Roof Windows for Healthy Buildings

VELUX, a Danish manufacturing company that specializes in roof windows, skylights, sun-tunnels and related accessories, has had its products available in Hungary since 1986 and it was also 35 years ago that the local VELUX firm (now VELUX Magyarország Kft.) was registered here.

Explaining to Diplomacy&Trade, how the management – and the global company, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year – evaluate these three and a half decades in Hungary, Krisztián Mészáros, Vice President Region Central and Eastern Europe since September 2020, says that “if I had to summarize it in one word: SUCCESS. VELUX was the first Danish company establishing a factory in Hungary in 1986 (actually one of the first Western European companies at that time) and it is still amongst the largest Danish companies in the country. In the past 35 years, the company developed rapidly and by now, it is one of the largest and most complex factories in the CEE region, located in Fertőd and Fertőszentmiklós, NW Hungary, producing almost all components of our products and also assembling a significant variety of finished goods. The factory is considered one of the largest employers in the northwestern part of Hungary, providing jobs for more than 1,200 people.” The company also has an office in nearby Sopron and two offices in Budapest – including the newly opened VELUX Regional Head Office in the city center that connects business management, marketing and PR communications, business development, finance and logistics functions in 14 CEE countries and support many global activities as well.

Preserving nature for future generations
VELUX has its own sustainability strategy. Regarding the main guidelines of this strategy and how the company wishes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2041, the 100th anniversary of the company, the Vice President highlights that ‘Lifetime Carbon Neutral’ is a concept initiated by the VELUX Group and developed together with WWF International to take responsibility for both past and future carbon emissions. The partnership aims to capture a total of 5.6 million tons of CO₂ through forest conservation projects around the world – the equivalent of the VELUX Group’s total historical emissions from 1941-2041 of 4.5 million tons of CO₂, plus 25% safety buffer. An integral part of this commitment is preserving invaluable natural forests, nature, and wildlife around the world for current and future generations.
“By 2030, we aim to be carbon neutral in our own operations and we will reduce the CO₂ footprint of our products by 50% and by 2041, to our 100th anniversary, we will have captured our entire historical carbon emissions dating back to our founding in 1941. Then, and only then, will we become Lifetime Carbon Neutral,” he points out.

Collective change needed
Carbon neutrality was also one of the main issues at the recent COP26 climate summit on Glasgow where VELUX actively participated. For instance, the company had a speaker at the ‘Business panel discussions on commitments to reduce carbon emissions’. Krisztián Mészáros stresses that the building industry is responsible for over a third (38%) of the world’s entire CO₂ emissions and contributed to record breaking CO₂ emissions in 2019. “From what we can see, emissions are likely to keep increasing unless we can collectively change. Being part of the solution means identifying ‘what will drive the most change?’ For us, at VELUX, this means equally prioritizing the climate and nature crises. What participants brought to COP tables is important, but what they take away to enact upon is of greater importance. We saw some positive signs with more than a hundred world leaders promising to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. We particularly welcome this recent pledge by world leaders. At VELUX Group, we are already contributing to conserving and restoring forests through our unique 20-year partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Our first forest regeneration project is in Uganda’s Albertine Rift and when implemented, it will capture approximately one million tons of CO₂.

Giving back to society
Speaking of the corporate responsibility policy of the company, the Vice President says that “at VELUX, we find it very important to give back to society. We support these activities mainly through the VELUX Foundations, and also by the local companies. Altogether, the Group’s foundations give back major part of the profit to the society. One of the examples of that type of activity was when VELUX Magyarország Kft. (VELUX Hungary) supported the construction of the IndaHouse Hungary Volunteer and Children's Center in 2018 with 12 pieces of VELUX roof windows, which were installed by colleagues, professionals and partners in a voluntary program. A similar example is when VELUX Hungary replaced old skylights with new ones in the temporary children's home of the Fészek Child Protection Association in Érd, where mothers in difficult situations are raising their children.”

Inspiring future architects
The company’s award for students of architecture has been announced in Hungary as well. As Krisztián Mészáros explains, the International VELUX Award (IVA), which began in 2004, is a biennial award for architecture students around the world that focuses on daylight. Student teams and teachers work on projects that consider daylight as a relevant source of light, energy, and well-being. He points out that “in 2020, students of more than 3,000 student teams from 783 schools of architecture around the globe registered for the award – altogether from 120 countries. This is a really great number. At VELUX, we are constantly working to help the building industry participants to create buildings that make people's lives better and have a positive impact on our planet. Our aim with this event is to inspire future architects to consider the use of daylight, as this is one of the most important factors of a healthy building.”