BEC Business Transformation Theatre

Reduce: Our Waste-free Future

Day 1 : 11:30 – 12:20

Hong Kong has one of the highest waste generation rates per capita in the world and our landfills are rapidly approaching capacity, with these facts in hand, it is imperative for government, businesses and organisations to take action as we strive towards a waste-free future. Arguably, these actions should be considered in the first place to reduce consumption as much as possible, which are much more efficient than downstream recycling solutions.  

Learnings 

  • How can we systematically and effectively reduce wastage from every aspect of business operations. 
  • What are the key principles for businesses to take to mainstream circular economy in operations 
  • Can circular economy practice by businesses lead to positive impact to our environment and society? 

Post-event actions 

  • Understand the importance of embedding circular economy principles in business plans and sustainability strategies. 

Speakers

Edwin Lau

The Green Earth

Founder and Executive Director

Mr Edwin Lau is currently the Founder and Executive Director of The Green Earth, an environmental organization promoting resource conservation and zero-waste culture. He has been actively engaged in environmental protection work since the late 1980s. During the period, he placed great concern on several pressing environmental topics, e.g. waste management, air pollution, climate change and energy conservation.

Mr Lau is currently a member of CUHK Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change Expert Committee and senior advisor of Hong Kong Solar Industries Association.

In 2009, Mr Lau was awarded the Medal of Honour by the HKSAR Government in recognition of his long-term contribution to the promotion of environmental protection and environmental education. In the same year, he was also awarded an Outstanding Earth Champion by The Earth Champions Foundation.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

  • Shelving the waste-charging scheme does not mean the city’s waste crisis has gone, instead, we must act stronger in avoiding waste generation at source and followed by practising clean recycling to genuinely address the waste crisis.
  • Hong Kong should do more in enhancing the building energy efficiency of the entire building stock.
  • Renewable energy, including Green Hydrogen, should be developed much faster to supply the city with zero-carbon renewables to cope with the increasing demand, otherwise even with faster transition to electric transport would not contribute much in decarbonisation.
  • We need to educate the public a lot more to raise their environmental awareness so that the majority of the population will act green continuously.

Pippo Au

Head of Supply Chain

Pippo Au is the supply chain head in Maxim’s Group leading the strategic procurement and planning for multiple restaurants concepts in Hong Kong & Macau. Besides the role of a supply chain management professional, he is one of the company’s sustainability working committee who drives various sustainable initiatives.

Pippo’s strength lies in his ability to help Maxim’s Group navigating complex sustainability challenges by leveraging his functional expertise and collaborative approach, he has proven successful case to drive sustainability development through supply chain partner’s integration and circularity programs.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

  • More successful industry best practice models and solution platforms developed to facilitate scalable roll-out into significant impact to the society.
  • We embed circularity & sustainability into the business we do and with everyone we work with.

Louis Chan

Senior Environmental Business Manager

A practising professional in waste management for over 28 years, in Hong Kong as well as other Asia Pacifiic regions.

Hands-on person in project development, design, execution and operations. Fluent in all key engineering disciplines , and is in particular a registered professional mechanical and environmental engineer. Solid experiences in turnkey execution of environmental engineering facilities, for example a local biogas-to-towngas processing facility.

Former Chairman of Hong Kong Waste Management Association between 2009 and 2012, and had led several cross-border exchanges as well as responses to government consultations on waste and environmental management matters.

Executive Committee Member of the Hong Kong Green Strategy Alliance since its inauguration in 2012.

Dedicated in advancing Hong Kong to reduce waste, to increase recycling rate as well as to nurture the next generation of environmental professionals for a sustainable Hong Kong.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

Increasing recycling rates in all sorts of wastes, no matter commercially viable or otherwise by themselves, and turn the recycled products and materials into open and accountable figures and numbers so the general public will appreciate what they had acehieved and for a more proactive attitude on a long-run.

Samantha de Mello

Cluster ESG Manager – Hong Kong

Samantha is the ESG manager for the Hyatt hotel cluster in Hong Kong; comprising of four properties. After spending 10 years in F&B and marketing, Samantha began her journey in making a difference in the hospitality industry at Grand Hyatt Singapore. After attaining her Masters in Corporate Environmental Governance at The University of Hong Kong, Samantha continues to working closely with teams across the Hong Kong based Hyatt hotels to advance sustainability in the industry.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

  • To inspire action to tackle climate change, no matter how small.
  • To increase the level of accountability from businesses.

Andes Mong

Section Manager of Food Audit and Training, Knowledge Solutions

Andes Mong has over 24 years of working experience in food industries across the Asia Pacific region, specializing in food quality and safety management. He has proven leadership to establish and maintain an effective management function capable of effectively handling risks associated with the Company’s ongoing businesses and strategic initiatives on food sustainability, quality and food safety issues.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

A clearer and more defined sustainability goal in the public and private sectors can be established and promoted. Additionally, more practical and cost-effective approaches can be implemented in sustainability projects in food supply chains or other sustainability activities.

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