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About the Association of Conscious Consumers

The Association of Conscious Consumers (ACC) or in Hungarian Tudatos Vásárlók Egyesülete (TVE) has been promoting sustainable, circular, ethical, fair and just consumption and lifestyle choices since 2001.

Our team is dedicated to helping environmental and social issues make more of an impact in the personal decision making of consumers. Besides campaigning and informing consumers since 2009 we put increasing emphasis on facilitating behaviour change for decreasing the ecological footprint of consumers and maximizing their social impact.

Flagship activities: 

  • science-based information to consumers to make more sustainable choices (free and subscription-based product and service tests);
  • own consumer media contents and calls for action related to sustainable consumption, consumer engagement and behaviour change (tudatosvasarlo.hu);
  • behaviour change programs;
  • promoting local, sustainable and fair food supply chains, especially community supported agriculture and other local solidarity based food systems, and the expansion of markets for real green and fair products;
  • digital innovations for sustainable and fair consumer choices: Conscious Consumer phone app

Our activities are backed with trend hunting and research.

Conscious Consumer magazine (tudatosvasarlo.hu) 

Tudatos_Vasarlok logoWe launched our online sustainable lifestyle magazine in 2004 and it was the first lifestyle magazine dedicated to this topic, front runner of many mainstream magazines that by today also cover sustainability issues. Ever since we are still the only dedicated, independent, ad free magazine for sustainability. Our annual readership (without product tests) exceeds 1.3 million individual users.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Tudatos_Vasarlok_Közössegi_mezogazdalkodas logoACC has been promoting and supporting local, sustainable and fair food supply chains, with special focus on Community Supported Agriculture and other local solidarity based food systems since 2008. In CSA growers and consumers provide mutual support, sharing the risks and benefits of food production. CSA farms in Hungary provided more than 1,200 families with fresh, local, seasonal and mostly organic vegetables, meat, eggs and fruit in the 2022 season.

ACC regularly organises training courses to help such communities to operate: enabling farmers to start their own CSA initiative, helping them to maintain long-term financial sustainability, educating engaged consumers for more democratic participation in their food communities through personal trainings and online materials.

ÖkoKörök logoEcoTeams behaviour change program 

ACC has been organizing EcoTeams since 2010. EcoTeams in practice means small (5 to 10 members) peer support groups led by a coach. In a step-by-step process, participants learn how to make their consumption and lifestyle more sustainable. We train volunteer coaches who then run their own groups supported by mentoring. Since the beginning we trained 440 volunteer coaches and more than 3000 people participated in the program, making an impact on the lives of more than 7200. The program includes modules for improving the sustainability literacy of participant, eg. how to read product labels, green claims. The EcoTeams is followed by an impact measurement module that shows that the program is efficient in reducing the ecological footprint of participants and keep their new, sustainable routines on several years term.

Product tests  

Termektesztek logoAs a member of International Consumer Research & Testing (ICRT) we publish 30 product (domestic appliances, domestic chemicals, personal care, leisure, child products, food, etc.) and service tests annually, when possible also assessing the sustainability features of the tested subjects. We are independent of product manufacturers, and act exclusively in the interest of consumers, enabling them to make more informed, sustainable choices when purchasing.

The annual reach of our test-site is ca. 650 000 individual users.

Conscious Consumer App 

In 2021 we launched and promoted the Conscious Consumer app, which helps people find products that are less harmful to health and the environment by scanning the barcodes of products during shopping. More than 18.000 people downloaded the app in the first two years. News about the app were featured 87 times in the Hungarian media in 2021, reaching nearly 800,000 readers.

Besides the above flagship activities we have organized exhibitions, held various events including local foods fairs,  launched a lawsuit over a deliberately misleading marketing campaign,  given lessons to public and professional audience, built an interactive eco-map, conduct research, and published books, magazines and other informational materials. We also help facilitate cooperation and the exchange of best practices between and within groups of dedicated, conscious consumers and farmers. We reach more than a million people annually through our publications and campaigns.

Cooperation is key as we combine our expertise and experience to produce high quality results. We believe in what we do and enjoy our work while taking it very seriously.

Ongoing projects

DIVINFOOD

logo_divinfoodDivinfood programme is co-constructing interactive short and mid-tier food chains to value agrobioDIVersity in healthy plant-based food. The 5-year programme started in 2022. DIVINFOOD has been funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Green & Safe LIFE-Styles

life logoGreen & Safe LIFE-Styles is the project of the Association of Conscious Consumers in Hungary. Between 2018 and 2023 ACC helps consumers to use household chemicals in a more sustainable and safe way.

#OURFOODOURFUTURE

ofof, ökokörOur Food. Our Future brings together 16 civil society organisations in 13 countries and 7 national Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) partner countries across Europe and the world. We build a strong coalition of young people across Europe and work together in the pursuit of our common vision: A socially just and sustainable food system. A food system, which is human rights-based and agroecological. A system in which food sovereignty and migrant workers’ rights have become reality.

CSAct!

CSAct! is a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) collaborative training programme running between 2016-2018. The programme promotes CSA as a cross-border and context-sensitive concept rather than a unique model. Our network thus gives voice to experiences from different backgrounds, from the self-subsistence family-farming model to the well-established organic certified farms.

Food and More

Food and More (2019-1-HU01-KA204-061205, 2019-2021) is a project that focuses on developing a training and mentoring programme tailored to the needs of the members of Community Supported Agriculture groups.

SALSIFi

Advocacy is one of the key actions in the Food Sovereignty movement as it enables us to get our messages out there, to mainstream agroecological thinking and to inform decision-makers so they can support better policies. But what makes a good advocate and what skills are needed? This and other questions are at the centre of the SALSIFi project organised by 10 partner organisations from around Europe.

Our team

Our core values

  • We use reliable sources
    We base our statements and messages on research and facts from credible and verifiable sources of information.
  • We are financially independent
    We have never  received or accepted any kind of support from companies or businesses. We rely on revenue from public grant proposals, membership fees, selling publications, giving lectures and organizing events.
  • We walk the talk
    We apply the principles of sustainability and sustainable, ethical consumption to our organization and throughout its operations.
  • We are committed
    For those working at the association, the issue of sustainable consumption is also important personally. Therefore, our personal commitment to the cause and our jobs drives us to do our very best; our dedication compels us to keep working to make the world a better place.
  • We are inclusive
    In our work we strive to serve all people equally and treat them with the respect they deserve as human beings. We make sure that our services and achievements include disadvantaged groups, women and men, the rich and poor, and elderly and young. As an employer, we are offering a family friendly, flexible workplace.
  • We are creative
    We continually strive to create and realize new projects while making sure our other activities remain up to date,  relevant and interesting. In this regard, the exchange of inspiring ideas and good communication are vital parts of our work. It is our intellectual development, both as a group and personally, that allows us to inspire one another, improve on our work and be creative.
  • We are critical
    We are not utopians nor blind to the realities of the world. We are open to other opinions and believe that there are multiple good solutions to any given problem. We critically reflect ourselves, our operations, beliefs and assumptions, individually and as an organization, so that we can find the best possible solutions.
  • We are democratic
    We make decisions based on consensus with the participation of all our colleagues. We are open to debate and discussion. We regularly evaluate our activities and performance so that we may improve them.
  • We are cooperative
    We make an effort to cooperate with other people and organizations because we can achieve more through cooperation and collaboration than by working alone. Our colleagues, volunteers and supporters help each other by sharing their knowledge and experience.

What is conscious consumption, and who is a conscious consumer?

Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!

Tudatos Vásárlók Egyesülete – Association of Conscious Consumers
Móricz Zsigmond körtér 3/A fsz. 3.
Budapest
Hungary
1114 

Send email to tve [at] tve.hu

Call us on + 36-1-225-8136

Connect us on Social Media: Facebook YouTube – Instagram

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