On September 20 the Race to Zero Working Group also focused on biodiversity conservation and restoration and the implementation of climate neutrality, with a number of good corporate practices and novelties.
This time, Szentkirályi Magyarország provided both a venue and an exciting topic for the meeting. In his welcome speech, Dániel Buzási, Managing Director, emphasized the strong commitment to sustainability at the ownership level, and one of the priority areas is the implementation of a circular economy and approach, in which the company wants to become a role model by 2025.
He was followed by Nikolett van der Wildt, Sustainability and PR Manager, who talked about the biodiversity project in the area of the factory in kékkút, emphasising that they had been inspired and partnered in a previous working group meeting. Among the many elements of the long-term programme are an artificial pond, a swallow wall and an insect hotel. The water resources of the Káli basin will be protected by monitoring wells and groundwater regulation.
Afterwards, Dávid Kovács, Marketing Director of Zwack Unicum, spoke about the sustainability goals and areas, and we learned, among other things, that between 2016 and 2020, the company achieved a CO2 reduction of more than 200 elephants (about 1200 tons) at the company level. He also gave a detailed presentation of the geothermal conversion of their plant in Dunaharaszti, the process and challenges involved. The half a billion forint investment could not have been realised without the long-term commitment of the owners, and the development, which was handed over this year, is already showing good figures: gas consumption has been reduced by 20% in 6 months.
Half a year ago, Daniella Huszár, HuGBC’s sustainability coordinator, spoke about the Advancing Net Zero initiative in the framework of the working group, and now she talked about the results and programmes of the period since then. It is very important to underline that the built environment has a huge role to play in reaching the 1.5 degrees target and halving carbon emissions by 2030. To help decarbonise buildings, a Zero Carbon Recommendation has been published under the programme.
Finally, Andrea Nagy, BCSDH’s project manager, closed the working group with the presentation of two new publications. ” Nature-Based Solutions and Voluntary Carbon Markets – Corporate Buyer’s Guide “, edited by the Central Bank of Hungary, was prepared together with WWF and other member companies as a result of the joint work of the Nature-based Climate Solutions Working Group. This publication is the first public, tangible product of the Working Group and is intended to help companies and anyone interested in the topic to find their way around the market in a clear and accessible way.
A “CEO Guide” has also been produced, which contains the main findings of the long publication, with an active link to the original document. This will also help managers to get a quick overview of the topic, and they can read the details in the Corporate Buyer’s Guide.
Thanks to the sponsors of the Race to Zero program in 2023:
In his opening speech, Paul Fox, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Hungary, emphasized the importance of collaboration, as a lot of effort needs to be done to achieve climate goals. As part of the Green Deal, the EU Net Zero Industrial Partnership initiative can contribute to accelerating this, and he requested the support of the participants for this endeavor.
In connection with this, Anikó Juhász, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, reported on the Hungarian situation and possibilities of regenerative agriculture. She emphasized the importance of education and the presentation of best practices, as well as the creation of an environment where farmers can learn from each other in order to implement soil renewal solutions. Collaboration is also necessary here to take a step forward.
