Can creating a sustainability report have a team-building aspect? Can such a report be a management tool? How can one get started, why is it worth preparing trial reports and collecting data now? These were the questions addressed by BCSDH’s first communications working group of the year, hosted by Gránit Pólus on March 20, 2024.

Eszter Ujvári, Employer Branding and Communications Coordinator, welcomed the participants, followed by Dóra Szemerédi, the company’s ESG leader, who gave an inspiring insight into her company’s sustainable operational strategy and good practices. She highlighted their achievements in energy and waste management, showcasing good examples like the expanding ReStore at WESTEND, which started with used clothing, and the Rooftop Terrace focusing on biodiversity and habitat regeneration.

The greatest risks and challenges in business now relate to environmental and social issues. Increasing reporting pressure from the EU and Hungarian regulations will gradually affect all companies. Irén Márta, Executive Director of BCSDH, spoke about the current legal regulations, stakeholders, and the process.

It is up to the companies to leverage the advantages that the report, collected data, and articulated goals can offer. This work is often coordinated by the communications, CSR, or marketing departments.

Participants of the roundtable discussion following the introductory presentation provided insights into the practice of report preparation and shared their experiences: Ildikó Farkas, CFO of Graphisoft Park, Andrea Koncsikné Káli, Communications and Marketing Manager of PURECO Kft., and Gábor Dávid Kovács, Marketing Director of Zwack Unicum Nyrt.

Graphisoft Park, already based on a sustainable business model, prepared its first ESG/Sustainability report in 2023, encouraged by the BÉT, which won the Green Frog Award. PURECO Kft. also prepared its first report in 2023, winning the BÉT competition. Zwack Unicum Nyrt. has been reporting on its social and sustainability performance since 2008.

All three companies will have reporting obligations under the Hungarian ESG law and the European CSRD. They emphasized the importance of having established practices and processes and building the internal and external stakeholder relationships necessary to support the process and data collection by the time they need to report officially.

All three companies confirmed that this is a time and human resource-intensive task, but they have already experienced numerous benefits in the short term. Beyond business success and advantages, it has improved information flow within the organization, provided insights into different areas, raised awareness of achievements within the organization, and even served as a kind of “team-building.”

Saint-Gobain has implemented a unique biodiversity programme at its mine in Pilisvörösvár, and on 8 April, BCSDH member companies had the opportunity to visit the main sites.

After a welcome speech by Daniel Domini, CEO of Saint-Gobain Hungary Kft., László Karafa, Quarry and Sustainability Manager, gave a short introductory presentation, and then we were able to see the programme in action. In addition to the 5 hectares of wooded area and 2000 m2 of water surface, the old explosives warehouse has been converted into a bat roost, and birds are also a favourite nesting site, with the bird boxes being 80% used. The area is also used periodically for beehives, which are a priority for flowering and pollination.

On the 1-hectare lawn created in 2002 – optimized for the size of the area – 5 rack sheep graze the grass, and they happily accept apples, they almost expect them from visitors.

In the last 3-4 years, most of the innovations were implemented with the involvement of an external biologist expert, which has now become almost completely self-sustaining. As László Karafa emphasized, nature does not need much for life to start again, which is also proven by the fact that the number of observed species increased from 140 to almost 250 in a few years. During the process, monitoring is extremely important, but equally important emphasis is placed on education, whether it is for employees or schoolchildren.

The photos of the event are available HERE.

We launched our “Race to Zero on the ground” initiative this year, with the aim of presenting initiatives that help climate adaptation and protection, as well as the protection of biodiversity, at the place of implementation. This will also provide ideas and inspiration for other member companies to implement further projects and promote system-level changes.

On 17 September, we will visit the Pünkösdfürdő park (Budapest, District III), dreamed up and created by the Főkert (Gardening) division of BKM Nonprofit Zrt.

Thanks to our Race to Zero program sponsors:

Does EU and national ESG regulation promote corporate sustainability? – asked Irén Márta, Managing Director of BCSDH, in her presentation at the conference “Business without ESG?”, organised by the Market and Profit Conference Centre and BKIK on 4 April 2024.

In her introduction, the Managing Director briefly talked about the EU Taxonomy Regulation which aims to help investors and financiers make better decisions, and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD),  and then went into detail about the domestic implementation of the CSRD and CSDDD (supplier due diligence directive), the ESG Act. She summarised the responsibilities of companies under the Act, which will be more precisely defined when government regulations are issued, and also mentioned the accreditation of software for data collection, certifiers and qualifiers, and training.

She concluded on an optimistic note, responding positively to her question that reporting and data collection will provide data and information to business leaders that will unlock new opportunities and also help them to become more profitable, thus moving forward on the path to sustainable business management.