Aspiring world city seeking green leadership
Hong Kong seeks to become Asia's world city, but it cannot hope to achieve world-class status if residents are unable to breathe, says Brian Robertson, chairman of the Business Environment Council (BEC).
'We want to keep raising people's environmental consciousness,' says Mr Robertson, who is also head of corporate and institutional banking at HSBC.
'We want to identify those companies that exemplify good environmental management, and by giving them an award, identify them as star performers for others to emulate.'
Speaking from his office overlooking Statue Square, Mr Robertson called upon all Hong Kong manufacturing companies with outstanding green records to enter the competition.
This year's Environmental Performance award will place greater emphasis on attracting entries from Hong Kong-owned firms operating in the Pearl River Delta.
Giving recognition to these companies is important because they act as role models to their mainland counterparts, according to Mr Robertson.
Three awards will be presented - the Hong Kong Awards for Industry: Environmental Performance, the BEC's Environmental Performance Award, and the Certificate of Merit in Environmental Performance.
Previous winners - including China Resources, CLP Power Hong Kong and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation - tended to be large firms because big conglomerates are usually the first to take steps to green their operations. But attitudes are changing, Mr Robertson says, with more smaller companies tuning into the idea that being green does not always cost more.
'Awareness is growing. If you look at the past winners, they tend to be the larger corporations. I suppose they are the leaders, and it permeates down to the smaller companies,' he says.
'But many companies still think of environmental protection as a cost of doing business rather than a money-saving opportunity. For example, if you improve energy efficiency, you not only do something that saves money but also something that's environmentally friendly.'
Mr Robertson is encouraged by Hong Kong's changing environmental consciousness. While the city still has a long way to go, the general attitude has improved from the 1980s, he says, when a lack of controls resulted in blankets of smog, making it difficult to see the mountains across the harbour from HSBC's Central headquarters.
A passionate hiker, Mr Robertson feels strongly about the environment and thinks Hong Kong has the potential to lead when it comes to green issues, but he believes more action is required to stop the city from slipping behind.
Asked to comment on HSBC's environmental record, Mr Robertson points to the bank's headquarters in Central as an example of an energy-efficient building that has introduced new ideas to Hong Kong, including the recycling of waste water. He adds, however, that there is room for improvement, such as reducing paper waste.
Perhaps where the bank has real power to bring about change is by tying its lending policies to criteria that include environmental responsibility, he says.
'As part of our lending policy, we look at the environmental risk of our clients,' Mr Robertson says. 'This is because environmental risk can become financial risk. In the United States, environmental risk is very real because the fines and the cost of cleaning up can be substantial.'
All manufacturing or related companies registered in Hong Kong before May last year are eligible to enter. Subsidiaries and divisions of these companies may also enter as individual applicants.
A panel of industrial and environmental experts will assess the entrants' performances in the year beginning October 15 last year.
