Climate of change for us to follow
Big-name figures in international business - like Lee Scott of Wal-Mart, Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic and media mogul Rupert Murdoch - have said they will devote time and resources to address climate change. Will our local business leaders respond in the same vein?
Mr Scott made quite a splash in October last year by putting environmental protection at the core of Wal-Mart's business. He committed the retail giant to create zero waste, sell products that sustain the planet's resources and environment, and be supplied by renewable energy.
The world has an interest in Wal-Mart succeeding because if the company were a country, it would be the 20th largest in the world in terms of its financial might.
He went on to give some useful examples of how to make a difference. These are measures that our Hong Kong business leaders may like to consider. First, Wal-Mart is working with energy experts to improve trucking fleet mileage to save money, become more energy efficient, reduce polluting exhaust emissions and reduce climate impact.
Wal-Mart calculated that if it improved its fleet mileage by just one mile per gallon (0.43km per litre), that would save the company US$52 million a year. Its goal is to increase fleet efficiency by 25 per cent over three years and double it within 10 years - ultimately saving a staggering, estimated US$310 million a year.
Experts believe Wal-Mart is likely to exceed the target because technology improvements is likely to enable greater gains in the years ahead.
If the leading operators of Hong Kong's trucking business went on a similar drive, they would make a big contribution to cleaning the air, increasing productivity, improving the city's energy security and reducing threats to the climate. Why wouldn't they want to do something that is obviously so beneficial to both the bottom line and the environment?
Our retailers and property developers may also want to note Mr Scott's initiative to reduce energy use in stores by 30 per cent. He told staff there was a technological 'revolution' under way relating to buildings, cooling, heating and lighting - and he wanted his company to be a leader by using available technology to make its business more efficient.
Hong Kong buildings are notorious for wasting energy. How many of our building-management businesses and property developers are using the best technology to become more energy efficient? How many of them are retrofitting buildings for this purpose? Let me be bold and say 'none'. If I'm wrong, let them write in and give us the details of what they're doing. I would like to be proved wrong.
Is it too much to expect landlords and building managers to help tenants lower management fees by reducing energy consumption? If that's pie in the sky in Hong Kong, then this speaks poorly for our business leaders - who are obviously neither ambitious nor thinking about how to improve their services and products.
Energy has never been of special interest to our local policymakers or businesspeople. However, with so much interest among foreign governments and multinationals, our leaders may well catch the drift in the foreseeable future.
Mr Murdoch, the chief of News Corp, said last week that his international business empire would become carbon-neutral - cutting or offsetting its emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. His statement was seen as significant because Mr Murdoch has been considered a sceptic about climate change.
Also last week, Sir Richard pledged to spend US$3 billion to combat global warming over the next decade. Observers called this a carefully calculated investment decision that would switch his investment portfolio more into alternative energy.
My prediction is that by next year, Hong Kong people will increasingly understand that we have both an air pollution challenge locally and a climate change problem globally. They will see that we must act decisively.
