Part of the report, based on a survey of over 330 companies, delves into the factors influencing green strategies and investments, the management tools supporting sustainability, and the most common corporate environmental activities. The study has been conducted for 30 years by the Competitiveness Research Centre at Corvinus University of Budapest, with the most recent findings published a few weeks ago. 

Based on the results, the element that most influences corporate sustainability strategies this year is “reducing environmental risks to decrease business risks”, which has moved to first place. In 2019, it was in fourth place, but now Hungarian companies can no longer ignore the increasingly stringent EU regulations (the ESG regulatory wave) and their domestic implementations, although these regulations are becoming increasingly opaque for them. 

The EU’s regulatory framework is also the most significant factor determining environmental improvements for Hungarian companies. The secondary impact on investments comes from reducing environmental impact, followed by market factors (such as return on investment, customer expectations, image, and reducing business risks). 

The Human Side Requires More Attention 

Among the tools used for sustainability management, the most common is measuring carbon emissions, used by nearly two-thirds of companies (65.4%). This figure is double the 2019 value, likely due to regulatory expectations. Similarly, environmental management systems have also gained popularity (63.9%) as environmental expectations for suppliers have likely increased. 

“The human side of sustainability has not yet been sufficiently integrated by companies. First, there is still room for development in health and safety management. Secondly, it is not well reflected in corporate strategy, as only less than a third of companies use environmental criteria when evaluating employees, making it the least widespread green management tool,” says Gábor Harangozó, Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest and one of the authors of the competitiveness report. 

Image Improvement Leads the Way 

Respondents generally have a positive view of their own industry: on a five-point scale, environmental protection scored 3.9, and ethics scored 4.0 on average. There is considerable variation in environmental criticism due to core activities: some companies face little to no criticism, while others experience it more often. 

Among the companies that report making at least moderate efforts towards sustainability, most (71%) have improved their image with these efforts, but perhaps more significantly, a similar proportion (70-70%) have made their products more durable and reduced their environmental impact. 

Foreign-owned companies tend to prioritize EU regulations, return on investment, customer expectations, and environmental/ecological effects slightly more. Larger companies place more importance on various sustainability aspects, have a higher prevalence of sustainability management tools, and generally achieve better results. This may indicate that regulations primarily target this segment. High and low competitiveness companies cannot be grouped together when it comes to sustainability, as their results vary significantly in the examined areas. 

The full competitiveness report is available on the Corvinus University website in Hungarian, including an English summary via this link.