Press Releases

Budapest, September 2, 2009 17:00

A mural with the prize-winning work of Magyar Telekom's Gyerek ARC+ competition for children was unveiled on September 2 in Budapest at Krisztina körút. The other prize-winning works in the competition, featuring the importance of environment protection, will be shown in five cities around Hungary. Magyar Telekom's ARC+ invited teams of 2 to 5 people to submit drawings on the topic "What would you do for your environment?"

This year the Gyerek ARC+ competition was held for the second time on the topic of environment protection. To make the task easier for children the conditions in the invitation were extraordinary: they had to show an ET called Biox in a drawing the world they would like to live in thirty years from now. Numerous drawings were submitted to the competition and 92 of them were exhibited in June outside the Budapest Palace of Arts.

Magyar Telekom joined this program with its Gyerek ARC+ competition where teams of 2 to 5 children could submit designs for mural paintings on the same topic. Many groups of children showed an interest in this task and high-standard entries were submitted. The best works to be painted as murals will send a message to residents of Budapest, Pécs, Szombathely, Sopron and Miskolc on the importance of environment protection, while decorating the cities over a long period.

Ten years ago Magyar Telekom defined its mission to make urban spaces better and more beautiful. The company has already decorated numerous firewalls with murals, so it was easy to identify with the topic of this year's Gyerek ARC+ competition.

Christopher Mattheisen, Magyar Telekom's Chairman-CEO said on the occasion of the last event of the countrywide mural project:
"We are a market leader large enterprise with numerous activities and services, but in the course of our operations we are making efforts to address environmental and sustainability issues in even the smallest details. We always keep in mind the requirement to perform our job in an efficient way, without redundant factors and waste, while preserving the environment. It is important for us to make the significance of this issue clear also for children so that energy saving or selective waste collection become an everyday habit for them."

Mural paintings were inaugurated in cities with ceremonies where city officers, the creative teams and their classmates and parents were invited as well as both men who first put forward the idea of Gyerek ARC+, Péter Geszti and Gábor Bakos.

It is Magyar Telekom's objective to launch campaigns under its sustainability activity that shape the public approach by calling the attention of the society, among others, to the importance of preserving our natural values. Events designed for the younger generations play a major role in this activity because they hold the key to the future of sustainable development.

Murals paintings submitted in the Gyerek ARC+ competition can be seen at the following places:

1. Sopron, Magyar u. 25. - Lajtha Group: "This side of Lajtha, the other side of energy"
2. Budapest, Krisztina krt. 30. - Team of cousins: "Our street 30 years from now"
3. Pécs, Athinay u. 4. - Toy Group: "Building a happy cheerful world with animals and plants"
4. Szombathely, Fő tér 27. - Colorful Environment Group: "Houses surrounded by lakes and flowers"
5. Miskolc, Zsolcai kapu - Girls: "Clean air"
6. , Pécs, Alkotmány u. 1. sundial - Drop-by-Drop Group: "Water is a treasure, take care of it"

Magyar Telekom and its subsidiaries have been paying high attention to tackling social and environmental problems since the 1990s. We were among the first companies in Hungary to have, already from 1996, a separate unit responsible for corporate citizenship and include it right from the start in the company's annual reports. Magyar Telekom has been coordinating its environmental activities since 2002 and has a sustainability strategy since 2005. A sustainability report is published each year and certified by an independent rating company in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. In Hungary we were the first to publish an A+ rated report in compliance with GRI third generation guidelines.

Recognizing the triple relations between environment, society and economy and strengthening it with positive activities is a long-term strategic principle for the Magyar Telekom Group. For this purpose the company is making efforts to integrate a sustainability and corporate citizenship related approach into all its corporate management processes. The Corporate Sustainability Department is responsible for Magyar Telekom's sustainability strategy and its Group-level coordination, the Group Communication Directorate's Brand Management & Citizenship Department is responsible for the corporate social responsibility activity. The Group Sustainability Coordination Council has been set up to strengthen the sustainability approach. Magyar Telekom's senior management, the Management Committee regularly receive reports on performance of sustainability and corporate citizenship strategy tasks and related achievements.