Can business be a positive force to solve global environmental and social issues? We say: “YES”! – said István Salgó, President of our organization, on the event where BCSDH (Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary) launched the Action 2020 Hungary.

With this sentence the business lunch started for local business leaders, where we introduced the unique Action 2020 Hungary program. The program was developed by BCSDH with the strong involvement of the CEO’s of our member companies, who contribute to a significant part of GDP in Hungary, and more than 100 Hungarian scientific and civil experts.

„The level of unemployment among young people has almost reached 20%, 1.8 million tons of food are thrown away on an annual basis, global warming (which may reach 2°C by 2050) is already impacting Hungary, only 9% of surface water is of good quality and sustainable consumers make up only 10% of the population. These are just some of the reasons that companies thinking on a long are being called to action.” – announced István Salgó, President of BCSDH.

Representing the government, Antal Nikoletti, responsible for International Economic Affairs at Ministry of National Economy of Hungary, appraised the program and underlined that priorities and goals of Action 2020 Hungary are aligned to the government’s national strategic goals. He also appraised the work of BCSDH, as the cooperation of the members – who account for more than 25% of the Hungarian GDP – and the scientific and civil sector’s experts to improve sustainable development, resulted in a really unique program.

This Action 2020 program is unique because more than 60 scientific and civil experts were involved and engaged in identifying challenges and goals. Following this step, we discussed the experts’ proposals with CEOs whose companies will have a key role to the success of the program.

The end result of the process was goal setting for the Action 2020 initiative. In the first phase with the involvement of stakeholders the most important social, environmental and economic facts, trends were identified, where the business sector will play a key role, over the next 6 years.

Based on these BCSDH will be able to continue the work by identifying, developing and disseminating business solutions which contribute to the realization of Action 2020 Hungary goals.

During the localization phase of the program and while setting the targets for Hungary we mainly considered the following factors:

• the need to align targets with pre-existing national strategic goals, and/or
• common scientific agreements that have identified problems or goals, and

•           ensuring that the contribution of business sectors to these areas will be potentially significant.

Food and Feed, Employment, Sustainable Lifestyles, Climate Change and Water are the five focal areas for Action 2020 Hungary. 

Based on a non-representative survey which was also published on this event, among the five selected priorities more than 60% of respondents identify Climate Change as the most important business risk. Most important business opportunity may be Sustainable Lifestyles according to the majority of respondents.

Critical phase of the program will just start by identifying and disseminating business solutions.

Company leaders, who played an active role during the program development within the dedicated working group participated in a roundtable discussion during the event:

Andrea Bujdosó, Shell Hungary Zrt., András Gyenes, Unilever Magyarország Kft, Ágnes Horváth, McDonald’s Magyarországi Étterem Hálózat Kft., Zsolt Jamniczky, E.ON Hungária Zrt., Michael Nixon, Nestlé Hungária Kft.

They agreed, that participating in this Action 2020 Hungary program brought not only on a personal level, but for their company interesting experiences and benefits. The participation of a CEO in such a program already illustrates the commitment of the whole company not only for the external stakeholders but also for employees. They learned a lot of things through different roles: as parents, as socially and environmentally sensitive citizens and as company leaders. They were also confronted with shocking data and trends, but this strengthened their commitment to sustainable development, which is not only inevitable but also a business opportunity.

You can find the photo gallery on the following link.

More information about the Action 2020 you can find here.

​​The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the United Nations Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have joined forces to mobilize the private sector as a key player in achieving our world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, to be launched by the United Nations in September 2015, seek to end poverty, ensure a life of dignity and opportunity for all, and protect our planet’s stability.

1. Guide companies on existing principles, methodologies and standards to assess and   communicate their impact across the SDGs;
2. Present an inventory of indicators that can be used by companies to assess impact against particular SDGs and their corresponding targets; and
3. Provide direction on how companies can enhance the quality of their sustainability goals, position them as commitments, and communicate them in a meaningful and credible manner.
Business is called upon to join in this momentous endeavor to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. Visionary and forward-looking companies must take the lead in pushing the sustainable development agenda forward, and make the case for business everywhere to join in the effort to achieve the SDGs.

BCSDH’s ”Future Leaders” talent program (which was launched in February) has arrived at its second half. Participants of the first BCSDH talent program are 23 talented professionals from BCSDH’s member companies, nominated by their leaders, who with full confidence and respect we can consider the future generation of leaders.

The aim of the programme is to help potential business leaders, who are currently talented professionals, to understand the complexity of corporate sustainability and to enable them to incorporate sustainability elements into their future decision-making processes.

This program is unique in Hungary as participants are on a 9 month-long “learning journey” with a diverse group of practicing business leaders and professionals. Every and each professional day is hosted by one of our mentor companies – which also offers participants an opportunity to get to know these 8 companies well.  

The first day, which was hosted by Siemens, was about getting to know each other and becoming familiar with the theoretical framework of sustainability. The day finished with an interview with Martin A. Dale, CEO of Siemens, and a walk-through of Siemens’ turbine factory. During the next occasion (which took place at a Grundfos factory in Tatabanya), the topic of taking a strategic approach was under the light spot. The mentors of this topic were also two top leaders – Michael Nixon from Nestle and László Török from Grundfos (both Managing Directors). The topic of Responsible Management topic was elaborated with the precious help of MOL and Coca-Cola. Once again, apart from the professional materials that were supplied, an important role was played by the personal meetings – this time with György Mosonyi, President of the Supervisory Board of MOL and former CEO of MOL, and Managing Director of Coca-Cola, Nikos Kalaitzidakis. In the “Telenor Ház” we talked about Ethical Operations with senior managers and professionals from the CEU Business School, Trancparency, Telenor and BEM. For our next topic (which will be respect for basic human values), Zwack Unicum is hosting the program as a symbolical representative and will close the event in an informal manner with a liqueur tasting at which it will announce the project topics that the participants will work on during their “summer break”.

Marketplace of solutions takes place every two years and accompanies a program of the International Conference on Corporate Responsibility

To whom? To CSR experts, summit participants and the general public

Date: May 21-22, 2014

Place:  Old Marketplace (Stará Tržnica), Námestie SNP, BRATISLAVA

Further information: Nadácia Pontis I slavomira.urbanova@nadaciapontis.sk I http://www.cee-csr-summit.eu/en/

The outcomes of the WBCSD Urban Infrastructure Initiative (UII) suggest that all cities seeking to realize their sustainability objectives can benefit from engaging with business early in the planning and strategy development process. Early engagement leverages the capability of business to identify innovative and cost-effective solutions to complex, cross-cutting urban sustainability challenges.

Cities are at the leading edge of the global sustainability agenda. By 2050, 70 % of the world’s population will live in cities and they are rising to this challenge by pursuing ambitious objectives that will make them more competitive, resource-efficient, resilient and inclusive.

Realizing these visions in practice is a complex challenge for city leaders. In particular, they will typically necessitate major transformations in the design, construction and operation of a city’s infrastructure systems – including buildings, energy, mobility, telecommunications, water, sanitation and waste management services – and optimizing the inter-linkages between these systems.

Businesses that are committed to sustainability and experienced in delivering effective solutions can help cities navigate these challenges and turn a high-level vision into practical and implementable action plans. Business can play a vital role not only in providing specific infrastructure, technology, services and financing solutions, but also in contributing to the strategy that will support the overall optimization of urban systems to drive sustainability.

While there are already excellent examples of cities and business working together at the strategic level, this is the exception rather than the rule.

The WBCSD established the UII to advance the urban sustainability agenda by showcasing the critical role that business can play as solutions providers and by providing a platform for collaborative strategic engagement between cities and business. The UII brings together 14 leading member companies – Cemex (Co-Chair), GDF SUEZ (Co-Chair) Siemens (Co-Chair), ACCIONA, AECOM, AGC, EDF, Honda, Nissan, Philips, Schneider Electric, TNT Express, Toyota and United Technologies – with an array of knowledge and skills to help unlock opportunities for urban authorities to create cities that are more sustainable, efficient and livable.

This multi-sector, multi-company group worked with the following leading cities: Turku (Finland); Tilburg (The Netherlands); Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat State (India) ; Yixing (China) ; Kobe (Japan) ; Guadalajara (Mexico) ; and Philadelphia (USA). In each city, the UII mobilized a multi-disciplinary team of company experts to work collaboratively with senior city officials. These teams took an integrated, cross-sector approach to analyzing the city’s major sustainability challenges and to developing an innovative “solutions landscape” (i.e., a portfolio of practical solutions) to address these challenges.

This final report summarizes the work done in these cities and highlights the lessons learned and potential applications where the early collaborative engagement with business should be considered by cities. It makes a number of recommendations for cities, businesses and other key stakeholders to take this critical agenda forward. The WBCSD believes that the example of the UII and these recommendations can provide clarity and guidance on how cities and business can make early collaborative dialogue happen in practice to produce real benefits.

WBCSD-UII-FinalReport-Summary
WBCSD-UII-FinalReport