ALTEO has commissioned a solar farm in the outskirts of Tereske which started its trial operation in August. The facility, that was built with ALTEO’s own investment and construction in just three quarters of a year, has an output of nearly 20MWAC, doubling the solar power plant capacity of ALTEO, a company listed in the premium category of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE).

ALTEO’s new solar power plant will be capable of generating 31 GWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 10,000 households. The company acquired EDELYN SOLAR Ltd, which owned the project to develop the solar power plant, back in 2022. ALTEO completed the project in the village of Tereske in Nógrád County, in the space of nine months, with its own investment and construction exceeding EUR 17 million.

The importance of the investment is demonstrated by the fact that this development means a twofold increase of ALTEO’s own solar power plant portfolio which will significantly increase the performance of the company’s renewable energy generation business. Even more significant is the integration of the Tereske solar power plant into ALTEO’s Renewable Regulation Centre. This will enable the use of weather-dependent solar power in the provision of resilience services to the national electricity grid.

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) has published its 2023 Sustainability Report: for the second time this year, following last year, the BSE has prepared a voluntary report that provides a comprehensive picture of the company’s sustainability efforts. The publication also details the environmental, social and governance (ESG) achievements of the past year, underlining BSE’s commitment to sustainability.

The main objective of the Sustainability Report is to provide investors and the general public with information on the BSE’s activities in the field of sustainability. The report details the Exchange’s sustainability strategy for 2023-2025 and the initiatives it has taken during the year to implement this strategy. The BSE is implementing its strategy with a twofold objective: on the one hand, the company is striving to establish a high level of ESG principles in its own day-to-day operations, thereby also providing guidance to domestic capital market players, and on the other hand, it is seeking to provide support for issuing companies and the ecosystem around the stock exchange in the area of sustainability.

In order to facilitate a sustainable transition for market participants, In 2023 BSE continued the regulatory support, education programmes and market infrastructure development it launchedin the previous years, which are reported in detail in this report.

Over the past year, the Exchange has sought to provide its views on issues affecting capital markets as a speaker at a number of ESG conferences in the country and in the region, and to improve the skills of domestic listed companies through its sustainability education initiatives. By the end of the year, a dedicated platform on the BSE website was created to present the green issues of the exchange, providing a single point of access to all information on BSE green investment products. In additionthe activities and responsibilities of the Exchange’s Corporate Governance Committee have also been extended, and it now operates as the Sustainability and Corporate Governance Committee.

With its initiatives to reduce the volume of paper used in logistics and the stores, SPAR Hungary is saving more than 37 additional tonnes of paper per year. The company has also launched an internal communication campaign among its employees to raise awareness about cutting paper use.

“SPAR uses a large amount of paper every year in its food production plants, stores, the operation of logistics and the online shop. Reducing the amount of paper used is an important part of our company’s sustainability goals. In the recent years, we have implemented several successful programmes in this area: cleaning logs have been phased out in the shops and refrigerator control sheets are now available as digital data. As a result, 14 tonnes less paper was used in 2023. In the SPAR online shop, we use digital delivery notes, saving around 3 tonnes of paper each year. We have recently also launched new programmes for logistics and stores, which have reduced paper demand by more than 37 tonnes,” said Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.

In logistics, SPAR achieved a reduction of around 34.4 tonnes by streamlining the administration of goods receipt and reducing the number of outbound delivery notes. In the retail store network, the company has introduced electronic worksheets and digital service logs for SPAR supermarkets and INTERSPAR hypermarkets. From the last quarter of the previous year, the company converted a number of printed control documents to digital format. Also since last year, the annual HACCP-ISO training material is now only available to the staff in online format. In total, this has reduced the required volume of paper by around 3 tonnes.

SPAR also launched an internal communication campaign within the company. It used quizzes and useful tips to raise awareness of the importance of reducing paper waste, so that as little paper as possible ends up in the recycling bins and lost in desk drawers.

The study period, which began in 2023 and spans three full years, has its first-year results released by SolServices Ltd., the operator of Lumen Park Szolnok. Ecological experts assessed the area’s wildlife before the construction and after the first year of the solar park’s operation. According to the ecological monitoring results, both plant species diversity and bird species diversity have increased, with positive changes observed in the number of nesting and area-using species.

In the first year of operation, species richness has already increased in the surveyed area according to the latest results of the biodiversity survey

The study period, which began in 2023 and spans three full years, has its first-year results released by SolServices Ltd., the operator of Lumen Park Szolnok. Ecological experts assessed the area’s wildlife before the construction and after the first year of the solar park’s operation. According to the ecological monitoring results, both plant species diversity and bird species diversity have increased, with positive changes observed in the number of nesting and area-using species.

Lumen Park Szolnok is the first nature-friendly solar park not only in Hungary but also globally, implemented using the most modern sustainable methods, focusing on plant and animal-friendly approaches and the revitalization of soil depleted by decades of agricultural utilization. The ecological research, which provides insights over several years, has produced guiding results for environmental and sustainability authorities. The company has opened its professional database for academic research, resulting in the first scientific paper based on this data.

The results show that in 2023, the number of plant species increased significantly compared to the initial state, and the total coverage of regenerating vegetation is also substantial. The coverage of valuable species has increased, and the Shannon diversity index has also improved in the areas. The area, previously used for large-scale agriculture, now features a near-natural habitat, indicating the spontaneous formation of natural plant cover. Rare plants like the Sea Arrowgrass (Triglochin maritimum) and the protected Saltmarsh Buttercup (Ranunculus lateriflorus) have appeared. Despite the presence of higher naturalness species post-construction, to combat the significant coverage of agricultural weeds and invasive species, a special seed mix sown in 2023 promote further natural habitat formation, increasing species richness and diversity while naturally suppressing undesirable and invasive species.

figure1. Comparison of nesting species population data observed during the baseline survey and the 2023 survey (number of nesting pairs)

The bird diversity also increased post-construction compared to the baseline and control area surveys, partly due to the solar park’s function as a feeding ground compared to large-scale agricultural habitats. Certain species like the Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis) and Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra) have started nesting in fewer numbers, while others like the Eurasian Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) showed no population change. New nesting species such as the Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Crested Lark (Galerida cristata), and others have appeared in the solar park. The total bird population observed in 2023 included 23 species and 697 individuals, with new area-using species like the Bluethroat, Lesser Grey Shrike, and Tree Pipit, Common Linnet. The survey also highlighted that the nesting success of Eastern Imperial Eagle and Saker Falcon was not affected by the solar park’, while the occurrence of the Common Buzzard and Kestrel increased significantly.

Insect community studies show that the solar park significantly did not alter the area’s insect fauna composition, with major taxonomic groups’ dominance structures remaining similar. Polarotactic taxa individuals were evenly distributed inside and outside the solar park, their proportion in the total caught insect material was only 0.15%,  indicating that these insects are not attracted en masse to solar parks. Similar to 2020, the taxa caught in the largest numbers were flies (Diptera, 51.79%), hymenopterans (Hymenoptera, 22.54%), beetles (Coleoptera, 17.29%), and true bugs (Hemiptera, 5.98%). Overall, it can be concluded that the number of insects in the area has increased compared to the baseline condition.

Among renewable energy sources, solar energy is one of our most significant sustainable resources, making it increasingly important in domestic energy production. Additionally, solar parks can effectively protect wildlife and enhance biodiversity. Properly planned and minimally managed solar parks provide undisturbed habitats for plants and animals for two to three decades, promoting biological diversity. These areas are not used for agriculture, plowed, sown, or sprayed with various chemicals. As a result, the flora and fauna flourish and diversify over the years. The creation of nature-friendly, new-generation solar parks must follow well-established principles and practices. SolServices Ltd. has developed a detailed professional guide in collaboration with experts and organizations, enabling other solar park developers to establish nature-friendly solar parks. “It’s important to emphasize that we’ve achieved all this with a highly diverse team of different professional backgrounds and nationalities, always aiming for concrete solutions and actual implementation, staying a step ahead of the market,” added Dr. Gábor Farkas, CEO of SolServices Ltd., when presenting the first-year research results of the ecological survey.

DS Smith is present as a provider of sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services in more than thirty countries worldwide. The company plays a central role in the value chain across sectors including e-commerce, fast moving consumer goods, food and beverage, and industrials. DS Smith is committed to sustainability and transition to a circular economy. They launched their Now & Next Sustainability Strategy in 2020 by set ambitious near and long-term targets that confirmed their commitment to the Circular Economy and their Purpose of Redefining Packaging for a Changing World.

Their goal is to reach Net Zero GHG emissions by 2050. On the way to this, many objectives have been settled. Their goals to be achieved by 2025: measure and improve biodiversity in their forests and assess their dependencies on nature, launche biodiversity programmes in place at each of their paper mills, 100% paper mills and packaging sites to have water management plans, optimise fibre for individual supply chains in 100% of new packaging solutions, help their customers take 1 billion pieces of problem plastics off supermarket shelves, test up to 5 reuse pilots and continue to manufacture 100% recyclable or reusable packaging. Their objectives to be achieved by 2030: reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by 46% compared to 2019, 10% reduction in water-withdrawal intensity at paper mills at risk of water stress compared to 2019., optimise every fibre for every supply chain, send zero waste to landfill.  In addition their aim is for all their packaging to be recycled or reused.

They have a range of policies, including on social and governance issues. DS Smith operates as a safe, diverse and inclusive workplace and playing an active role in their communities. They set an aspiration of other protected characteristics and aim to to improve gender diversity towards 40% women in senior leadership by 2030. They aim is to engage 100% of their people on the circular economy by 2025 and by 2030 By 2030, engage ten million people on circular economy and circular lifestyles.

Their ESG ratings: the annual MSCI assessment since 2012 (Current rating AA); the annual EcoVadis assessment since 2014 (Current rating – Gold), Circulytics -Rated A-, the annual CDP submission since 2010 (Current rating: Climate Change A; Forests A-; Water Security A-), S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (DJSI) – Rated 73, LSE Green Economy mark – Awarded by the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) new green economy mark accreditation, AB Sedex members since 2014, the annual Sustainalytics ESG assessment (Current rating 12.9 ‘Low Risk’), Member of the UN Global Compact since 2013, the annual WWF Environmental Paper Company Index (EPCI) since 2015.

DS Smith has published a sustainability report since 2014 at a group level.

The company considers it is key wherever it operates, to do everything possible to achieve sustainability and transition to a circular economy, so it looks to BCSDH as a startegic partner. The council offers a valuable opportunity to cooperate and build relationships with several companies and experts sharing best practices and learning from each other.