• The Project
  • Climate Advocates
  • Project highlights
  • News Archive
  • Project Partners

The Project

Challenge Europe was a three year project aiming to accelerate change to a low carbon future. It was active in these 18 countries
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
EstoniaEstonia		 France
Great Britain
Greece
Hungary		 LatviaLatvia
Lithuania
Nth. Ireland/Ireland
Norway		 Poland
Slovakia
Slovenia
Sweden		 Turkey
UkraineUkraine

Climate Advocates

600 young people aged 18-35 worked on climate challenges and local projects to reduce carbon use.

Project highlights

Want to see some advocates' ideas to help fight climate change?

 

News Archive

Read through the archive of news about the project activities between 2008 and 2011

 

Project Partners

Several hundred international and national experts and partners helped the Advocates to develop their ideas. You can find the list of partner organisations below.

 


Nice day for a green wedding! PDF Print E-mail
Have you ever considered organizing a green wedding? If so you can find some hints and tips from a real, eco-friendly wedding Hungarian style right here!
 
If there is one event you will remember for the rest of your life it is your wedding. But what if you want your wedding day to reflect your environmentally friendly, low-carbon lifestyle? Well luckily you can make choices which will allow your wedding to be as green as it is elegant and modern. Tapping into the experiences of real Hungarian green wedding, we have put together some hints and tips on how anyone can hold an environmentally friendly big day.
 
First of all, the invitation cards for your event don’t have to be printed on environmentally costly paper, instead they can be sent by email to family members and friends. Don’t worry! The invitation can still be creative, nicely designed and unique. If you choose this options for invites your guests should also be reminded not to print it out.
 
Green weddings should not be held in a big town or city, instead your location should be somewhere in the countryside, perhaps a small village like Felsőtárkány. By choosing a less frequented place, you are creating demand for service from local suppliers and you create income for the local people. This in turn means you are contributing to the sustainable development of rural area.
 
For the wedding venue, a big beautiful green park with huge, mature trees is the perfect location. If the site happens to be the Bükk National Park, in the north of Hungary, the surrounding mountains will add even more to the ambiance for your big day. Choosing a location near a forest, where animals are grazing and birds are singing, will make you feel closer to nature and make your wedding feel both special and green.
 
A Diverse range of local foods and drinks should be served up to your guests to prevent wracking up huge food kms. In this Hungarian example, local wine, pálinka (special Hungarian fruit spirit) ensured a joyful mood amongst guests. Seasonal, regional fruit are also a great choice at weddings providing guests with a sweet, healthy treat and making great, green centre piece.  

The responsible guests, who came from far and wide, took advantage of shared car use whilst the happy couple arrived in a bioflex fuel car which creates much less pollution than a traditional car.

For entertainment and dancing why not try to find a classical acoustic band instead of energy consuming electric based groups. Akos Lukacs, ex-advocate and head of the Hungarian 10:10 campaign, is also a talented folk contra-bassist so his band were happy to provide traditional folk music for the wedding guests to dance to. By hiring acoustic band less electricity is used during the wedding celebrations.

If you pay attention to all details and try to organize your marriage in summer time,  then natural light is perfectly sufficient to highlight the ceremony and there is no need for heating! The hotel and restaurant, where our example marriage took place, has recently started construction on a renewable energy heating system so even in the colder months, some weddings can still be warm and green. If you can also make sure that waste is collected in a selective way, recycling is made much easier.

 
What made this green marriage particularly special?
 
With not 1 but 2 of our Hungarian climate champions being part of this bridal couple, it was bound to be a green affair.
When Mariann, a present advocate and Gábor, a previous advocate, decided to tie the knot they knew they wanted to organize the most eco-friendly wedding possible so as to honor their environmental lifestyle choice. Some well known climate advocates  were delighted to help the happy couple celebrate this joyful day.
Gábor, environmental diplomat for the Permanent Representation of Hungary in Brussels, proved to be very good at multitasking as not only did he marry his beautiful young fiancée but also engaged in some serious work for the 10:10 global campaign by cutting his carbon emission by 10%!
 
What a great green day!
 
 
 
 
 
This grass-roots project aimed to be the first step in helping a densely populated Athenian community to make lasting changes towards sustainability in a socially and historically important area of the capital. The project focused on changing behaviour through a series of workshops which informed people about energy efficiency and ‘greening’ initiatives in buildings.