68 organizations and companies joined during the last 5 months

Another 20 organizations and companies signed the Memorandum of Understanding of the Circular Economy Platform, extending the number of the members to 68. The Platform, founded in November 2018, was officially established as an initiative of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary (BCSDH), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology.

Following the signature ceremony at the residence of the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the participants were informed about the plans and the ongoing work for 2019. The event also gave the participants an opportunity to have an informal networking as well as to discover cooperation opportunities in the field of circular economy.

“The Circular Economy Platform was created as an initiative to help the transition from a linear to a circular economy. The aim of the platform is to create collaboration and share knowledge between the corporate, governmental, scientific and the civil sector.” – highlighted Attila Chikán Jr., President of BCSDH in his greeting speech.

The European Commission published a comprehensive report on the implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan in March 2019. According to the findings of the report, it is crucial to invest in innovation to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. To cut plastic waste, proposals from the European Commission emphasize sound and efficient waste management systems, as well as to develop markets for secondary raw materials, which are also an essential building block of a circular economy.

„From an environmental point of view, the transition to a circular economy contributes to the proper functioning of a sustainable, low-carbon, resource-efficient and competitive economy. Hungary may be able to play a leading role in the region.” – highlighted Balázs Weingartner, Minister of State for Sustainability, Ministry of Innovation and Technology.

“Professional work of the Platform has already begun, with the establishment of the Circular Economy Working Group. The first and most important step is to find out the state of the circular economy in Hungary, so we can set goals and start a discussion and cooperation on the most relevant issues. The results of the survey will be presented at the Circular Economy Summit on 28th of November.” – added Irén Márta, Managing Director of BCSDH, talking about this year’s plans.

In his opening remark Ambassador René van Hell welcomed the new signatories of the CE Platform emphasizing the diversity contributing to the synergies among the stakeholders. He also highlighted the lively scene of the Dutch circular community illustrated by on-line platform called circulairondernemen.nl which provides lots of information, cross-border contacts and match-making possibilities. The Embassy will continue its support activities for going circular, including a video on the best practices and CE Summit in November.

The photos of the event are available in our Gallery. 

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Circular economy

According to the current so-called linear economic model, technical and biological components are extracted from nature, transformed, and are then disposed of without recycling.

In contrast, in the circular economic model metabolic processes are involved in a closed circle, waste is almost 100% recycled, and biological and technological components are returned to the cycle with minimum loss of quality.

Attila Chikán Jr., CEO of ALTEO Plc., was re-elected as president by the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary’s assembly.

 Budapest, February 26, 2019 – Attila Chikán Jr. was re-elected as president by the general assembly of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary. Under Mr. Chikan’s three years of leadership the number of member companies has increased by 27. These 83 companies together produce more than 30 percent of Hungarian GDP. The visibility of the organization to governmental stakeholders and to a wider audience has also increased.

The re-elected president’s work will be supported by a four-member board. Its re-elected members are Zsolt Jamniczky, Member of the Board of Directors of E.ON Hungaria, Dr. Ágnes Fábián, Managing Director of HENKEL Hungary, and Zoltán Gazsi, Managing Director of Eisberg Hungary. The new member is Gréta Nagy, Managing Director of DANDELION, as elected by the assembly. She follows Dr. Thomas Nareshubert, Executive Director of BASF Hungaria. The mandate of President and the Executive Board is for three years.
The management of BCSDH will remain in the hands of Irén Márta.

The re-elected Supervisory Board Members are Orsolya Pallaghy and Dr. Orsolya Fazekas. A new member is János Kocsányi, CEO of Graphisoft Park SE, elected by the assembly to follow Sándor Lakatos, General Manager of INEST.

’I believe that the organization is on the right path’ – started the evaluation of the last three years by Attila Chikán Jr., President of BCSDH – ’our organization is becoming more and more effective each and every year, considering that all the programs carried out by BCSDH –  like Action 2020 Hungary and the Future Leader Talent Program – have achieved outstanding success these past years.’

BCSDH has also been able to increase its visibility and publicity concerning governmental stakeholders as well. A permanent support position in the National Sustainable Development Committee (NFFT) has been established, and BCSDH has developed a very strong professional partnership with the Presidential Office as well. Moreover, it was a great achievement of BCSDH that the organization, along with its member firms, took part in developing the Independent National Sustainability report of Hungary: more precisely, the section on the business sector which focused on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Framework 2030 and its successes so far, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

’However, the creation of the Circular Economy Platform, an initiative launched with the support of BCSDH, the Dutch Embassy, and the Ministry of Technology and Innovation, is what I consider the greatest achievement of my presidential term. The aim of the platform is to create unity and share knowledge in co-operation with the corporate, governmental and scientific sector. Since its launch, more than 55 member firms have signed the declaration of agreement, and this number is constantly increasing.’ – Attila Chikan Jr said, in highlighting the greatest successes of previous years.

’As for the future, we would like to maintain the progress that we have made in the past while making further developments. We have quite a few challenges ahead of us: In addition to concluding and evaluating the Action 2020 program, we need to keep up progress in developing a new program by 2030 which will be linked to SDGs. We have a lot of work ahead of us.’ – highlighted Attila Chikan Jr. – ’Furthermore, my plan is to solidify and expand our governmental and international partnerships, as the mutual support of professionals can help us immensely in achieving our future goals. It is my strongest belief that BCSDH must be open towards smaller firms as well in order to educate more companies about the role of sustainable development.’ – added the re-elected president.

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The new leadership of Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary

Attila Chikán Jr. – President
CEO
ALTEO Plc.

 Mr. Chikán has a degree in economics and more than a decade of professional and leadership experience in the field of energy. The ALTEO Group, led by Mr. Chikán since its establishment, has become one of the sector’s most important actors. The company’s core businesses are smart energy management services for industrial firms and renewable energy production. ALTEO has issued stocks on the Budapest Stock Exchange since 2010 and was recently listed in the Prime Equities category. The company is one of the leading domestic representatives of an impact investment strategy aimed at making profitable, sustainable and socially responsible investments.

Chikán Attila Jr. is committed to the principles of sustainability: he runs his own blog under the name Chikansplanet. He is also actively participating in BCSDH’s professional work and has served as the president of BCSDH since 2016.

Dr. Ágnes Fábián
CEO
Henkel Magyarország Kft.
Adhesives Technologies business unit executive

A member of Henkel Magyarország Kft’s team since 1996, Dr. Ágnes Fábián became a business unit executive at Henkel Adhesive Technologies by moving up through the company hierarchy and spending nine years in an international environment, besides which she has also been CEO of Henkel Magyarország since 2011. Dr. Fábián began her career in 1990 at Biogal Gyógyszergyár Hélia’s cosmetics sales division. Later on, she worked as regional sales manager at Maybeline’s and Loctite Magyarország when Henkel acquired the company. Her aim is to make even more leaders realize that sustainability and value creation for customers are inevitably components of good performance. Operating sustainably is now a requirement that cannot and should not evaded.

Zoltán Gazsi
Managing Director
Eisberg Hungary Kft.

 Managing Director of Eisberg since 2007. After graduating from the University of Agricultural Sciences in Gödöllő, Zoltán worked for the National Institute for Agricultural Quality Control, followed by 14 years of working in a multinational environment at Syngenta. After leading the Experimental Station at Ócsa, he had various marketing- and project-coordinator jobs in increasingly large fields of operation, including on almost all continents. He believes that the good examples seen at companies have an impact on the families of employees and on the direct and indirect environment of the company, and that these impacts are inevitably the start of significant changes at the level of society.

Zsolt Jamniczky
Member of the Board of Directors,
E.ON Hungária Zrt.

E.ON Hungária Group’s Director for Central Affairs since 2007 and Deputy CEO of the company since 2010. After completing his studies, Mr. Jamniczky served as an adviser in the Foreign Relations Office of the Hungarian National Assembly. In 1996 he was appointed Director for Corporate Affairs at Reemtsma Hungary, a Debrecen-based tobacco company. This was followed by the Director for Corporate Affairs position at Philip Morris Hungary until 2005, while between 2006 and 2007 Mr. Jamniczky was Philip Morris International’s Director of EU Government Relations at the company’s Brussels office. He studied at the Budapest University of Economics and the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences. Mr. Jamniczky’s main fields of interest include corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility in a constantly changing economic and social environment, and innovation in the energy sector.

Zsolt Jamniczky was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Hungary in 2016.

Gréta Nagy
Managing Director
DANDELION Kft.

Founder and Managing Director of Dandelion Kft. since 2006.

Gréta graduated as an environmental engineer from the Széchenyi István University, and also from an Environmental Management Engineering and Economic Analyst MBA at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

She has participated in environmental and process-optimization projects over the last twelve years, and her colleagues have developed innovations such as the methodology for calculating a company’s ecological footprint, as well as the Greenlex software, which is a self-assessment software for regulatory compliance. The company’s latest development is WorksStressMeter, which may be used to measure the stress level of employees and organizations. Gréta has been participating in BCSDH’s work as a consultant.

The Ministry for Innovation and Technology is establishing a national report on climate change as an overview and as a form of decision-making support.

As the first step in preparing the report, an open conference was held on 28 November, 2018, with the purpose of informing stakeholders about the concepts related to the assessment, identifying the domestic scientists and scientific organizations that are focusing on climate change, and assessing decision-making needs regarding adaptation and the reduction of emissions.

Irén Márta, Managing Director of the Business Council For Sustainable Development in Hungary (BCSDH), stated in her speech that the greatest challenge for the second half of the twenty-first century is to make the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. In order to achieve this, BCSDH defined four recommendations for companies in 2016 which include raising the assessment of the risk  and opportunities of climate change to a strategic level, and also introducing carbon footprint analysis.

She highlighted that responsible companies are committed to supporting the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the creation of a carbon-neutral economy. Half of BCSDH’s member companies already have strategies for reducing their GHG emissions.

Based on a survey  by BCSDH of more than 100 companies, Irén emphasized that the business sector is paying attention to the security of supply, on which stricter legal requirements will have a great impact, as will extreme weather conditions, the increasing costs of adaption, and climate change.

Background to the national report

The Ministry for Innovation and Technology is establishing a decision-supporting, solution-oriented, comprehensive national report that supports domestic decisions and their implementation regarding climate policy issues, and moreover, for supporting more relevant, scientifically well-established domestic knowledge. It is planned that this will be based on the Assessment Report made by the Nobel-peace-prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s national reports, which are based on global reports, appear to be effective instruments for creating consensus between various scientific areas in many countries, thereby representing a sound basis for supporting  national, or regional political and economic decision-making regarding climate change. The conference is the first step in the process of creating such reports.

The Embassy of France, the Budapest French Institute, the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary, the Climate Reality Project Europe and the Embassy of Poland would like to cordially invite you to attend our conference to be held on November 27, 2018 in Budapest as an official preparatory event of the COP24 in Katowice, Poland. The conference will provide a possibility to analyse the challenges of Hungary in the light of the recently published IPCC 1.5C report and how stakeholders can contribute to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Invited speakers: Csaba Kőrösi, Director of Environmental Sustainability at the Office of the President of the Republic; Barbara Botos, Deputy State Secretary for Climate Policy, State Secretariat for Energy and Climate, Ministry of Innovation and Technology; Wojciech Burkiewicz, deputy director responsible for climate and energy policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland; Henri Waisman, Coordinator, Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project, Institut du développement durable et des relations internationales (IDDRI); János Zlinszky, member of the Bureau of the European Environment Agency on behalf of the European Parliament; Gábor Szarvas, Director, Community Affairs, Environment, Health and Safety, Budapest Airport; Irén Márta, Director, Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary; Ádám Harmat, Manager, Climate and Energy Program, WWF.

Venue: French Institute, 1011 Budapest, Fő utca 17.
Date: November 27, 2018; 9:00-13:00, followed by a light lunch. Please find the draft program attached.

The event is open but registration is kindly requested before November 25 – thank you!

The languages of the conference are Hungarian, French, English with simultaneous interpretation.

REGISTRATION

“We would like to recognize the outstanding activities of leaders and companies in the field of sustainability”- said Irén Márta Managing Deirector  of BCSDH at the award-giving ceremony of the “For a Sustainable Future” prize on BCSDH’s business lunch.

18 October, 2018, Budapest – The Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary (BCSDH), which embraces 82 member companies that contribute approximately 30% of Hungary’s GDP, has now presented the For a Sustainable Future Prize for the second time in three categories: Change Leader, Leading Women, and Business Solutions.  

Irén Márta, Managing Director of BCSDH and member of the professional jury, explained: “We have established this complex prize with the purpose of recognizing and disseminating to a wide audience the activities of leaders and companies in the field of sustainability. The goal of the prize is to set an example, and moreover, to promote and increase the contribution of business to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The jury, consisting of five professionals (Dr. Gábor Bartus, Szilvia Krizsó, Irén Márta, István Salgó and Diána Ürge-Vorsatz), selected the laureates from the applicants.

Winner of the Change Leader prize: Ferenc Molnár (Ilcsi Szépítő Füvek)

Winners of the Leading Woman Prize: Zdravka Demeter Bubalo (MOL), Anita Urbán (Grundfos), Barbara Verő (Nestlé)

The best Business Solution prize-winners are:

Biofilter: ‘Circular approach in digital switchover’ digital office program,

Heineken: ‘Plastic-free movement in May’ compostable cup program,

MOL: ‘MOL Limo, the future of driving’ car-sharing program.

The winners of the “For a Sustainable Future” prize in 2018:

LEADING WOMAN PRIZE:

Zdravka Demeter Bubalo HR Director, MOL Group

…who is a proactive, strategic thinker and as a cooperative leader operating beyond Hungary’s borders is playing an active role in promoting gender equality to increase the opportunities of women and girls, thereby personally contributing to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Anita Urbán HR Director, Grundfos

….who is always thinking long-term, and as a committed and innovative leader is actively involved in creating high-quality workplaces with flexible forms of employment and opportunities for lifelong learning, thereby personally contributing to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Barbara Verő Head of HR, Nestlé

…who is an innovative, inspirational leader that constantly questions the usual processes, and goes beyond normal company activities through promoting the employment of young people, talent management, and a start-up culture. Through her sustainable employment activities, she is contributing personally to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

CHANGE LEADER PRIZE:

Ferenc Molnár Owner, Managing Director, Ilcsi Szépítő Füvek

…who is an innovative and environmentally conscious leader and pioneer at producing professional, certified, natural cosmetics. He has a major interest in promoting sustainable lifestyles and natural resource-saving forms of production, as also evidenced in his  personal lifestyle.

Photo: Ildikó Fülöp

BUSINESS SOLUTION PRIZE:

Biofilter’s ‘Circular approach in digital’ is an innovative, far-seeing program that sets an example for other companies and industries. Beyond regular business considerations, it continues to expand its own responsibilities and thus contributes to meeting the Action 2020 Hungary and United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Heineken’s ‘Plastic-free movement in May’ program is an innovative, eye-catching business solution that seeks and finds answers to a major ecological problem. It could easily be extended to other market players within and beyond the industry, thus contributing significantly to the achievement of the Action 2020 Hungary and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

MOL’s ‘MOL Limo, the future of driving’ program is an innovative and forward-looking response to a large-scale problem, and a good example of responsible, strategic and business thinking. It also sets an example for other actors in the market and contributes significantly to achieving the Action 2020 Hungary and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.