Beyond Carbon: Exploring the Water Cycle, Water-Climate Nexus and Hidden Water Footprints in Sustainability
11 Sep (Thur) Day 1 : 15:45 – 17:15
This session explores the often-overlooked role of water in sustainability, going beyond carbon to address its critical interconnections with climate and ecosystems. Participants will gain insights into Hong Kong’s water usage and its broader implications on the natural water cycle, including the interconnectedness of water with biodiversity and climate. The session will also uncover the concept of water footprints, highlighting how invisible water consumption dominates daily activities like food production, transportation, and technology. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of why water is central to sustainability efforts and how individual and collective actions can make a difference.
Learnings:
- Hong Kong’s Water Reality: Uncover myths about water consumption and management in Hong Kong.
- The Hidden Web of the Natural Water Cycle: Understand why water connects not just rivers and oceans, but also soil, plants, and all living beings.
- The Invisible Water Footprint: Discover how hidden water use in food, transport, and technology dominates our daily consumption.
- The Water-Climate Connection: Explore how climate change intensifies water insecurity, impacting ecosystems, agriculture, and communities globally.
- Actionable Insights for Sustainability: Learn practical ways to rethink water use and integrate it into sustainability strategies.
Post-Event Actions:
- Assess and reduce personal and organizational water footprints.
- Advocate for water-conscious practices in food, transport, and use of technology.
- Promote awareness of the natural water cycle and its link to sustainability.
- Support policies and initiatives addressing water security and climate change.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to integrate water management into sustainability strategies.
Speakers
Joyce Wong
Co-founder
Better Futures
Joyce Wong
Co-founder
Joyce is the Co-founder and Sustainability Lead at Better Futures. She drives sustainability projects and builds cross-sector partnerships to tackle complex social and environmental challenges. A firm believer in systems thinking and cross-sector cooperation, she has spearheaded initiatives in impact financing, social housing, waste reduction, and healthcare infrastructure planning.
At Better Futures, Joyce guides clients across diverse industries—including property, retail, hospitality, utilities, and investment banking—through their sustainability journeys. Her services range from awareness building and leadership training to co-creating transition strategies and implementation plans.
Drawing on over 13 years of impact consulting experience across Hong Kong, Asia, and London, Joyce brings expertise in stakeholder consultation, research, and strategy development to public and private sector organizations. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and an MA from Leipzig University and is passionate about empowering organizations to build a more sustainable future through innovation and collaboration.
My Sustainability Goals for 2025:
1. Facilitate the adoption of a systems approach to corporate and societal sustainability transitions
- Go beyond carbon/climate to address nature/biodiversity, and the intersection of social and environmental challenges.
- Promote the use of systems thinking or foresight tools to foster cross-sector cooperation for more holistic solutions.
2. Promote sustainability and circularity as a sound business strategy for corporates
- Emphasize opportunities for cost savings, revenue growth, innovation, and key levers of change such as supply chain engagement and technological innovation.
- Showcase good practices and case studies to demonstrate tangible benefits and inspire wider adoption.
Basel Kirmani
Managing Director
Turquoise Sustainability
Basel Kirmani
Turquoise Sustainability
Managing Director
Over the course of his 20 year corporate career in Asia, Basel Kirmani saw the lack of corporate sustainability education in the region. He started running workshops, trainings, advocacy sessions and volunteering events within his own company to improve sustainability culture across the region; not just for the sake of greenwashing, but to help future-proof the company.
He founded Turquoise Sustainability to provide sustainability education in Hong Kong, foster a culture of sustainability in companies who are struggling with the transition, and help companies position themselves to withstand the storms to come. His offering includes The Carbon Literacy Project training, Climate Fresk and Biodiversity Collage workshops.
He holds a masters degree in chemistry from the University of Cambridge, and a range of sustainability credentials, including the Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA), GRI Certified Professional, and SASB FSA.
My Sustainability Goals for 2025:
- Sustainability being a factor in business decisions, just as much as P&L and PR.
- Sustainability goals as well as standard KPIs included in JDs when advertising for jobs – making it evident that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility
- Employee-led initiatives being a driver of companies reducing their carbon footprint (i.e. not initiatives led by the sustainability department)
With thanks to
Swire Properties Limited
Swire Properties develops and manages commercial, retail, hotel and residential properties, typically mixed-use developments in prime areas. Established in Hong Kong in 1972, we have investments across Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Singapore and the US. Adhering to our core values of integrity, originality, long-term focus and quality, we aim to create sustained value by developing and managing large-scale mixed-use projects that serve as focal points of the surrounding urban areas.
Our sustainability goals for 2026:
In 2025, Swire Properties announced its updated Sustainable Development (SD) 2050 Vision and Strategy. Guided by a new vision, “Building the World’s Most Sustainable Communities”, the new strategy aims to lead transformative changes in the built environment by harmonising business, people and nature, while also supporting the Company’s ambitious business growth plans in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and Southeast Asia.
Focused on four long-term commitments – Zero Harm, Net-Zero Carbon, Zero Waste to Landfill and Water Neutrality – the new Strategy will continue to drive impactful change through a total of 140 ambitious targets over the next decade, with innovative strategies across five strategic pillars: Places, People, Partners, Planet and Performance.
Key strategic targets include:
- Climate Transition: Deliver on near term, long term and net zero emissions targets validated under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Buildings Criteria, as the first real estate company in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland to have such targets validated;
- Nature and Biodiversity: As part of a new Nature Transition Plan, the Company targets to deliver nature-positive outcomes across the whole building lifecycle, from land acquisition and procurement to integrating nature-positive solutions into new development projects during the planning and design stages;
- Tenant Engagement Programmes: Scale up the Company’s proprietary tenant engagement programmes by committing to engage 70% of office tenants in the Green Performance Pledge, 100 of retail tenants in the Green Retail Partnership and 35% of food and beverage tenants in the Green Kitchen Initiative by 2030;
- Supplier Engagement: Strengthen the current proactive, strategic partnership approach to engage 100% of suppliers in sustainability/ESG risk screening to raise the supply-chain ESG performance, and expand sustainable procurement targets across new development projects, existing portfolios and hotels;
- Green Finance: Commit to having more than 90% of bond and loan facilities from green financing by 2035.
Legal Name: Swire Properties Limited
General Enquiry Email Address: sustainabaledevelopment@swireproperties.com
General Enquiry Phone Number: 2844 4900
General Business Address: 18/F , One Island East, Taikoo Place, 18 Westlands Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
