Ladybird Farm Leisure Center, a family entertainment center (FEC) in Patca, Hungary, bases its entire business operations plan on a philosophy of serving sustainability objectives while still earning acceptable revenues.
According to founder and owner János Handó, the FEC’s modus operandi was born out of a regional civic association he helped establish in 2005 to promote ecotourism. Then in 2012, he began projecting what he feared the Earth could look like for his grandchildren in 25 to 30 years if nothing changed. “I wanted to do whatever I could as a service provider,” Handó says, “so we started our ‘mild green’ journey that has multiple small and big elements.”
Handó says he wants to emphasize the term “mild” because, in his view, attractions shouldn’t simply prohibit bad practices, but also offer alternatives.
“Starting March of this year, we do not sell bottled beverages apart from water. But at the same time, we have installed multiple fruit juice machines and offer paper cups and reusable metal bottles,” he explains. “Just the way visitors drink changes for a garbage-free solution.”
But Ladybird Farm goes much further. It sources 100% of its energy needs via electric energy from photovoltaic solar panels, as well as heat and hot water from biomass and solar. The FEC treats all of its sewage locally through ecological solutions. Even more impressively, Handó says the FEC doesn’t reach these objectives by using government subsidies, but from profits and loans.
“It is a question of mindset and deciding on what is really important,” he says.
The “Pay with Waste” program allows guests to bring aluminum cans, plastic bottles/containers, and paper, and the FEC gives a credit for each item, allowing visitors to pay up to 10% of their admission with waste. “The motivation was to ‘teach’ the concept that reusable waste equals money,” he says. Plus, a fundamental element of decreasing nonreusable waste is the FEC’s approach to catering packaging.
“We only use biodegradable single-use food and beverage containers and cups,” Handó says. “It has a financial impact we cannot fully recover from our customers because a paper cup costs four to five times more than a regular nonreusable plastic cup.”
He says if a new attraction would have a continuous bad impact on the environment, Ladybird Farm won’t install it, and he gives the example of a go-kart track planned for more than a decade. When lithium-ion batteries became more efficient, the FEC built a track and a 40 kW photovoltaic solar farm. He says though the electric karts cost 50% to 80% more than gas-powered karts, and the FEC needs two fleets so that one can be charging while the other is operating, he likes the reduced “carbon footprint” compared with fossil fuel karts.
“From a financial perspective, it is an ‘opportunity cost,’” he says. “Our bottom line is lower; however, the big question is what’s more important, profit or the environment?”
