Business that creates opportunities, Economy of the future, Green balance and Everyone’s society – these were the categories in which Effekteam has awarded the different environmental and social investment programs of companies. Economic operators that are committed to change and invest their capital and resources into projects, products, services or businesses that have a positive and measurable effect, and create value for both the investors and the communities involved, can aspire to take home one of the Effekt 2030 awards. This year’s winners were awarded during the Közösség. Hatás. Jövő. (Community. Effekt. Future) conference.

Effekt 2030 – The award of community investments aims to present exemplary programs of companies and their innovative initiatives, and by awarding these, to contribute to sustainability and CSR initiatives of the business and startup sector and inspire company decision makers to increase their professional and personal engagement in these territories. The three categories of the award were developed in line with the UN’s SDGs – companies can now apply in the categories of Economy of the future, Green balance and Everyone’s society. The jury then selected 3 companies from each category, altogether 12 participating in the finals.

“While selecting from the projects, we have considered the aspects that are reflected in the slogan of our association as well: we have analyzed the mutuality, measurable results and innovative aspects of the projects on the dimensions of effect and future. We have selected those that have measurable, positive social and environmental impacts and are in line with the company’s business operations. The future belongs to sustainable business models, but this can only be reached with sector-wide cooperation and partnerships” -said dr. Klára Molnár, director of Effekteam.

The category Business that creates opportunities was won by Tesco-Global Supermarkets, for their program Food saving at Tesco. As part of the program, workers of over 170 supermarkets’ collect food that is still consumable, but no longer available for sale, to benefit the work of the Hungarian Food Bank Association, which then delivers these to those in need. So far, they have donated over 53 million portions of meals. Numil Ltd.’s Nutricia Home service, which helps over 1500 patients in treatment and their relatives with providing eteral tube nutrition, was also on the shortlist, along with Liferay Hungary’s Employee Volunteer Program, during which the company has supported the work of InDaHouse Association that helps young people break from the circle of poverty.

In the category Economy of the future, Invitech ICT Services won the award. Their smart village program helps small municipalities with digital catch-up, thus contributing to the development of the education and healthcare sector, equal chances programs, the recovery of tourism and strengthening local businesses. The finals also included K&H Group’s Start it @K&H Incubator program, which supports startup businesses and UniCredit Hungary’s Lépj velünk! (Take a step with us!) social innovation program. The latter supports initiatives that reduce the economic vulnerability of disadvantaged groups in a sustainable way.

The category of Green balance, the jury has awarded E.ON. The company’s EnergiaKaland (Energy Adventure) program aims to help teachers in broadening children’s knowledge about energy and to develop a conscious approach to using it. The project, which was developed in alliance with the relevant governmental branches, provides learning material for teachers, pupils and students between the ages of 5 to 18. SPAR’s global program, entitled Together with consumers to protect the environment, which provides energy saving and environmentally friendly solutions, was also nominated for the finals, along with Procter&Gamble’s GoGreen initiative, which aimed to educate the company’s employees about environmental protection.

Coca‑Cola Hungary has won the category of Everyone’s society. The company’s #YouthEmpowered program helps disadvantaged young people, young parents and people living with disabilities by providing practical knowledge and motivation, in order to help them find their way on the labor market. The program’s free trainings have already involved over 6200 participants.

OTP Bank accessibility program and awareness-raising campaign was also recognized, for having equipped hundreds of their sites with „talking” ATMs and video-interpreters that help the blind and the hearing impaired with administration by offering support. Accenture Kft’s Skill2Succeed – Rajtad áll a jövőd (Your future depends on you) program, which helps disadvantaged children to cope with the challenges of everyday life, was also shortlisted.

The public vote’s winner was Tesco-Global Supermarkets, for their Food saving at Tesco program. The jury has also donated a special prize this year to OTP Bank’s accessibility developments, and for their efforts to work together closely with professionals and NGOs while executing these.

Members of the jury were: Réka Matolay, teacher of Budapest Corvinus University, Bálint Nagy, director of Pénzcentrum.hu, Agrárszektor and HelloVidék, Éda Glória Pogány, sustainable business leader of Sygenta Eastern-Europe, Gyula Szabó, president of Ökoszolgálat Hungary and Alinda Veiszer, tv and radio editor, presenter and journalist.

Almost 2 tonnes of waste were collected by volunteers on the upper section of the River Tisza- Celebrating World Cleanup Day, employees of Coca‑Cola Hungary organised a volunteer day again. Shoes, bottles, PET bottles and many other kinds of garbage pollute the River Tisza, its floodplains and reed beds. Volunteers of Coca‑Cola Hungary and Plastic Cup collected more than 1.8 tonnes of waste on the Tisza section off the Kisköre Dam, within the framework of Zero Waste Tisza program, on last Friday. This was the second event of the program which was organised as part of World Cleanup Day and surpassed its debut in July when 1,5 tonnes of waste had been removed from the river. The initiative was joined by the Kayak Olympic Champion Ákos Verekckei.

The Tisza and the Tisza Lake have astonishing natural assets beloved by many Hungarian and foreign tourists as a holiday resort and fishing spot. However, a large amount of driftwood, organic material and communal waste are washed down here most of them originating from Ukraine and Romania. The Kisköre Dam is the first facility in the Hungarian section of the river which can stop the flood of waste thus protecting the lower sections.

This problem needs joint efforts to be tackled effectively. Water management authorities, civilian and industry players – the National Directorate General for Water Management, Plastic Cup and Coca‑Cola Hungary – announced jointly in the summer of 2019 that they were prepared to manage the challenge collectively. Plastic Cup has held waste collecting activities on the Upper Tisza for years, which the Coca‑Cola joined so that they could help manage the situation with a financial support of HUF 73 million provided by the global foundation of the company and its employees’ volunteer work. Therefore, the program Zero Waste Tisza was launched this summer aimed at providing a constant protection, waste collection and recycling – namely cleaning up the river in an increasing proportion.

In the first action in this summer, 70 volunteers of the company collected a total of 1.5 tonnes of waste assisted by Plastic Cup. This time, to join the second activity, almost 100 employees of Coca‑Cola Hungary showed up in the vicinity of Kisköre and Dinnyéshát on the 27^th of September. By this means, they supported the objectives of the World Cleanup Day which took place on 21^st of September.

Many of the volunteers got on canoes while others stayed on the dry land and collected litre from the surface of the water, reeds and floodplains, then they sorted out the waste so that suitable pieces of them could be recycled. “With this initiative, we want to disburden nature of a good load of waste and hand them over to circular economy” – one of the volunteers from Coca‑Cola said. His colleague added that they encountered with a large amount of waste of very different kinds. “We have found sneakers, slippers, bottles, even a shattered dustbin too. The amount of waste was extremely large”. Enthusiasm were just growing as the number of garbage bags and the cleaned territory in sight was increasing. “It is a very rewarding feeling to see the many hundreds of bags and to feel that me myself had a contribution to it” – another volunteer said.

The outcome of the second action surpassed that of the first one: this time 170 bags of waste corresponding to 1.8 tonnes had been removed from the Tisza. Among the waste collected communal waste, glasses, metals and objects made of PET could be found. Most of them had been sorted out based on their type at the spot. The two-time Olympic, six-time world champion Ákos Vereckei also participated in the event.

“I saw a film many years ago about Plastic Cup and it won me right away, because it matched both my love of nature and my feeling of comfort when being on the river which I inherited from my past as a sportsman”– he said. The Olympic champion turned to the organisers back then and became the chief patron of Plastic Cup in 2015, only to become a Master of PET in 2018.

“Besides my previous commitment now I joined the volunteer day of Zero Waste Tisza project because I would like to make the situation known to as many people as possible and encourage them and my own immediate community to act. It is important to educate the next generation about environmental consciousness. My children, when they joined Plastic Cup, were shocked to realize where it leads us if we remain so careless with littering. Once I heard a very appropriate sentence that I feel especially valid today: Think globally and act locally!”

We asked Balázs Zuggó, managing director of Daikin Hungary Kft.

Daikin is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of cooling, heating and ventilation solutions. We are not only equipment manufacturers, but also one of the few who also manufactures the heart of such equipment, the compressor, while maintaining a leading role in the research, development and manufacturing of refrigerants. Refrigeration, heating and commercial deep-freezing products contribute to a higher standard of living and economic growth, and they are of key importance in today’s society. However, the ensuing increase in electricity consumption and refrigerant emissions are a cause of concern for environmental considerations, in particular climate change.

At Daikin, we believe that a company can grow in a sustainable way only if it contributes to finding solutions for environmental problems. That is why we are working on the production and distribution of environmentally-friendly products that use energy efficient technology and refrigerants with lower global warming potential.

We have several factories that received the ‘Green Heart’ award, while in 2017 we managed to save 54 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in CO2 equivalent at the corporate level in the retail sales of air conditioners. This is due partly to inverter technology and partly to the transition to a refrigerant with lower global warming potential (GWP). The R-32 is a new generation refrigerant that has proven to be much better than its predecessors in aspects related to environmental protection: it is not classified as ozone depleting, yet it is energy efficient, easy to recycle, and its GWP value is one-third of those most commonly used for air conditioners.

In Japan Daikin launched the marketing of residential equipment using R-32 refrigerant in 2012. Daikin Industries Ltd. believes that this refrigerant appears to be the most promising solution to further reduce the ecological footprint of residential and commercial air conditioners and heat pumps. Therefore, in the third step, in June 2019, the company released additional patent rights to facilitate the further expansion and use of refrigerants with lower environmental impact. Patent rights were released in 2011. In that context, the company granted – unprecedented – access to close to 180 patents it has filed since 2011, related in principle to the safe use and application of R-32 refrigerant.

On the path of sustainability in Hungary

Within the local organisation several environmental initiatives were launched this year as well. For example, Daikin Hungary Kft. has established a brand new position in Hungary, which aims to strengthen the company’s environmental and climate conscious approach and action. We call this position ‘Environmental Advocacy’, and the new staff will be tasked, among other things, with regulatory issues relevant to sustainable development and climate protection, which affect our company. Our intention is that it will participate in, among other things, in the work of specific BCSDH teams which concern Daikin Hungary Kft. as well.

We switched to purified tap water, replacing the PET bottle in the office, and – which we were particularly excited about – in the wake of plastic-free July, many colleagues shared their ideas on how to use less plastic while in the office. Seeing this openness, our next actions include the implementation of a paperless office.

One of the components of the Hungarian organisation’s impact on the environment is transport. Building on the experience of the parent company, we are also open to e-mobility. We have made considerable progress in that, in addition to maintaining a low-emission fleet, the company’s car policy now include e-cars, and, on an experimental basis, we incorporated in our fleet an electric pool car. Apart from work-related uses, this car can be taken by any of our colleagues for a weekend for a private trip in an effort to involve as many people as possible to experience driving an electric car. In addition, we believe that the benefits of electromobility can be harvested most efficiently by incorporating sharing in our way of thinking. So when an employee who has a company car takes the pool car during the day, he deposits his own in the fleet, and if someone needs a car, he can take it.

Last but not least, we also need to focus on raising awareness, for in some cases we have to make compromises in order to do something for our environment.

The Seventh Generation belongs to Unilever since 2016 and has been committed to its mission from the start: “The decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future”. Therefore, it creates awareness-based products that not only keep our homes clean, but also contribute to the health of our environment and our consumers. As a pioneer in corporate responsibility, Seventh Generation is constantly looking for new ways to maintain the environment.

The brand believes that global warming is the biggest threat to our planet and to humanity, so it is joining the climate strike globally. In Hungary the strike was held on September 27^th by Fridays For Future Hungary. Brand representatives and Unilever staff marched from Adam Clark Square to Parliament to raise awareness of the alarming climate change. The message behind the strikes is to urge national governments and large corporations to align themselves with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C trajectory.