Corporate chiefs get an earful on an inconvenient truth
What could bring some of the town's heavyweights, such as PCCW chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai, Standard Chartered Bank chief Peter Sullivan, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing chief executive Paul Chow Man-yiu and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Chan Ka-keung, together for a night gathering?
Former US vice-president Al Gore (below) and his latest thoughts on climate change.
About 400 business leaders got together at a closed-door meeting to hear what the icon for environmental concern had to share on ethics and sustainability issues affecting the marketplace. He fired a shot at a certain coal-fired generator (let's call it CLP Holdings) for making Hong Kong a dangerous business centre when compared with Singapore.
But as the Earth evolves, so does the topic of corporate social responsibility. Gone are the days when corporates might focus on the ozone layer or oil spills in Alaska. Nowadays, more complex and interesting issues are in the air, according to ACCA executive director Roger Adams, who organised the seminar. An obesity epidemic, flowers from Kenya or South America, censorship in the form of Google search, human rights in the form of child labour in the supply chains of textile companies and other issues are now drawing boardroom attention, he said.
Call it an inconvenient truth, but these issues could affect a company's bottom line, capital expenditure and, not least, that great intangible asset - its reputation.
