Environmental report 2000.

Foreword

This is the second Dunapack Rt. environmental report, in which we describe efforts and results achieved in the field of environmental protection in 2000. Before we start describing the company´s environmental activities in detail, we would like to provide a brief outline of the way we think about the environment and our motivation in determining environmental objectives.

There has been very quick scientific and technological progress over the last 200-250 years. Productivity has been increased, work has been made easier and more effective. The improved nutrition allowed an increase in average life-spans, and by a variety of methods, life has been made more fulfilling. But economic and social development has also been accompanied by adverse environmental changes, such as deforestation and land erosion, contamination of inland and seawater, depletion of the ozone layer, etc. At the beginning, environmental pollution caused by industrial production was counteracted by nature relatively quickly, due to lower production quantities. But in the era of mass production, the size and diversity of damage caused reached a point where nature was no longer able to fight it by self-cleaning or other means. Society has recognised the potential threats caused by these activities. The idea of sustainable development, by which we mean protecting all life on earth, improving the state of the environment and minimising damage, has been introduced. Some governments, scientific institutions and manufacturing companies have already done a lot to mitigate environmental damage. In the second half of the 20th century it became clear that this goal could only be reached through international collaboration and the establishment of an environmentally aware mentality, right down to the level of the individual in society.

Companies from various industrial sectors have special responsibilities and tasks, according to their fields, in protecting and developing the environment. These responsibilities and tasks are interconnected, and this co-operation, despite individual cases, has produced better and better results.