Progress Report No. 7 — Hungary

Hubert Schulte-Kemper, CEO of Fakt AG, and Dr. István Nagy, Hungarian minister of agriculture.

If we could have the best of both worldsWe’d have heaven right here on earth— Van Halen “5150” album, 1986 John Donne, 16th century English cleric and poet, wrote, “No man is an island unto himself ...”While this rings true today, cities can be those islands. This month’s progress report is about a very ambitious project taking place now in Hungary, where a vacant lot that will become a city will be a truly self-sustaining island unto itself.
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The origins and importance of cities
The concept of a city has been around since the time of the Sumerians nearly 5,000 years ago. Kish was one of the first cities and a model for more to come. The early humans were foragers, moving from one source of sustenance to another. Eventually they arrived at a point in human development with agriculture and a place, Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, means land between two rivers 
More people could survive better if the facilities are nearby and obtainable. The existential view of nature could be explored. Knowledge could be obtained, stored, and passed on.
“City states” began and centers of learning such as Rhodes, Athens, most notably Ionia, arose along with a wealth of knowledge: the speed of light, the earth was round, the universe was huge. From there, civilization exploded. Today we have the marvel of Singapore and now a new concept in city life on the banks of the Danube.

The sustainable city
The Hegyeshalom-Bezenye Project is the best of both worlds.
Last month Hungary issued a statement that it will create a sustainable city, Hegyeshalom-Bezenye, at its northwest border with Slovakia and Austria. It is a lofty undertaking, intended not only to be a self-contained environmental chamber but an economic one as well. The focal points will be greenhouse complexes for the year-round cultivation of peppers, tomatoes, aubergines or kitchen herbs. Europe’s largest onshore sh farming will be done here as well as commercial processing, including cold processing; there will be storage and a logistics center in addition to modern, family-friendly residential areas with schools, shopping centers and hotel and conference centers. The city will process its own waste water and provide fresh water collection. Hungary has enlisted the rms of Fakt AG and E.ON Business Solutions to undertake the planning of the city.
But that’s not all! There’s more
The new city also will feature a self-contained economic model as well. It will employ 5,000 people within its, as you will, doors. The city, with neutral carbon emissions, will rely mainly on solar and biogas energy and will create permanent jobs in greenhouses, said Nikolai Ulrich, a member of Fakt’s board of directors.
When completed, Hegyeshalom-Bezenye will have around 1,000 homes, restaurants, hotels, railway stations, shopping facilities, as well as schools and training units. The project is based on a sustainable water management policy that aims to avoid lowering groundwater levels.Cooling facilities will be carried out through geothermal plants. A clean infrastructure and horticultural project emphasizes “how a piece of land and vision can create a green business and a common social venture,” said Ulrich. Fakt and its partners say the project will serve as a model for other conversion sites across the continent, including coal regions that will move to clean energy.

A word from their sponsors
Hubert Schulte-Kemper, CEO of Fakt AG: “With the project we want to set a standard for the sustainable integration of work and living in Europe. We increase the value added so that the people in the region profit directly from it. To build a future-oriented energy supply, we have E.ON as a partner who can develop an optimal energy solution for every scale.”
Alexander Fenzl, Country Head Germany of E.ON Business Solutions: “Customers and society demand innovative, sustainable solutions that change our way of life and work today. We support our partner Fakt with sustainable, reliable and yet affordable energy solutions that are essential for shaping the living and working spaces of the future.”
E.ON will develop, implement and operate the climate-friendly energy infrastructure for electricity, heat and cooling for this major project in the border triangle of Hungary-Austria-Slovakia.

Conclusion
This site could easily set the standard for sustainability of the human race. It is are cognition that resources are not infinite and neither are we. In my humble opinion, this is the route we must take. I hope the data achieved from this model will convince the world we need to be responsible for our footprint on life and we can’t just walk anywhere we please.

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