Sustainability Always Starts with People – Employee Engagement is Key – Report from the Communications Working Group Meeting

Why is a nearly 170-year-old company one of the best examples of resilience? How can the complexity of sustainability be managed, and how can employees be engaged in supporting it? What tools are available, and how are they being used in practice?

These questions were explored at the Communications Working Group meeting held on 5 March 2026, where the participants were welcomed by the host, Ibolya Szabó, Corporate Affairs Director of Dreher Breweries Ltd. The company’s sustainability achievements were presented by Orsolya Endrédy, Sustainability and Stakeholder Relations Specialist at Dreher.

Tibor Hodik, Managing Partner of the Progressive advertising agency, and Zsófia Szilágyi, Corporate Relations Manager and Project Manager at WWF Hungary, introduced their joint sustainability-focused employee e-learning programme, Green Academy. This ready-to-use, comprehensive solution includes gamification elements, and several of its modules can be customized.

Irén Márta moderated a discussion with Éda Pogány, Regional Sustainability Lead at Syngenta Europe, and Ibolya Szabó on managing the complexity of sustainability, raising awareness across different departments, and the long-standing as well as emerging challenges of employee engagement.

The roundtable discussion highlighted that one of the key drivers of commitment to sustainability is leadership dedication, and success is only possible when sustainability permeates the entire corporate culture. Employees need to clearly understand that sustainability is also their responsibility, and that their active participation in the process is essential. For this to happen, they must be able to see the connections.

At the end of the working group meeting, participants had the opportunity to take part in a pleasant museum visit led by Ibolya Szabó.