AI for Sustainable Practices in Retail: Bridging Innovation and Sustainability

Michael is Co-Founder and CEO of Impala Services and Pergamon Labs, specialising in AI-driven compliance documentation for the retail and consumer goods industries. He is not a technologist by background but a documentation and compliance expert who built an AI platform, a distinction that shapes how he approaches regulatory change: as an operational problem to be solved with structure and data, not a reporting exercise.

As a Board Member of the German Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Michael co-chairs both the Sustainability Committee and the AI Committee. He co-developed the Chamber’s AI Transformation Blueprint, a seven-pillar readiness framework now applied across member companies, and contributed to the Committee’s “Green Future — Empowering Sustainable Compliance” guide for member companies and their suppliers. He continues to work with the Sustainability Committee on practical tools that help Asian suppliers understand which EU requirements apply to them. He is also Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence and Industry Association.

He holds a Master’s in Technical Documentation, is a Certified AI Transformation Leader, and brings over 20 years of leadership in retail and consumer goods across Europe and Asia.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

Making EU regulation navigable for Asian suppliers. CBAM, the Digital Product Passport and PPWR are landing on factories that often learn about them from a buyer’s email. I want the gap between European legislation and Asian shop-floor reality to narrow, through practical tools, not more guidance documents.

Treating compliance data as an asset, not a cost. Companies collecting carbon, material and traceability data for regulators are sitting on the same data that improves sourcing decisions. The businesses that build this properly once will have an advantage over those that rebuild it for every new regulation. The industry should stop solving identical problems in parallel behind closed doors.