Pioneering Circular Practices for Sustainable Built Environment

With over twelve years of experience in operations, manufacturing, and customer success, Jose is a passionate and multi-disciplined professional leading Spare-it’s APAC office. Spare-it, a PropTech and sustainability company, is transforming how organizations measure, report, and reduce in-building waste. Our mission is to accelerate circularity through data , embodying our tagline: “More Data. Less Waste.”.

As General Manager, Jose has been instrumental in partnering with key Property Developers and Multinational Companies to revolutionize waste intelligence. Spare-it transforms waste into actionable insights, moving organizations beyond messy, limited audits to scalable, clean data. This enables our customers to pinpoint contamination, reduce waste, and drive cost savings. Jose’s leadership helps organizations Make Zero Waste a Team Sport, turning waste goals into tangible, attainable, and motivating outcomes for everyone involved.
Jose’s multicultural and multi-industry experience enables him to think strategically and effectively influence colleagues and clients across diverse technical and C-level backgrounds. He has a strong track record of delivering results, collaborating with partners, and driving innovation in the PropTech and sustainability sectors.
Jose holds an MBA from HKU Business School, a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey, and a Six Sigma certification. He is fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, with intermediate proficiency in French and Mandarin.

My Sustainability Goals for 2025:

1. Prioritize Waste Avoidance.
2. Drive Upstream Solutions for Circularity: Tackle the waste problem at its root.
3. Champion Ethical and Sustainable AI

Dr Amie Lai, General Manager, Sustainability at Great Eagle, leads the design and implementation of long-term decarbonization and net zero roadmaps, climate and sustainability strategies for the company’s global operations. By engaging stakeholders, setting targets, and developing corresponding action plans, Dr Amie Lai leads a team that manages the full spectrum of the company’s environmental, social, and economic impacts. She strives to further ingrain sustainability into Great Eagle’s corporate culture and business practices.

Phoebe Leung is the Senior Sustainable Development Manager of Swire Properties. Her work involves supporting the Company’s Sustainable Development (SD) 2030 Strategy as well as action plans and programmes to improve the company’s overall SD performance.

She leads the planning and execution of Swire Properties’ SD tenant engagement strategy and bespoke tenant programmes, such as the Green Performance Pledge and Green Kitchen Initiative, fostering landlord-tenant partnerships to incorporate sustainability throughout the design, fit-out and occupancy stages.

In addition, she drives the Company’s Resource and Circularity Taskforce, made up of representatives from portfolio teams and hotels, to regularly analyse waste performance and facilitate new initiatives. She leads the development of new partnerships and innovations to design out waste, encourage reuse and enhance resource recovery. Her recent projects include the Taikoo Place Smart Reusable Cup and Food Box Programme, and launching the Smart Waste Reduction Challenge which utilises smart scales and a digital engagement platform to gamify the Company’s collective sustainability journey with tenants.

Phoebe is a Chartered Environmentalist and also holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University.

Carmen Ng is currently the Deputy General Manager – Sustainability of Hang Lung Properties. In her role, she is responsible for the development and implementation of sustainability strategy to deliver Hang Lung Properties’ Sustainability Goals and Targets through collaboration and partnership with internal and external stakeholders. She also leads the coordination and delivery of the annual Sustainability Report, aligning with local and international reporting standards such as HKEx, GRI, IFRS and TNFD. Her areas of expertise include ESG ratings, sustainable finance, investor relations, resource management, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability communication.

Prior to joining Hang Lung Properties, she was the Director of Sustainability at Langham Hospitality Group. She led and drove an integrated global sustainability strategy across the Group’s 27 hotels in 8 countries, setting medium- to long-term goals and commitments. In 2021, she received the Hotels Magazine’s Inaugural Top 10 Awardees in the ESG Category.

Carmen gained over 20 years of corporate environmental expertise by working for private companies in the real estate sector, public and NGO sectors in Hong Kong, and environmental consultancies in Los Angeles and Hong Kong. She is also the Advisory Board for GREEN Hospitality, a member of Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Incubation Assessment Panel, and a member of the think tank for ReThink Conference. Carmen holds a BSc in Environment Studies at the University of Southern California and MSc in Environmental Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Stefano Tronci
Associate Principal – Asia Pacific Sustainability Lead, SOM

RIBA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP + Faculty, Green Mark Associate, Fitwel Ambassador,
RESET AP

Stefano is an Italian architect with nearly 20 years of professional experience specializing in the design of
mixed-use developments, master planning, civic architecture, urban design, and interior design.

A graduate of the University of Florence, he currently serves as the Asia Pacific Sustainability Lead at SOM, where he collaborates with a multidisciplinary team of environmental experts in sustainable engineering and architecture.

My Sustainability Goals for 2025:

1. Turning Central from a business district to a social district, redirecting focus towards people and creating possibilities for residents and tourists to gather, enjoy Hong Kong’s culture and heritage, and admire the city’s unique urban beauty.
2. Develop a consistent policy for urban regeneration, with incentives for green amenities, public and social spaces, energy efficient buildings, and low embodied carbon construction technologies.
3. Complete ban on new land reclamation and 100% preservation of Hong Kong’s marine biodiversity and ecosystems.
4. Mandatory BEAM Plus Platinum certification for all public buildings, mandatory energy efficiency thresholds for all new buildings.
5. Prioritization of adaptive reuse and retrofits for existing buildings, with legislation supporting developers who avoid demolition and support heritage and urban renewal.