THE CLUB OF BUDAPEST AWARDS
Starting in the year 1996 the Club of Budapest issued a series of awards for outstanding examples of global consciousness in action. The prizes were given in three categories:
1) The Planetary Consciousness Award
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The Club of Budapest's Planetary Consciousness Prizes are awarded in recognition of the urgent necessity to upgrade the thinking and feeling – the consciousness – of a critical mass of people in today's societies. The problems faced by the world community today are due above all to a lag in the consciousness of people and leaders with respect to the rapidity with which new conditions evolve on this planet.
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The Prizes honor individuals who, in their sphere of personal and profes- sional activity, have been most effective in exhibiting and promoting the universally required new consciousness. Nelson Mandela, Václav Havel, Mikhail Gorbachev, Muhammad Yunus, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Hans Küng and Paolo Coelho can be found among those who have received this award. Sir Peter Ustinov was honored by the Lifetime Achievements Award.
Mikhail Gorbachev showing his award
Ervin Laszlo congratulates Hans Küng for his award
1996 Planetary Consciousness Prize awarded to Václav Havel
Betty Williams giving a talk at the event
2) Change the World—Best Practice Award
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Change occurs through innovation. With the help of Best Practice Projects these innovations can be translated into deeds in an intelli- gent manner. If we desire change towards an ecologically and socially sustainable world, we should develop a special ability to recognize and promote the best practice projects in the world concerning sustainable development - in other words, projects that:
• put into practice the criteria of "Agenda 21" for socially and ecologically sustainable global development in a particularly innovative, exemplary, successful and integral way;
• have a special potential to initiate fundamental processes of change towards a globally responsible and win-win oriented
kind of thinking;
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• have an implicit potential for applicability under different circumstances.
The Dalai Lama with Dr. Maria Sagi (right) and Maria Demcsak (left) during his visit in Budapest
3) The Hungarian Business Ethics Award
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This is an annual prize jointly founded in 2000 on the proposal of the Dalai Lama and managed by Club of Budapest together with the magazine Piac&Profit (Market&Profit). The prize is awarded by an independent jury each year in several categories for those companies operating in Hungary which excel in the field of ethics and social responsibility. The awards are handed out to managers and owners of small, medium sized and big Hungarian companies as well as to business leaders managing local subsidiaries of multinational enterprises. To date more than fifty companies have been hallmarked by the Hungarian Business Award.
Ervin Laszlo and Maria Demcsak with the recipients of the awards
