A New Mobility Ecosystem: Innovating for a Low Carbon Future

Eli Konvitz is an expert in sustainability and urban development with experience on five continents. He consults on urban innovation and development, is Vice-Chair of the Urban Land Institute in Hong Kong, and adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong.

He has led masterplans for new cities, urban regeneration, transit oriented development, reclamation and waterfront development, industrial, tourism and leisure projects. He is experienced in masterplanning and urban design, large-scale urbanisation and regional strategies, and climate change strategy and policy. In 2006 he led the ground-breaking creation of the evidence base for climate change in the London Plan, and in 2008 he pioneered creation of a mechanism to fund and drive low-carbon retrofit of existing buildings.

Eli was previously Director of Atkins’ Planning and Urban Design practice in South East Asia and Net Zero leader for Asia; Asia Practice Lead for Consulting, Strategy and Advisory; and Chair of Atkins’ Urban Planning Global Network. Prior to joining Atkins, he was at Arup in London and co-founder of startup localCarbon.

A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and has an MSc in Town Planning from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, he is Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, a member of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, sits on the Advisory Board of AMRACE in Malaysia and on the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design’s Public Affairs and International and Mainland Affairs Committees.

Allyson Browne is Pacific Environment’s Climate Campaign Director, leading their Ports for People campaign to end port and ship pollution. Allyson has contributed to renewable energy and climate policy for more than 10 years, including as Director of Regulatory Affairs for SRECTrade, where she collaborated with industry and grassroots organizations on renewable energy policies; as Chief of Staff to Jared Blumenfeld for California Governor Newsom’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, Energy & Environment team; and as a consultant on energy in cities, cannabis, and cryptocurrency. She contributed to systemic and emerging climate movement ecosystem mapping at Climate2025 and global research on renewable energy development for REN21’s Renewables in Cities Global Status Report. Allyson holds a Juris Doctor degree from GGU School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from USC Marshall School of Business. She lives in San Francisco.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

Hong Kong is uniquely positioned to accelerate momentum and progress on sustainability and to spread that change worldwide. I hope that this event will serve as a springboard for ideas and opportunities for cross-sector, public and private collaboration on innovative solutions. With the support of policy, finance and private sector innovation, we can advance a just, equitable and sustainable future for everyone.

Adam is a dynamic leader and visionary, with a proven track record of delivering transformational changes to bus systems around the world including London, Singapore and Hong Kong. Adam established Ascendal Group in 2018, with a vision of bringing cities to life through public transport and now has operations in four continents. He is currently CEO of Bravo Transport, owner of Citybus (responsible for moving around 1 million passengers a day) and Bravo Media (Hong Kongs second largest media agency).   He has actively pushed for Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Buses to be operated in Hong Kong and has approval to commence trials later this year, and introduced Hong Kongs first ever battery electric double deck bus, leading the way for zero emission buses in Hong Kong.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

We are active in working with Government to fast track zero emission buses to Hong Kong. We also believe there is a tremendous opportunity to transform public transport in Hong Kong to generate further modal shift which will have a substantial impact in Hong Kong.

Christoph is appointed as General Manager Hong Kong, South China and Macau for Lufthansa Group since February 1, 2020. He is responsible for Passenger Sales of Lufthansa German Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) in Hong Kong, South China and Macau market.

Christoph previously worked as Head of Content & Dialogue Marketing for SWISS based in Zurich. He was responsible for airline sponsoring, event management, social media channels, newsletters and tourism partnerships.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023

• Raise and increase the awareness of sustainability in the aviation and tourism industry in Hong Kong.
• Promote the transition and investment of Hong Kong to become a green tourism hub.

Ian Reeds is a Principal Engineer at Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group.

He is a transportation systems engineer, delivering low carbon infrastructure design and rail and transport planning on transit developments globally including Southeast Asia, Middle East, Japan and Australia. His projects have included a range of light and heavy rail, high speed, metro, bus and alternative systems, such as Personal Rapid Transit and Autonomous Rapid Transit. He is based in Hong Kong.

Ian is a Chartered Member of The Institute of Mechanical Engineering.