Waste Reduction: From Challenges to Successful Implementation

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.

Kenny is currently serving as the Treasurer of the Hong Kong Waste Management Association (HKWMA). Hong Kong Waste Management Association (HKWMA), inaugurated in 1994, has been the premier organization representing professionals in Hong Kong’s solid waste management and environmental industries. Our members range from government officials, consultants, contractors and academia both locally and internationally.

Kenny is the Co-Founder of EnviPro Technology Company Limited (EnviPro), contributing to consultancy projects related to air, acoustic, odour and health impact assessment in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

In 2021, Kenny appointed by the Government as member of the Advisory Committee on Countryside Conservation (ACCC). Kenny obtained The outstanding alumni Award from the PolyU CEE in 2023.

Our sustainability goals for 2024:

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Progress is impossible without change.

At Cathay, Karen is responsible for the development and execution of sustainability programmes, management and communications to help the Group move towards its net-zero carbon and more sustainable operation. Prior to this, Karen worked as a project manager in an ESG advisory, where she led research, reporting and stakeholder engagement projects for corporate and non-profit clients.

Alfred Weston has worked for the Swire Group since 2011. He spent six years at Swire Pacific Offshore, mainly located in Singapore and Angola, three years at Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong, and three years with John Swire & Sons in Papua New Guinea, before joining New Life Plastics in September 2022.

New Life Plastics aspires to be a catalyst for change in the plastic bottle circular economy in Hong Kong. It is the first recycling facility of its kind in Hong Kong and is focused on recycling PET beverage bottles to a food-grade standard; this enables bottles collected in Hong Kong to be remade back into beverage bottles, closing the bottle-to-bottle loop.

My Sustainability Goal for 2024:

To improve the bottle-to-bottle recycling rate in Hong Kong.