As a sustainability professional, I often heard versions of the same message: “sustainability is for rich companies that have money to spare”. Over the years, this outlook has changed in part due to greater exposure to climate risks. Before we truly understood the magnitude of the Covid pandemic, the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report’s top risks in terms of likelihood and impact heavily featured environmental issues.
In 2018, Novetex launched The Billie System in Tai Po, Hong Kong. With this sustainable initiative, the company upcycles textile waste into new yarn, thereby creating competitive advantage while addressing a pressing environmental issue.
By aligning profit with purpose, Mountain Hazelnuts (MH) aims to capture 3% of the US$7 billion global hazelnut market and expects to significantly increase the income of 15% of Bhutan’s population.
There are increasing numbers of headlines putting sustainability into the frame for corporates to consider. This assumes that it hadn’t been a part of discussions prior to Davos’ and the launch of Green Finance. This is misleading. The current relevance is actually due to the change to its materiality and the rising risk in doing business.
Hong Kong’s first Global Goals Jam took place last weekend, on 22-23 September 2018. The event was organised by Loftwork Hong Kong and SUSTAINHK, implementing a design thinking curriculum developed by The United Nations Development Programme and the Digital Society School (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences). The event was hosted at nakedHUB New Street and MTRL HK (Loftwork’s creative lounge).
This time last year, a few business leaders and I convened a community of Shared Value champions with a vision to promote a new way of doing business in Hong Kong.
