Budapest Airport, the operator of Liszt Ferenc International Airport, is launching an environmental protection program, entitled Greenairport Program, in order to reduce the environmental impact of the capital’s airport, an announcement issued today reveals.

The program is expected to be implemented with the help of organizations working at the airport, to improve the international recognition, innovativeness and operating efficiency of the airport, the announcement added.

Since the program was called, several partners have joined, including: Heinemann Duty Free, the Airport Directorate of the National Tax and Customs Authority, Lufthansa Technik Budapest and Hungarian taxi company Főtaxi.

Energy saving is a key feature of every installation made with Legrand products. Legrand as the worldwide professional of products and systems for electrical installations and information network, offers more and more solutions for the better usage of electricity and the cut down of energy consumption. As we can use Legrand products long term and they can be easily and quickly installed, they contribute to sustainable development.

Energy saving solutions at our home

As lighting gives 1/3 of our home’s electricity cost, this is key to have economical solutions to reduce our costs.

The most obvious and cheapest solution is to light with natural blaze but this is not always an optimum and consummative answer. To be efficient and make our costs lower we can change our lighting solutions.

The easiest way is not to leave our light on needlessly. We should switch off all the lights not only when we leave our home but even when we just leave a room for a short time.

The best way is to adopt our energy consumption to our everyday habits. Legrand helps us to solve this problem with partially or fully automated home systems.

Dimmers can make our life more comfortable by adopting the light level to our routine. By using motion and presence sensors we can spare ourselves from the manual switching as they automatically manage it. In a home controlled by intelligent home systems, we can set our lighting, temperature and energy saving according to our habits.

Our electricity cost can be reduced by almost 50% if we use Legrand motion sensors and dimmers. Beside cost saving we can make a comfortable atmosphere to ourselves and to our family.

Beside the easiness of the settings of the smart lighting control, the home system allows us to manage different functions at the same time. It can be warmer in the children’s room, a little bit cooler in the living room, very bright in the dining room, what is best for everybody.

Legrand went much more further to feel ourselves comfortable. With intelligent systems the combined and special needs can be achieved by only one touch of a button. Preset scenarios and timing for example dinners, relaxation or friendly chats can be started, by only pushing a single button. Of course, we can manage our lights from simple switches or from touch screens or even from our mobile phone. Thanks to the Legrand’s MyHOME intelligent system, we can achieve a 45% saving in our lighting costs.

To help our costumers in our catalogue we put a little green icon next to our energy efficient products. Our company strategy’s main point is to rise the supply of environment friendly product.

As a summary we can say that Legrand is committed in reducing energy wasting, and developing of energy efficiency and allow us to feel more comfortable.

Telenor Youth Forum invites young people to compete.

How can mobile technology provide equal opportunities for all? The global Telenor Youth Forum is seeking an answer to this question. The company has announced its international program for young people aged 18 to 27 with clear-cut ideas on how education and unlimited access to information can change the world.

This year again, the Telenor Group and the Nobel Peace Center joined forces to organize their Youth Forum, a global platform for young people keen to transform the world they live in – and our digital future. This year’s event is centred around the use of mobile technology to improve knowledge sharing and access to information. The forum will bring together young people from 13 countries in Europe and Asia who will meet and share their views and experience with each other in Oslo between 8 and 11 December 2015 when they will also have an opportunity to attend Nobel Peace Prize events.

“Digital communication opens new opportunities in education, and it plays a key role in learning, acquiring new skills and accelerating development. Digital natives can have interesting insights and suggestions for education and knowledge sharing. For this reason, we are encouraging them to participate in the Youth Forum competition, share their ideas and initiate change to make the digital future an opportunity for all”, said István Kutas, Communications Director of Telenor.

Hungarian applicants need to submit an English-language essay of up to 300 words on the topic “Knowledge for All” by 20 September. This year’s ideal candidates are passionate young people aged 18 to 27 with a can-do attitude, fresh thinking and good reasoning skills. They need to speak good English and have exciting insights about the future of education and knowledge sharing.

Hungarian candidates have to present their ideas to the local jury in September. Based on their presentations, 4 candidates will be shortlisted for the international finals. The names of the two winners travelling to the Telenor Youth Forum in Oslo will be announced in November.

Topics for the essays:

1. For millions of children around the world the right to education remains inaccessible. How should we seek to leverage the opportunities brought by the internet and digital solutions to provide them with access to education?
2. How can the internet help provide an opportunity for lifelong learning to as many people as possible?
3. How does one-click access to information influence the learning and education process?

Applicants can discuss these questions with each other and even the members of the Hungarian jury during a kick-off event of the Telenor Youth Forum.

Date: 9 September 2015, 5:30-8:00 pm

Venue: A Grund, H-1082 Budapest, Nagytemplom utca 30. (map)

Let’s talk about our digital future together!

Global cement conglomerate Holcim has just released its pioneering group-wide 2014 Integrated Profit & Loss (IPL) statement, produced using global KPMG’s True Value methodology. The IPL measures the triple bottom line by quantifying Holcim’s socio-economic and environmental impacts in financial terms. You can read Holcim’s complete report here.

The first fully electrically powered vehicle in Budapest Airport’s fleet, a Smart Electric Drive, has entered service. More modern, cleaner cars are appearing at the airport one after the other, as Budapest Airport aims to continuously reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. It will be possible to see the little electric Smart not only at the airport, but in Budapest as well.

The new Smart ED, or Electric Drive, has been bustling around on Budapest Airport’s internal road network for the past few days with a quiet murmur, following its commissioning. The little, fully electrically powered two-seater is the product of Budapest Airport’s efforts to continuously, gradually reduce its carbon dioxide emissions. According to current plans, there could be as many as 100 electric vehicles in operation at the airport by 2020, including not just passenger cars, but also special handling vehicles and heavy-duty machinery performing airport-specific tasks.

Based on the calculations of Budapest Airport’s environmental experts, the airport is an ideal environment for the operation of electric cars, as vehicles are required to move relatively short distances, which makes the operation of vehicles with internal combustion engines less efficient. Although electric vehicles do not emit any carbon dioxide, they are powered by electricity produced by power plants in Hungary. This means that an estimated 7.2 kg of CO₂ is generated for every 100 kilometers of use, but this is still considerably less than the emissions of a modern diesel engine, of around 18.7 kg CO₂ / 100 km.

“We are continuously collecting experiences of operating electric vehicles, to be able to determine the precise extent of the benefits in terms of maintenance, compared to traditional vehicles. The new Smart certainly became an overnight sensation at the airport, turning the heads of many passengers and staff as it moves along. We hope that within a few years, the sight of electric vehicles will be customary at Budapest Airport,” said Péter Huszka, chief operating officer for Budapest Airport.

Budapest Airport has launched a program in order to coordinate and encourage environmental developments amongst the nearly 200 partner companies operating at the airport, with the dissemination of electric mobility as one of its important elements. International experience shows that airports are well suited to the operation of electric vehicles, both in airside areas, during the ground handling of flights, as well as in public car parks, where charging stations and related services can be provided. More than 1000 vehicles are used for the handling of flights, the towing of hold baggage trolleys and by authority staff members, all within a circle with a radius of less than 10 km, in the airside areas, closed to public traffic. As a result of the program, partner companies operating at the airport have started indicating the need for charging stations for their newly purchased electric vehicles, and are testing the various special solutions offered by manufacturers.

Photos of Budapest Airport’s new Smart ED are available here: https://goo.gl/sPRxLX