Nature-Positive Development: Harnessing the Power of Nature for Sustainable Growth

Dr Winnie Law is the Deputy Director and Principal Lecturer at the Centre for Civil Society and Governance of The University of Hong Kong. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on sustainable development, community planning and environmental management. She also works with a team of researchers and conducts policy research, action research and knowledge exchange projects on rural revitalization, social innovation, community engagement and corporate sustainability. Dr Law has been a director of the long established green green group in Hong Kong, The Conservancy Association, since 2005 and is currently the association’s Vice Chair. Dr Law served on a number of HKSAR Government’s advisory committees including Advisory Council for the Environment, Environment and Conservation Fund Committee, Board of Trustees of Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund, and Assessment Panel of Innovation and Technology Fund for Better Living. At the regional level, Dr Law was commissioned by the EU and UNDP as a planning and social monitoring expert for their city planning and environmental management programmes in Vietnam.

Dr. Bosco Chan has been leading biodiversity research and conservation projects in China and Cambodia over the last 20 years, running exciting projects such as saving the world’s rarest primate the Hainan Gibbon, conserving Hainan’s largest rainforest block, protecting Cambodia’s threatened deciduous dipterocarp forest, and discovering new species from unexplored forests. Dr. Chan has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and is a member of various IUCN/SSC Specialist Groups, contributing to the conservation of threatened species in Hong Kong and the broader region.

Mr. Chan is a practicing landscape architect with academic backgrounds in architecture, project management, law, and landscape architecture. In former years of his career, he obtained a variety of experience through renowned architectural consultancies and construction companies. He was head of project management department of an international property developer. He then practiced landscape architecture and urban design at Earthasia Limited and became director of the company. He later joined the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi) as the founding head of landscape architecture. In 2018 he joined Otherland Limited as a co-founder and director. Mr. Chan has taken up leadership on a wide range of landmark projects in Hong Kong and nearby regions covering landscape planning and design of the public realm, institutional, infrastructural, residential, and commercial projects.

Mr. Chan serves a number of professional, consultative bodies and NGOs. He is the current President of the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects (HKILA), member of the Appeal Board Panel (Town Planning), member of the Advisory Committee on the Northern Metropolis Sub-committee on Planning, Land and Conservation, member of the Land and Development Advisory Committee’s Building Sub-committee and Joint Sub-committee on Streamlining Development Control, member of the DEVB’s Urban Forestry Advisory Panel, member of the DEVB’s Common Spatial Data Advisory Committee, and an Executive Committee member of Playright Children’s Play Association. He is also the current Chairperson of the Climate Change and Biodiversity Working Group of the International Federation of Landscape Architects Asia Pacific Regions. On behalf of HKILA and ALC, Mr. Chan led and successfully completed the government funded projects Development of the landscape architectural profession in Hong Kong and its Positioning in the Region between 2013 and 2015 and Resilient City – Landscape Planning towards Climate Adaptation between 2018 and 2020.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

1. Adopt nature-positive and climate-positive design in developments.

2. Champion landscape for the wellbeing of people of all ages.

3. Drives awareness for a more resilient city under climate and nature emergencies.

Freeman Cheung co-founded the Hong Kong Institute of Qualified Environmental Professionals in 2015 and was elected President in 2023. Mr Cheung works at AECOM as Senior Vice President, Environment with a large portfolio of environmental improvement projects including the recent engagement in the Northern Metropolis as well as advising clients on how to improve their ESG performance. He also serves the Hong Kong Institute of Environmental Impact Assessment and the Environmental Management Association of Hong Kong as Chairman and other capacities in the past and is a member of the Environmental Impact Assessment Appeal Board Panel and the Advisory Committees on Environmental Science for Chinese University of Hong Kong and City University of Hong Kong. He also teaches at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and City University of Hong Kong on various environmental subjects.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

Implement nature positive infrastructures to help combat climate change.

Creating nature based-solution for urban development projects.

Encourage blue-green infrastructure to enhance climate resilient.

Dr Kennish has worked with ERMs Clients in the Asia Pacific region for the last 28 years on managing their sustainability risks and opportunities.  Robin’s focus is on helping Clients on their net zero journey and working with their teams to ensure that a robust ESG strategy is in place.  He is working with power companies, conglomerates and asset management firms on aligning their climate change disclosures with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure requirements.  Robin has recently worked with two HKEX listed companies on their Nature strategy which has included looking as risks and opportunities, value chain impacts as well as preparation of TNFD aligned disclosure for ESG reports.  Robin has a PhD in Marine Sciences and his Biodiversity and Nature experience has ranged from developing corporate level policies through to site level assessments and habitat creation plans..

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

I am committed to working alongside my ERM team and our Clients in Hong Kong to get us on a path to a net-zero and nature positive world.