Rethinking Building Materials – Steel & Concrete

11 Sep (Thur) Day 1 : 14:00 – 15:30

As buildings account for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, the choice of construction materials plays a crucial role in decarbonization. This interactive roundtable explores how real estate developers can transform their procurement processes to increase the adoption of low-carbon steel and concrete in new buildings. Participants will examine shared challenges and opportunities in material procurement procedures based on successful implementations. The session will feature innovative approaches to circular steel and concrete sourcing as case studies in rethinking traditional procurement approaches. Through facilitated discussions, participants will develop practical frameworks for implementing low-carbon materials while managing cost implications and supplier engagement. This session is particularly relevant for procurement teams, sustainability professionals, and project managers looking to accelerate their low-carbon transition.

Learnings

  • How to establish procurement protocols that work for both steel and concrete sourcing, focusing on early-stage goal-setting, planning and supplier engagement.
  • Strategies for building cross-departmental consensus and managing cost implications of low-carbon materials.
  • Best practices for setting clear and common technical specifications and verification procedures to enable informed decisions on material selection.
  • Practical approaches to expand the supplier base for low-carbon materials in Hong Kong.

Post-Event Actions

  • Identify specific development projects suitable for piloting reduced embodied carbon goals for steel and concrete
  • Establish a timeline for implementing low-carbon material procurement in identified pilot projects
  • Connect and expand existing supplier databases from industry platforms to improve information accessibility
  • Form working groups to develop standardized technical specifications and verification procedures

Speakers

Jenny Zhang

Urban Land Institute

Director of Sustainability

Jenny is the Director of Sustainability for Urban Land Institute APAC. She is the regional lead for ULI’s Greenprint community, a global alliance of leading property developers and investors striving to achieve net zero. Her previous experience includes climate-tech entrepreneur building carbon management software, and financial advisory on cross-border M&A transactions. Jenny graduated from UC Berkeley, is a licensed CPA, and a trainer in social impact assessment and design thinking.

My Sustainability Goals for 2025: 

  1. Connect the property development value chain (from building material all the way to tenants) to collaborate on accelerating the sector’s decarbonizing process.
  2. Connect property investment value chain (from LPs, benchmark/standards, to asset managers) to price-in climate resilience as core value protection metric.

Shuyi Li

RMI China

Principal, Heavy Industry & Recycling

Shuyi Li is a Principal of RMI China Program, and head of Industry Decarbonization Initiative, where RMI works to accelerate decarbonizing China’s heavy industries, covering steel, cement, petrochemicals & chemicals, and aluminum. She led the development of the China heavy industry sectoral transition roadmap series, as RMI China’s flagship reports and one of the earliest in the field, in close partnership with leading industry associations/institutes and recognized by many. She also heads the work on industrial use case optimization for solutions like green hydrogen, massive recycling, CCUS, etc., and the initiative to establish near-zero industrial hubs where upstream energy/feedstock supply, midstream infrastructure, industrial offtakers, and their downstream users are brought together to help achieve tipping points, while leveraging finance and policy to enable the change. Before joining RMI, Shuyi has years of experience advising governments in industrial energy efficiency and low-carbon development. She also served as an expert fellow and mentor for EDF Climate Corps China Program, and was winner of the William K. Bowes, Jr. Award for Leadership. Currently, Shuyi is a mentor for Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET), and external strategy expert for a global leading company in energy management and automation.

Eddie Tse

Gammon Construction

Group Sustainability Manager

Eddie has more than 28 years experience in construction and environmental field and specializes in sediment and land contamination assessment and remediation, carbon/energy management, renewable energy projects and waste/asbestos management. He has been involved in a number of infrastructure and building projects such as road and drainage, site formation and land decontamination, railway, power plant emission control facility, tunnel and rock cavern and Central Government Complex.

Eddie is the vice chairman of Environment Committee, Hong Kong Construction Association and member of Climate Change Business Forum of the Business Environment Council. He was appointed as a construction advisor in development of Construction Industry Council Carbon Assessment Tool and Sustainable Finance Certification scheme. Eddie is a co-opted member of the Sustainable Development Committee, Climate Change Framework for Built Environment Embodied Carbon Expert Group member and Green Product Market Taskforce member of the Hong Kong Green Building Council. He was also appointed by BEAM Society to be member of Materials Aspects and Construction Environmental Management Expert Panels. He is a member of Environmental Protection Department Asbestos Administration Committee and CARES Assured Steel Certification Sustainability Technical Committee.

Eddie graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of British Columbia in Canada, and has a Master of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Eddie is a Fellow member of the Hong Kong Institute of Qualified Environmental Professionals, Certified Carbon Auditor under the CIC Green Product Certification Scheme, Certified Energy Manager/Carbon Audit Professional of US Association of Energy Engineer and a Qualified Project Assessor of UK BREEAM Infrastructure. He is a Certified ESG Analyst CESGA® of The European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies.

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