Environmental protection in the reports of medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Hungary - a regional perspective

Nowadays, we are confronted with the importance of environmental protection everywhere, whether we browse the internet or walk down the street, we find news and advertisements about it everywhere. But it is not only an issue for individuals, but it is also increasingly important for companies, as they must comply with ever stricter legislation and international consumer expectations. Studies on environmental investment have been around since the end of the last century, but in this research, we focus on the SME sector, including the Hungarian manufacturing industry. The manufacturing industry was chosen because it is one of the largest industries in Hungary and is therefore likely to be more numerous in several regions for comparability in terms of regionality.The aim of the research is to investigate whether there are regional differences or similarities between medium-sized enterprises in the domestic manufacturing sector in terms of environmental expenditure and the information reported on it. Research on environmental sustainability activities and ecological footprint calculations in the corporate sector is available, and there are several methods for regional sustainability efforts that form the basis of our analysis.The research was carried out on a 239-item sample of medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Hungary, using content analysis to examine the supplementary annexes and annual reports of selected enterprises. Results are presented in a regional context.