Sustainability Day 5 - 29 September, 2012

Magyar Telekom’s Sustainability Day, held for the fifth time, took place at Millenáris on Saturday, September 29, 2012. Telekom invited competitive projects to three contests in the spirit of sustainability: amateur photo artists could submit photos through social media, while representatives of the press could compete to win the “hello holnap!” Press Award, at the same time, a contest closely linked to the event, under the title of Sustainability Day 5 Contest was also launched. The winners were announced on the same day.

The symbol of the 5 th Sustainability Day event held at Millenáris was the monumental “green wall”, which the visitors could dress up themselves. The 1.5-ton, 5-meter-wide, 5-meter-tall “green wall” was built by 16 builders and decoration experts in more than 6 hours and was made of several hundreds of flowers in pots. The unprecedented work of contemporary art was transported to the main hall of Telekom’s Krisztina 55 Headquarters Building after the event.

Besides holding panel discussions, the organizers strove, again, to minimize the ecological footprint of the festival. To that end, registration had only been possible through the internet, thus eliminating the need for unnecessary use of paper. Visitors were offered bio drinks in recycled, so-called re-cups. In the spirit of transportation-related CO 2 emission decrease, several cars running fully on electricity were exhibited, and visitors could even test-run one of them, while for the sake of bikers, bicycle storage racks were installed and organizations popularizing city biking had been invited. At Magyar Telekom’s stand, those interested in the topic could learn about how to run a really energy-efficient household. The proceeds of the evening concert will again be spent on planting trees.

The festival conference was opened by ethologist, Vilmos Csányi, who explained in scientific terms in his opening remarks how humanity, which used to live in small communities, had established society, the rules of which they have not yet learned, only the loopholes inherent in them. An increasing drive to enforce individuals’ respective rights in the framework of such a numerous population may well lead to a disaster. According to Csányi, we need to lay down new ground rules that could help to distribute resources more evenly. The technology exists, only a global change of mindset is needed.

Following the opening address, the “hello holnap!” Press Award and the Jövő-Kép Photo Award ceremonies were held. With the purpose of increasing awareness about sustainability, Telekom had first founded Sustainability Media Club, consisting of representatives of the most significant Hungarian media, then together with them announced the “hello holnap” Press Contest in May. Twenty five projects were submitted to the contest, out of which the jury consisting of members of the Sustainability Media Club (RTL Klub, TV2, Sanoma, Class FM, CEMP Group (Index), Origo, Metropol, Axel Springer , Magyar Telekom) selected an article by Irén Hermann, titled Big City Natural as the best, thus the award and the HUF 1 million prize went to her. In addition to journalists, civilians, more specifically those who indulge in taking photos, were invited to compete at the Jövő-Kép contest. The specification of the contest encouraged contestants to demonstrate by their works what should be changed for the sake of a more livable future. Projects could be submitted through the “hello holnap!” Facebook page. The photo contest was very popular. 1217 photos were submitted by 379 people. The photos of the winners of the contest were published by the contest’s media partner, HVG.

The discussions were conducted in an unusual manner, as each panel included a layman slammer, who represented the man in the street and recited brief rhymes expressing their thoughts and questions regarding the issue at hand. Following the panel discussions, the sustainability contest award ceremony took place as part of the Sustainability Day 5 after-party. The winners of the different categories were as follows:

Music: W2 projekt: “Everything’s all right”
Film: Ádám Kervárits: “The last day”
Creative: Bayrak Yusuf: Future Water
Audience choice award: Katalin Varga: Passive House at the Uriel butterfly farm.

Following the award ceremonies, the Sustainability Day event continued with concerts. The after-party featured Bankrupt, Budapest Riddim Band to whom Shaka Black joined from Jamaica, and the party mood was also ensured by PASO.