Turning Concern for the Future into Action

Since its launch in 2023, E.ON's Earth Champions competition has reached one in ten Hungarian kindergartens and schools: for the third time, awards have been presented to the communities that have been most successful in shaping environmental awareness, according to a press release issued by the E.ON Group.

A generation can grow up whose fundamental attitude towards sustainability and their own adulthood is no longer one of passive concern for the environment, but of active shaping of the future. This may be the most important result of the process that E.ON launched with the Earth Champions competition. Through this initiative, which has now reached one in ten Hungarian kindergartens and schools either directly or indirectly, around 9,000 children have learned that the environment around us can be protected and that the world will be shaped by our collective decisions and actions.

The results of a representative survey conducted by the E.ON Hungária Group clearly indicate that sustainability will be a central theme in the coming decades. Two-thirds of people believe that the development of sustainable energy and environmental solutions is essential to improving quality of life. A relative majority (48%) believe that as ordinary people – whether as teachers or parents – the most important thing we can do today to make the world a better place in 25 years' time is to make environmentally conscious decisions.

The results of the research are confirmed by practice: in the Champions of the Earth competition, children, teachers, and often parents work together to make environmental awareness a community experience. Young people learn that they themselves can influence the state of the environment through their actions, and the impact of individual projects extends beyond the micro-communities of kindergartens and schools. Children are working for a future that, even 25 years from now, when they are adults, can be livable and rich in environmental values.

Today's kindergarten and school-age children feel a palpable environmental anxiety due to the climate crisis and other serious sustainability crises, and the organizers of the competition are consciously seeking to reward projects that transform this emotion into action. During the Kunpeszér forest planting project, for example, children plant native tree species – says Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, physicist and According to climate researcher and jury member Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, one of the main reasons for the forest fires that are ravaging Europe this year, which have almost doubled in size compared to previous years, is that in recent decades, forests have been established in many places from invasive species that are highly flammable. Reintroducing native tree species could be an effective means of prevention.

This is the third consecutive year that the energy company operating the power grid in Transdanubia, Pest County, and Budapest has awarded prizes to kindergarten and school communities. This year's competition received around 350 entries, of which 13 projects were recognized and received a maximum of 2.5 million forints in funding each. The competition has now grown into a nationwide movement with 1,200 entries to date, 42 winning institutions, and a total of 75 million forints in funding.

"Our future also depends on environmentally friendly energy services, so it is important to influence the adults of tomorrow. The Earth Champions competition encourages and deepens children's environmental awareness, giving them the opportunity to turn their concerns about the future of the planet into action. The positive consequences of all this, which will have an impact across generations, are in line with E.ON's strategic goals: environmental responsibility and conscious planning for a sustainable future," Guntram Würzberg, Chairman and CEO of E.ON Hungária Group and Chairman of the competition's expert jury, said.