The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade invited the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary (BCSDH) to assist as a professional partner in conducting the business chapter of the Voluntary National Review.

The Business Council has conducted a survey among it’s member companies, and in addition, it has involved 8 partner organization to ensure the professional background of the review, which was finalised at a reconciliation forum.

The Hungarian review is available at the website of the UN:

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=30022&nr=622&menu=3170

The involved partner organizations of BCSDH:

British Chamber of Commerce in Hungary, Confederation of Hungarian Employers and Industrialists, French-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hungarian Donors Forum, Joint Venture Association, KÖVET Association for Sustainable Economies, Netherlands-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce in Budapest, Swisscham Hungary

To read the report click here.

The two-day “The GRI Standards” training is for organisation/individuals who either start reporting in line with GRI now, or have been using the previous guidelines but wish to have a comprehensive introduction to the new set of standards.

The course will give a detailed introduction to the new generation of GRI Standards and to Sustainability Reporting. Each training course is tailored to a local country/region, we use specific case studies and exercises to develop practical knowledge and competencies based on almost 20 years of reporting experience.

Sustainability reporting helps organizations to become more responsible, accountable and contribute effectively to sustainable development; to engage with stakeholders and build corporate reputation. But to prepare and publish a report needs more than data, wording and editing.

The course helps reporters understand the value of reporting and, crucially, how to use the GRI Standards for their sustainability reporting processes.

The training provides a general overview on the reporting process and areas:
• starting with definitions, global and local trends (also regulation, e.g. EU mandatory reporting)
• the reporting process (what is reporting, how to measure sustainability, GRI principles and indicators), also
• concrete reporting dilemmas (printed or online, which target group, how to communicate it effectively, how to prioritize issues, how to engage internally and externally, etc.).

Date: 13-14 th September 2018

Discount: – 10% discount for those companies which are members of BCSDH

More information about the training you can find here.

You can download the registration form from here.

More information and contact:
Mandy Fertetics: fertetics.mandy@alternate.hu +36-20-947-1884
Katalin Urbán: urban.katalin@alternate.hu; +36-20-932-9160

“The circular economy is the business model of the future” – said Jacqueline Cramer on April 25, 2018 at the BCSDH Business breakfast and Action 2020 Forum, which was focused on promoting sustainable lifestyles and, more specifically, the circular economy.

 Professor Jacqueline Cramer, circular economy ambassador of the district of Amsterdam and former Dutch Environment Minister, gave a great performance at the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary’s (BCSDH) Business Breakfast and Action 2020 Forum. The organization’s Business Breakfast – which involves a forum of 81 member companies that produce 30% of Hungary’s GDP – was followed by workshops with business leaders and experts that will help the business sector to take meaningful steps regarding the promotion of sustainable lifestyles.

 “The full implementation of the circular economy requires the appropriate scale. In this, regional or corporate communities are crucial. The inevitable first step is sharing knowledge and experiences and undertaking joint action which can accelerate the emergence of sustainable supply chains and thereby drive the expansion of the circular economy. By becoming part of such a community, we can take shared steps that we would never be able to manage on our own.” – explained Jacqueline Cramer.

According to some estimates, the circular economy has business potential of 4500 billion USD by 2030 globally.

“Transitioning to a circular economy is one of the greatest business opportunities nowadays. The core of the concept is not yet deeply acknowledged by most companies, although use of this model can increase the flexibility of the economy and facilitate the achievement of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. BCSDH is a corporate community that can help companies share knowledge and experiences, as well as contribute to working as a team in this area”- said Attila Chikán, President of the BCSDH in his introduction.

Hungary’s ecological footprint is 3.6 gha per person, although available bio-capacity is only 2.68 global hektar (gha) per capita – as with many other countries in the world, there is considerable over-consumption in Hungary too. A sustainable economy can only be based on sustainable consumption. The main objective of the Action 2020 Hungary program is to ensure sustainable consumption by fostering adequate levels of supply and demand that will result in a better quality of life, while taking ecological limits into account.

“The circular economy is just one of the areas that plays a major role in achieving the goals of the Action 2020 Sustainable Lifestyle, and probably it is also the biggest challenge today in Hungary. The other two priority areas are sustainable products and services, as well as consumer decisions. During the Forum we have tried to explore and identify existing business solutions that provide immediate-, short- and medium-term results”- said Valentin Póka, Country Manager of Coface, BCSDH’s Action 2020 Sustainable Lifestyle Working Group Leader.

The primary purpose of the Action2020 Forum was to launch and support effective teamwork and joined-up thinking in the business sector while creating a real impact. Fifty-seven companies have already joined the program.

The main sponsors of the Action 2020 Hungary program include Mastergood and Nestlé, while the highlighted sponsors are Alteo, McDonald’s, MOL and Unilever. Other sponsors include E.On, Essity, Folprint, HVG, KPMG and Rossmann.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) was held in snowy Davos on 23-26 January 2018, bringing together a unique mix of political, civil-society, academic, media and business leaders to discuss the state of the world. This year’s theme- ‘Creating a shared future in a fractured world’- drew a clear picture of increased prominence for collaboration, openness and system-wide action. Seven of the top 10 (impact and likelihood) risks in the WEF’s annual Global Risks Report are now related to sustainability challenges.

Emerging trends – system transformation, the future of jobs and circular economy

The words ‘system transformation’ were widely used in events and conversation at Davos to describe the way forward for business and society at large. The Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have by now become a key part of ‘Davospeak’ and there is widespread agreement that these frameworks require a fundamental transformation of the world’s major economic systems.

A second buzzword which was close to every conversation on sustainability was ‘the future of jobs’, linking the fourth-digital revolution to the impacts on employment and work. This is just as much a sustainability issue as climate change, particularly in a society where a growing group of people feel under-served by the system.

A third topic that continues to attract more interest is the circularity of our resource usage in the economy. At a CEO breakfast at the beginning of the forum, WBCSD launched our Factor10 project and a new report in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). While almost all business leaders believe that circular economy is important to a company’s future success, only half are engaged in circular economy activities. Factor10 aims to offer business the solutions and collaboration required to take advantage of circular economy opportunities.

Continued challenges – gender equality, lack of trust and economic disparity

Gender equality has become a focus across the globe. The time for action on issues such as equal representation of women in the workplace and equality of pay is now. The World Economic Forum set an example during this year’s event, hosting its first all-female panel of co-chairs.

On the topic of economic disparity, Oxfam highlighted further areas for system change by stating in their report that 82% of the wealth generated in 2017 was distributed to the richest 1%. Meanwhile, the poorer half of global citizens -3.7 billion people- saw no increase in their wealth at all. The consequences of this trend are demonstrably damaging and unsustainable in the long-term, and will only be accelerated by the challenges related to ‘future of jobs’ mentioned earlier.

We don’t have to wait for the next election or referendum to know how this inequality is being received by global communities- it is detailed in the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, which was – like every year – launched in Davos. In many countries, trust in government, media and business has continued to fall, with trust in the USA now placed in the lowest quarter of the global index. At the other end of the spectrum, technology remains the most trusted industry sector at 75%, followed by education, professional services and transportation. Credibility in CEOs rose seven points to 44%, with more than two thirds of respondents saying that they wanted to see leadership from CEOs on issues such as policy change.

Insights for 2018 – continued economic growth, a short window for action and a fractured political world

The 2018 World Economic Outlook, launched by the IMF at the forum, offered an optimistic picture. 2017 saw the strongest global economic growth in seven years, with the world economy predicted to grow by 3.9% in 2018 – higher than the 3.7% forecast back in October. India is predicted to be the world’s fastest growing economy in 2018 at 7.4%.

The Indian Prime Minister, Nerendra Modi, did not focus solely on economics during his opening keynote address, describing climate change as ‘the greatest threat to civilization’. Prime Minister Modi also named terrorism and the backlash against globalization as challenges facing our global civilizations. Risalat Khan, a young climate campaigner, gave a stark warning when he said that ‘global leaders have just three years to take action to achieve peak global emissions before they will have failed future generations’.

Among 340 political leaders, this year saw a record number of Heads of State make the journey to Davos. Almost every Head of State who spoke at the forum, including Prime Minister Theresa May, Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made an appeal for collaboration and openness. President Donald Trump, in his closing address added that ‘America first does not always mean America alone’.

WBCSD in Davos

I was proud to see WBCSD lead six events throughout the week in Davos, on issues ranging from food to finance and from zero-emission mobility to integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into corporate risk management systems. We have published a separate newsletter called Insider Perspective on our website, providing you with further details from these sessions.

For now, I wanted to share with you this high-level summary and some of the reports and projects launched in Davos. I look forward to working with each of you and your companies to ensure that business has a leading role to play in the system transformations that lie ahead.

Warm regards,

Peter Bakker
President & CEO, WBCSD