2022 Conference
Theatres & Programme Overviews
2022 Conference Theatres & Programme Overviews
The 130+ sessions for ReThink HK 2022 were hosted concurrently on seven theatres/stages plus a series of deep-dive workshops. The programme designed as a dynamic content matrix structured by topic, industry and job function for corporates, enterprise businesses and SMEs.
ReThink is Hong Kong’s most comprehensive forum for discussing how businesses can “build back better” by mitigating against climate change, investing in technology, using resources sustainably and reducing inequality.
Through shared responsibility, collective change and a pivot in the way organisations measure success, we are taking a moonshot here – encouraging businesses to embrace innovation, work together, respect and protect our waterways and biodiversity and commit to improving the lives of all.
Our ambition is significant, but so is the challenge ahead for our city and our planet.
Day 1 : 05 Oct 2022
Opening Welcome & Keynote Address
- Our Planet, Our Business
- From Ambition to Action: Hong Kong’s Race Towards a Net-Zero Future
- The Full Picture: Addressing Scope 3 Emissions Through Engagement and Empowerment
- Preparing for the Next Threat: The Business Case for Investing in Climate Adaptation and Resilience
Business for Biodiversity
supported by The Nature Conservancy
- Biodiversity is Everyone’s Business: A Wake-Up Call from Nature
- Getting It Right: Aligning Nature and Net-Zero Strategies
- Waves of Opportunity: Tapping into the Trillion $ Sustainable Ocean Economy
- Mobilising Private Investment and Innovation to Scale Up Nature-Based Solutions
Day 2 : 06 Oct 2022
The Sustainability Imperative for Business
- Opening Address: Net Positive
- Where We Are, Where We’re Headed: The New Ambition Powering Hong Kong’s Conglomerates
- From Strength to Strength: Financing Our Transition to a Sustainable Economy
- Benchmarking Sustainability Reporting: Transparency, Comparability and Accountability
Hong Kong and Beyond: Resetting Our Planet’s Trajectory Together
in partnership with The Global Institute For Tomorrow (G.I.F.T.)
- All Hands on Deck: Catalysing Business Leadership and Policy Ambition in Innovations for a Sustainable Future
- Rethinking Business Through a 2050 Lens: Aligning Short-Term Planning and Long-Term Strategies
- A Just Transition: Prioritising Basic Needs and Creating Business Opportunities of the Future
- Bridging the Gaps: Hong Kong’s Role in Advancing the Sustainability Dialogue Between China, ASEAN and Beyond
Headline Theatre Sponsor : Schneider Electric (Hong Kong) Limited
Day 1 : 05 Oct 2022
Mainstreaming Circularity in Business Strategies and Practices
Business is key in our transition to a circular economy. Companies large and small benefit from a business model that minimises waste and keeps materials and products in circulation in a high value state and for as long as possible.
Mainstreaming Circularity in Business Strategies and Practices is designed to highlight the circular economy transformation as one that will drive sustainable and resilient economic growth, help industry achieve its Sustainable Development Goals, and meet the needs of future generations.
Day 2 : 06 Oct 2022
Mainstreaming Sustainability for SMEs (Cantonese with English interpretation)
Programme Sponsor : HSBC
Hong Kong’s SME sector is 340,000 companies strong. Opportunities for SMEs in sustainability are many and offer tangible business value – from building supply chain resilience and meeting changing customer and investor expectations, to winning new business.
Hosted in Cantonese with English interpretation, Mainstreaming Sustainability for SMEs is designed to showcase sustainability as a huge growth opportunity for SMEs in Hong Kong, and address why and how adopting sustainable business models is crucial to driving long-term success as well as creating value for the communities in which they serve.
Day 1 : 05 Oct 2022
Rethinking People & Purpose
in partnership with Business with Purpose
Purpose is the new Profit. In recent years, purpose is emerging as a competitive advantage and a powerful way to blend business and society. But how can businesses capture this opportunity for better change? How should organisations prioritize purpose to give customers, suppliers, employees and investors the ultimate reason to support and go the extra mile for them?
Rethinking People & Purpose is designed to activate a stronger supporting ecosystem to advance purpose-led values, and to inspire purposeful leadership and future talents for Hong Kong’s business community.
Rethinking Urban Resilience and Liveability
in partnership with Rooftop Republic
Our cities are facing an unprecedented resilience crisis, with our heavy dependence on a global industrialised food system that relies on an unsustainable linear production to disposal model. The global pandemic has further exposed our vulnerabilities, alongside the breakdown of global and national food supply chains. With 70% of the world’s population (6 billion) projected to live in cities by 2045, there is a strong and urgent case for cities to strategise and redesign the way forward.
Farm the City is a movement that brings together practitioners and stakeholders to explore how urban farming can be the catalyst towards greater climate and urban resilience. Through integrating ecology, urban agriculture and the built environment into a regenerative urban ecosystem, we aim to collaboratively imagine and design the blueprint of our future green cities – powered by local, circular food production models.
Day 2 : 06 Oct 2022
Rethinking Workforce Transformation
supported by The British Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Resolve Foundation
In today’s business world, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has power far beyond buzzwords. In addition to being the right thing to do from a moral perspective, there is also a compelling business case for launching DEI programmes in our workplace.
Key discussions in Rethinking Workforce Transformation will address DEI as a business and communication strategy, and why creating a culture of respect and belonging in which all employees feel empowered to contribute their best will only serve to benefit our organisations in the long term.
Rethinking Customers & Communications
in partnership with Golin Limited
The marketer’s function is rapidly changing. Marketers today have a unique chance to influence behaviour change as well as create and implement successful company sustainability strategies as the climate crisis and global warming worsen and social inequity rises.
Rethinking Customers & Communications is designed to challenge what sustainability means to consumers in Hong Kong and Asia. As demand for business agility and the need to cater to Gen Z audiences increases, how are brands reacting to the changing values of today’s consumers and communicating their own sustainability credentials and ambitions?
Day 1 : 05 Oct 2022
HK2050isNow Energy & Mobility Summit
in partnership with HK2050isNow
supported by The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Hong Kong
programme sponsors : Siemens Energy Limited & Siemens Mobility Limited
Hong Kong has set a target to become carbon-neutral by 2050. But can it deliver? What is our best path forward?
The HK2050isNow Energy and Mobility Summit will highlight business strategies, policies and technology for decarbonising energy, in tandem with China’s latest energy commitments as part of the 14th Five Year Plan. It will unpack industry’s input to national energy ambitions, opportunities and gaps in renewable energy procurement and funding, the development and adoption of low-carbon transportation technologies, as well as strategies for a more transit-friendly and pedestrian-centric metropolis.
Day 2 : 06 Oct 2022
Green Monday Food & Sustainability Summit
in partnership with Green Monday
The Green Monday Food & Sustainability Summit is designed to explore the business of sustainable F&B, and how industry leaders and stakeholders can unify to devise roadmaps for sustainable food solutions that fully integrate into corporate governance and strategies to create step changes.
Key discussions will address corporates’ response and input to plant-based offerings in Hong Kong, innovations and collaborations to tackle food waste, long-distance food supply chains and implications for climate and nature.
Headline Theatre Sponsor : HSBC
Day 1 : 05 Oct 2022
Rethinking Finance
supported by Hong Kong Green Finance Association and Sustainable Finance Initiative
Hong Kong’s transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future will require the mobilization of large amounts of funding from public and private sectors.
Rethinking Finance will look into Hong Kong’s rapid expansion of sustainable finance deals, the growing practice of taking ESG into investment considerations, as well as how SMEs, asset owners and multinational corporations can access new breeds of green financing in the city’s efforts to capitalize on its strengths and accelerate its emergence as a green finance hub for the region.
Rethinking Supply Chains
in partnership with the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong
sponsored by OBE
Businesses are stepping up to scrutinize suppliers’ sustainability responsibilities, alongside the development of technology for more credible and timely data collection. It has become imperative for companies to respond to changing stakeholder demands, and innovate to address systemic risks, reduce waste, enhance transparency and improve resilience across entire value chains.
Rethinking Supply Chains will share leading practices in the integration of sustainability into supply chains and procurement processes, expectations for enhanced traceability and control, supplier financing, and tools and quality data for setting and achieving science-based targets.
Day 2 : 06 Oct 2022
Rethinking Built Spaces
in partnership with The Hong Kong Green Building Council
In Hong Kong, buildings and related activities account for about 90% of our electricity usage and 60% of our carbon emissions. In view of the city’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050, as set out by the Government in its Climate Action Plan 2050, the industry is now gearing up its decarbonisation capabilities in the whole building life cycle – from design, construction, operation to retrofitting.
Rethinking Built Spaces is designed to highlight the vision and experiences behind exemplar cases and award-winning projects, covering commercial spaces; neighbourhoods and residential spaces; as well as campuses and public buildings, with a view to expediting the net-zero transition and a climate-resilient future for Hong Kong.
Rethinking Waste
in partnership with The Hong Kong Waste Management Association
supported by Drink Without Waste
Rethinking Waste aims to highlight the plethora of proven and developing innovations to reduce, redesign, recover and recycle, as well as why and how new investments and the circularity mindset are crucial to the scale-up of solutions, business acumen, and talent acquisition and retention.
How should public-private partnerships be capitalized to help solve Hong Kong’s escalating waste crisis and significant impacts on our land resources as well as the environment? What organisational and infrastructural challenges remain, and how should businesses engage suppliers and customers on their waste-reduction journey?
Day 1 : 05 Oct 2022
Rethinking Innovation & Technology
in partnership with WHub
supported by The Hong Kong PropTech Association
Meeting sustainable development goals will require the harnessing and maximizing of the potential of technological innovation. How can industry supercharge efforts alongside the innovation ecosystem to deliver a more sustainable future – environmental and social – for Hong Kong in more concrete ways?
Rethinking Innovation & Technology will tap into start-ups, researchers and cutting-edge technology in Hong Kong and beyond, with the aim of bringing together the resources and networks to help businesses develop the right innovation strategy and portfolio for greater impact.
Day 2 : 06 Oct 2022
Rethinking Value
in partnership with Shared Value Initiative Hong Kong
Rethinking Value is an interactive learning experience brought to you by Shared Value Initiative Hong Kong. In this track, participants will build knowledge of shared value across different sectors, challenging traditional notions of value. We will explore the importance of building shared value understanding beyond the private sector, and show how partnership and collaboration across private, public and civil sectors underpin shared value success.
Day 1 : 05 Oct 2022
Social Innovators of Tomorrow
in partnership with Dream Impact
supported by Enactus Hong Kong
There is a tremendous desire among our young people to leverage their talents and work with businesses to design and scale creative solutions to social issues. How can we best translate this passion into innovations for positive impact in Hong Kong?
The Social Innovators of Tomorrow programme will engage budding social entrepreneurs in Hong Kong to discuss the imperative of sustainability within the context of inclusive business models, inherent business opportunities for social impact, as well as the alignment of career and skillset development within this emerging space.
Day 2 : 06 Oct 2022
Green Leaders of Tomorrow
in partnership with the School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong
As climate change rightfully takes centre stage, it is imperative to ensure our next generation is empowered with the appropriate knowledge and skillset to take up the baton for our city’s sustainable development.
The Green Leaders of Tomorrow programme is being designed to facilitate a two-way exchange and engagement between young professionals and sustainability practitioners and business leaders. How do Gen Zs view the current state of play by industry? How should sustainability education be imparted in Hong Kong? Which sectors are expected to have the most green jobs? What are the skills and attributes required of future business leaders?