Szegedi Vízmű Zrt., a member of the Veolia Group, won the Green Company of the Year award at the Green Awards 2023 ceremony held on the evening of the Sustainable World conference on 12th September. The award created with the support of MBH Bank was announced for the second time, the individual categories were supported by Green Cloud, PwC Hungary, Dandelion Group and the Portfolio Group.
From a total of 65 application submitted, the jury selected a short list of 15 applicants, from which the 5+1 winning companies were selected, including Szegedi Vízmű Zrt., co-owned by Veolia Víz Zrt. and by the Municipality of Szeged. Imre Mécs, the president of the Solar Markt Group handed over the award for the company at the award ceremony of the Sustainable World conference organized by Portfolio.hu.
The Good Matter of the Year award went to the K&H - Cooling Groves project, the Green Investment of the Year award went to the Lehel Radiátorgyár group, the Green SME of the Year award went to Irota EcoLodge, and the Green Innovation of the Year award went to Agroloop Hungary Kft. The winner of the Jury's Special Prize was Diageo with its CALL-Action program.
Since the end of the 2000s, the activities of Szegedi Vízmű Zrt. have become more and more sustainable through numerous investments and developments. Between 2008 and 2010, heat pumps were installed on its sites to build an efficient and environmentally friendly heating system. The company's gas consumption was reduced by 20.7% saving 680 GJ gas energy as a result of the new heating system using the heat content of the wastewater and the water of the deep wellbores. In the next phase thermal renewal was implemented: the insulation, the shutters and the electrical equipment were replaced.
By 2020, a sewage sludge recovery system had been developed at the wastewater treatment plant of Szeged, which allows electricity production by burning the approximately 2.6 million cubic meters of biogas produced annually.
Thanks to its green projects, the company supplies 55 percent of its energy needs from renewable energy sources, which will rise to 65 percent next year thanks to the solar systems handed over in June 2023. Next year, nine small power plants installed on an experimental basis by Szegedi Vízmű Zrt. can produce up to 650,000 kilowatts of electricity, which will mainly be used for operating the sites of the water works, and the generated surplus energy will be fed into the network so that other sites can also use it if necessary.
“Today, we must all do our part for environmental protection, for conserving our natural resources. At Szegedi Vízmű Zrt., we pay particular attention to the reduction of generated waste, the economical use of our resources, the reduction of harmful emissions, and energy efficiency, since our primary objective to function at high quality level as an exemplary service provider in all areas of activity - said Zoltán Istókovics, CEO of Szegedi Vízmű Zrt.
The environmentally conscious, green actions of Szegedi Vízmű Zrt. fit well into the sustainability goals of the Veolia group, helping to become a reference company for ecological transformation.