-physical training, (c) a combination of virtual, professional and cross-generational support, all to preserve social inclusion, cognitive and physical fitness and personal wellbeing that leads to a healthy lifestyle. Buddy4All does not only target older adults but also younger adults who want to contribute to society and profit from the life experience of the older generation. They can not only give but also receive support and quality time.

Buddy4All provides cross-generational, virtual and professional support for both – older and younger adults – in a way that has never been available before. Further, mixed reality location-based games and cognitive-physical trainings are new to the AAL target group. Buddy4All will offer unique benefit to the primary end-users by providing effective support, exercises and cross-generational activities for mental and physical health in combination with all-time motivation and fun. Buddy4All will introduce three unique innovations: (1) a multi-tiered buddy network that focuses on cross-generational interaction, support, and experience exchange where both – younger adults and older adults – can profit from each other; (2) MR location-based games that can be played together with remote partners, where the younger adult is walking outside and the older adult can see on his mobile phone or tablet what the younger adult is seeing and help him solve different puzzles; (3) combined cognitive-physical trainings where proven brain trainings become more active and fun.