Regardless of size and industry, climate change poses a risk to all businesses- business leaders agreed on this statement at BCSDH’s CEO roundtable conversation in September 2016. Within the framework of the three-year-old Action2020 Hungary program, this year’s focal topic is Climate Change.
During the first week of September, CEO roundtable conversations took place on 3 different occasions with the participation of 34 CEOs from more than 10 industries. The aim of these conversations was to identify answers to the challenges posed by climate change, and to define the focal areas where BCSDH can formulate recommendations for the business sector. The roundtable conversations were hosted by three BCSDH members: Unilever, MagNet Bank and Henkel.
Participants agreed that companies, regardless of their size and industry, have an impact on climate change and should bear the business risks associated with it. However, the same businesses also all have the chance to create business opportunities from it by reducing risks or investing in adaptation and innovation (which are more difficult to achieve but may provide greater benefits).
During the business dinner on the 17th November, and in our annual publication, BCSDH will identify the climate change-related areas in which most companies can apply easily adoptable business solutions and define recommendation for the business sector which will have a real impact on these areas.
00adminhttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngadmin2016-09-20 17:03:312016-09-20 17:03:31Regardless of size and industry, climate change poses a risk to all businesses
Budapest Energy Summit will be organized on the 5-6th of December2016at Budapest, Hungary.
The Main Patron of the conference is Mr. János Áder, President of Hungary.
The conference is a newly launched, biennial exclusive forum of the top energy leaders and EU leaders, representing businesses, authorities, and international organizations from 18 countries. The aim of the summit is to share insights and perspectives of the sector and to discuss the key energy issues of the broadly defined region.
They will surely be there:
Some further speakers of the Summit are:
Marie-Theres Thiell (RWE); Alexander Alting von Geusau (ING); Kirill Komarov (Rosatom); Gergely Szabó (MET); Dan Byles (SmarterUK); Jan Springl (EP Energy); Andrew Walker (Cheniere).
All speakers are available on the continually updated website of the conference: www.budapestenergysummit.hu
Book your seat now!
The World Energy Outlook 2016 will be presented on the conference by the Chief Economist of IEA, László Varró.
Awards have been established to honor the outstanding achievements of energy executives and projects. You can nominate for „Energy Executive of the Year”, „Young Energy Executive of the Year”, „Woman Energy Executive of the Year”, „EnergyInnovation Project of the Year” and „ EnergyCSR project of the Year”. The winners will be selected by a professional, international jury. The awarding ceremony will be held on the gala dinner on the 5th of December (first day of the conference).
Details of the summit:
Date: 5-6th of December 2016
Venue: Hungary, Budapest, Hotel Marriott
Early bird tickets with 20% discount are available until September for 960 EUR!
Please note that the number of seats available are limited.
Is life on this planet getting better? When it comes to the progress of nations, how do you measure what matters most? There’s wealth, there’s health, there’s basic human freedoms. These criteria, and others, make regular appearances in a variety of international rankings, from the Better Life Index to the Sustainable Economic Development Assessment and the World Happiness Report.
But a new study takes a different approach. The Happy Planet Index, which has just published its 2016 edition, measures health and happiness not in isolation but against a crucial new gold standard for success: sustainability.
The formula goes something like this: take the well-being and longevity of a population, measure how equally both are distributed, then set the result against each country’s ecological footprint.
In this calculation, the most successful countries are those where people live long and happy lives at little cost to the environment.
So which countries are they?
They’re not the wealthy Western countries you’d expect to see, or even the progressive Nordic ones that normally bag the lifestyle laurels. Instead, a list of the top 10 (the index ranks 140 countries overall) shows that when it comes to people’s ability to live good lives within sustainable limits, Latin American and Asia Pacific countries are ahead of the crowd.
Green and pleasant land
There’s one country that stands out: Costa Rica, which tops the ranking for the third time. It is the happiest and most sustainable country on Earth, according to the Happy Planet Index.
So, what is it doing right?
A recent Gallup poll found the Central American nation to have the highest level of well-being in the world. It also has some of the longest-lived people: life expectancy there is 78.5 years – older than in the US. But what places the country time and again at the top of the index is that it delivers all this health and happiness while using a mere quarter of the resources that are typically used in the Western world.
How does it do that? Chiefly through a strong commitment to the environment: 99% of the country’s electricity supply is said to come from renewable sources, and the government has pledged to make the country carbon neutral by 2021. Other factors include robust investing in social programmes such as health and education, with public money that has been all the more plentiful since the abolition of the national army in 1949.
Wealthier Western countries tend to score highly when it comes to life expectancy and well-being, but the high environmental cost of their way of life sees their ratings plummet. The US, for instance, has one of the largest ecological footprints in the world. Of the Scandinavian nations, meanwhile, only Norway appears in the index’s top 20.
Source: www.weforum.org
00adminhttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngadmin2016-08-17 12:17:172016-08-17 12:17:17Which is the greenest, happiest country in the world?
Sustainability reporting helps organizations to become more responsible, accountable and contribute effectively to sustainable development; to engage with stakeholders and build corporate reputation. To prepare and publish a report needs more than data, wording and editing.
Date: 29-30. September 2016 + on-line exercise
Location: Hungary, Budapest (1133 Budapest, Váci út 92. Kinnarps House)
Language: English
Participation fee: 750 EURO + VAT (27%), which includes printed training material, coffee breaks, lunch, exam fee, licence fee, but does not include travelling, parking or accommodation fee.
Discounts:
550 EURO + VAT (27%) For NGOs, teachers, students, SMEs (<50 employees) and for companies that delegate more participants than 1 person
10% Early bird discount if registering until 5th September
10% for companies who are members of our partner organizations e.g. BCSDH member (full partner list available on sd-reporting-training.webnode.hu)
Capturing key topics and developments, the 16-hour training provides a holistic overview of sustainability reporting, from G4 requirements and developments to practical information and conclusions.
The training provides a general overview on the reporting process and areas:
starting with basic definitions (what is sustainability),
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 etc.).
Former training participants evaluated the training as practical, professional, creative and open minded event, which gave them every day help although to prepare their first report or develop already existing reporting practices.
Sustainability reporting is a continually evolving practice that interacts with local and global developments. Thousands of organizations worldwide produce sustainability reports, and more and more develop their reporting process to gain benefits. Assurance and integrated reports are among key challenges on a global level, stakeholder engagement, materiality and successful publishing and dissemination on national levels.
Reporting is an internal learning process contributing the sustainable and organizational development, and a communication tool to build and strengthen reputation and stakeholder relationships. The relationship between data, an organization’s sustainability, performance and its ability to communicate material information to stakeholders is among key challenges – and this training will give useful insights and day to day recommendations to tackle them.
Under the banner of the Natural Capital Coalition, around 240 cross sectoral leaders gathered in London to launch the Natural Capital Protocol – the first ever standardized framework for business to measure and value its impacts and dependencies on natural capital. This is a huge leap forward.
All businesses now have access to cutting edge information that will improve decision-making with respect to nature, and allow evidence-based conversations about sustainability.
WBCSD is proud to have led development of the Protocol on behalf of the Natural Capital Coalition, through a consortium of nearly 30 businesses, service providers, NGOs, academics and individual experts to work towards this key sustainability milestone.
As business navigates an economy increasingly defined by the boundaries of our planet, it’s critical for us to begin seriously considering natural capital in every-day business decision-making, so that we truly can do more with less. The companies who do this will be better positioned to succeed as regulations change and natural resources diminish.
A smart business person will make efforts to live off the interest earned by corporate capital reserves, rather than devouring foundational capital – the time has come to do the same for nature. The Natural Capital Protocol does just that: it opens the pathway for us to treat our relationship with nature with the same careful consideration that we treat our finances.
Business leaders at the highest level now have the opportunity to truly improve their relationship with nature in a way that’s useful, reliable and accessible. Read more here.
00adminhttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngadmin2016-07-19 16:39:392016-07-19 16:39:39Every business depends on nature for success
World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual focal point for the globe’s water issues. It is organized by SIWI. This year, the theme is Water for Sustainable Growth. It is also the 20th jubilee of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. In 2015, over 3,000 individuals and close to 300 convening organizations from 130 countries participated in the Week.
Experts, practitioners, decision-makers, business innovators and young professionals from a range of sectors and countries come to Stockholm to network, exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing water-related challenges of today. We believe water is key to our future prosperity, and that together, we can achieve a water wise world.
00adminhttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngadmin2016-06-20 13:55:232016-06-20 13:55:23World Water Week in Stockholm, 28 August – 2 September, 2016
Let us draw your attention to the 2016 Call for Proposal of the European Union’s LIFE Programme published recently on the European Commission’s LIFE website (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/).
LIFE is the EU’s financial instrument supporting environmental, nature conservation and climate action projects. The Programme contributes approximately €63,6 million to the Climate Action Subprogramme in 2016 in all EU member states.
– Amount of LIFE contribution available: the average grant for project varies between EUR 500,000 and 3,500,000; the maximum rate of LIFE contribution is 60% of the total budget of the project;
– In kind contribution: minimum 40%;
– Submission and evaluation of LIFE proposals are independent from the Hungarian Government, however at the Ministry of National Development and the Ministry of Agriculture there are appointed government officials supporting LIFE project generation (contacts available in the files attached);
– Mode of submission: to the European Commission (EASME) via e-Proposal;
After months-long preparations, the professional program for graduates from the first and second year of Business Council Hungary (BCSDH) Future Leaders Talent Program was hosted by Dreher Breweries Ltd. on the 25th May 2016.
The company’s Managing Director, Robert Cooper opened the day with his short welcome speech, then he answered participants’ questions about the achievements of Dreher Breweries Ltd. in the realm of sustainability and the expected climate change impacts on the company.
During factory visit, participants could experience personally, how the company manages its waste responsibly; which results in 97% by-product and waste recycling.
Following this, Irén Márta, Managing Director of BCSDH talked about the most important global events on sustainability, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced in Autumn 2015, and the prospective economic impacts of the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21).
In relation to the Alumni, Judit László, Business Development Manager at Coface, introduced her preliminary research founding followed by discussions on the Alumni’s prospective operational framework. Professional discussions were continued during beer-tasting, while one of the most inspiring questions was raised by Dr. Krisztina Szegedi, Chairperson of the Ethics Council at MOL Group: „What effect can this training have on the successful operation of some firms?”
BCSDH has initiated the establishment of the Alumni in order to form and provide a professional platform for leaders with knowledge on sustainability and its wide-range impacts on businesses. To put this Alumni forum into effect, an organisers team was form from previous Future Leaders Talent Program participants, including: Krisztina Elischer, Business Manager at Nestlé Hungária; Judit László Business Development Manager at Coface Hungary Credit Management Services; Judit Jakab, PR coordinator at Coca-Cola HBC Hungary Ltd. and Dr. Nóra Szauder, Legal Counsel at Coca-Cola HBC Hungary Ltd.. Furthermore, Zita Szederkényi, Senior Corporate Affairs Specialist at Dreher Breweries Ltd. took an important role in organising the first Alumni event, and Enikő Fábiánfy, Office Manager at BCSDH was in charge of coordinating the event.
Last but not least, it is important to acknowledge and highlight that ING Bank was the first sponsor of the Alumni.
The next professional program will be taken place at the beginning of October and the host will be HVG.
“This is less than 10 years so we need to invest today.” – pointed out Martin Powell at the Action 2020 Hungary Forum held by BCSDH May 11, 2016.
Martin Powell, Global Head of Urban Development Siemens and previously the Mayoral Advisor on the Environment for the current Mayor of London, held a sensational introductory speech at the Action 2020 Forum of the Business Council for Sustainable Development Hungary (BCSDH). Siemens, a leading company in sustainability, hosted the event at which company leaders and professionals participated in lectures and workshops which were designed to initiate real steps down the path of creating a low-carbon-emission economy.
“Cities are unique and they all behave very differently. We have to design our infrastructure to address this uniqueness” – explained Martin Powell, adding that “Cities have a responsibility to the life and the dreams of its citizens. We must innovate to decouple growth from environmental impact to protect all people looking to build their life in the city.”
Cities must find their own intelligent approaches and solutions in a digital world. “The Smart City is the place that uses technology to manage resources more efficiently for the benefit of the citizen and society at large. The Digital City will harmonize the flow of water, energy, transport and people, maximizing choice and minimizing disruption. It will pave the way for a safer, more affordable and low carbon future.” – pointed out Martin Powell, highlighting that the Digital City should not increase unemployment, but – according to some calculations – may create ten new jobs for each one that is lost.
Another inspiring speech at the Action 2020 Hungary Forum was held by Dr. Gábor Bartus, Secretary General of the National Council for Sustainable Development, who set out a 10-point list of the current status and trends in the low-carbon-emission economy in relation to the macro environment, explaining that business solutions should be developed within this frame. Dr. Bartus pointed out that it is no longer a question whether we are following this path or not, as we are already on it, but there are numerous challenges to be faced. The consumption of natural capital is rapidly increasing and is forecasted to reach an additional 30% by 2030. “As the changes needed are beyond political cycles, the business and civil world may be the driving force of sustainability, where the most innovative solutions may be born.” – he added.
Following the historically important Paris Climate Agreement in December, climate change is again the focal point of the Action 2020 Hungary program.
“New solutions, models and at times radical changes are needed in order to meet climate change goals. The role of the business sector cannot be disputed, and increasing its positive impact is our common responsibility.” – stated Attila Chikán Jr., President of the BCSDH, raising attention to the role of the business sector. The main aim of the Action 2020 Hungary Forum is exactly this: to initiate a collaborative approach and joint effort from the business sector in order to make a real difference. Over 50 companies have already joined the program.
00eszter.chikankovacshttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngeszter.chikankovacs2016-05-20 12:14:072016-05-20 12:14:07“By 2025 most cities will have committed to over 50% CO2 reduction.”
The Netherlands is a pioneer in the world of circular economy. The country even intends to become a circular hotspot in the whole European region. In cooperation with four partner organisations, the Royal Netherlands Embassy organises a one day conference about circular economy. The aim of this one day event is to present innovative Dutch ways for developing a circular approach in waste management, product development, production, consumption, and regional cooperation for Hungarian companies, local governments and decision-makers.
The official language of the conference is Hungarian, with simultaneous English translation. The detailed programme will follow soon.
Are you interested? Please, save the date in your calendar and register at the following link http://date.dutcham.hu/event/circular-economy-26-may-2016. The participation fee is HUF 12.000, while for members of partner organisations is only HUF 6.000.
00adminhttps://bcsdh.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bcsdh-logo.pngadmin2016-05-04 15:45:062016-05-04 15:45:06Toward a Circular Economy – From waste to resource, Conference
