December 2012

BEC Events

November’s BEC Leadership Networking Series

The third BEC Leadership Networking Series was successfully held on 29 November 2012, with about 70 participants, including BEC members, organisation representatives and colleagues, joining to acquire some latest information about municipal waste management.

During the event, Mr Albert Lam, JP, Deputy Director of Environmental Protection, Environmental Protection Department, HKSAR Government, identified current waste issues in Hong Kong, shared the Government works and goals in waste treatment and how the business sector could contribute to achieve the goal. Mr Mark Venhoek, Chief Executive Officer of SITA Waste Services Limited, shared case studies and perspectives towards Hong Kong’s sustainable municipal waste management.

BEC Leadership Networking Series will be skipped in December this year and the coming session will be on 31 January 2013. Stay tuned for more updates!

Notable Speaker Breakfast Talk: Business & Abundance

On 6 December 2012, BEC organised the “Business & Abundance” at BEC Headquarters with the help from Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden. Dr Satish Kumar, an internationally renowned ecologist, educator, and former Programme Director with the Schumacher College UK, editor of Resurgence magazine, was invited to come to Hong Kong and shared insights with the audiences about developing a healthy economy while balancing the sustainability aspect. Audiences, who mainly came from the business sector and the academic field, were inspired by the Talk when Dr Kumar challenged narrow ideas about economics and explored the interdependence between the health of the economy and that of the environmental, physical, social and spiritual lives.

Focus Groups of Moving the Construction Sector towards Sustainable Development

About 40 members from the construction sector joined three focus groups organised by BEC in November 2012. During the focus groups, the facilitators and the participants shared valuable views and experiences on the topics related to manpower supply, procurement process of local construction sector, and green construction. The views collected from these focus groups will be consolidated for the preparation of “Moving the Construction Sector towards Sustainable Development Guidebook”.

In December 2012, three more focus groups will be organised with discussion topics on caring of employees, caring of community plus environment, and health and safety issues of the construction sector. For further details, please contact Ms Sarah Choi (sarahc@bec.org.hk).


 

BEC Low-carbon School Programme: In-school Talks and Company Visits

Following the successful “BEC Low-carbon School 2012-2013” – “Dialogue with the Secretary for the Environment”, BEC will be holding In-school Talks and Company Visits for over 40 local secondary schools from November 2012 to July 2013. The School Talks and Company Visits aim at educating students about low carbon lifestyle via visiting businesses with outstanding environmental performance. As of 30 November 2012, 460 students have attended the In-school Talks and 70 students have joined the Company Visits.

We would like to thank the participating secondary schools for allowing their students to understand the concept of low-carbon economy, and the participating companies for offering the learning opportunities to the students. For the latest information on BEC Low-carbon School Programme, please click here.

BEC Partnership Programme

HSBC Living Business Awards Presentation 2012

The HSBC Living Business Awards Presentation has been successfully held on 16 November 2012. Serving as the technical advisor and award assessor, BEC has been supporting the HSBC Living Business Programme since its launch in 2004 in helping local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) become more competitive and productive by incorporating socially and environmentally sustainable practices into their business operations. Entering its eighth year, the 2012 programme not only focuses on the sustainability of an individual business or corporation, but also moves a step further to promote sustainability along the supply chain. The response is very encouraging, with 812 SMEs participating in the Awards to showcase their sustainable contributions to the Hong Kong community and environment. BEC would like to take this opportunity to thank all the companies who entered the Awards and congratulate all the award and certificate winners for developing their business with the community, the environment and their employees in mind.
 

BEC Activity

CCBF Launches Carbon-Smart Buildings Study

In November 2012, Climate Change Business Forum (CCBF) unveiled new research results which identify technologies that offer significant return in carbon, energy and financial terms, and fit with local needs. The Carbon-Smart Buildings Study, led by CCBF Best Practice Committee member Andy Yeung of Hongkong Land, acts as a practical guidebook for landlords and tenants to make energy efficiency upgrades. The Study reveals that landlords are able to achieve the greatest savings by upgrading air conditioning and lighting. Although tenants have far less control over hardware solutions, they do have control of their own behaviour, and can influence that of their landlords. The bottom line is that sizeable reductions in energy consumption are achievable and realistic: the technology exists and the business case is strong. For full research results please click here.

If you are interested in a private briefing on the research results, please contact CCBF Research Manager Wing Kit Lau (wk@bec.org.hk).

BEC Upcoming Events

31 January 2013: BEC Leadership Networking Series: Sustainable Information Technology

Information technology takes an important role in today’s business environment, which is one of the key elements in improving business operation efficiency and reducing carbon emissions in our daily operations. In January’s BEC Leadership Networking Series, Mr Kim Salkeld, Head of Efficiency Unit, Chief Secretary for Administration's Office from the HKSAR Government, will talk about “Building More Sustainable Public Services” by using more sustainable information technology.

For registration or enquiry, please contact Ms Skyla Chan (skyla@bec.org.hk).
 

BEC Upcoming Member Events

11 January 2013: Industry Visit to the Energizing Kowloon East Office Temporary Office

BEC will organise an Industry Visit to the Energizing Kowloon East Office (EKEO) Temporary Office on 11 January 2013. The innovative and green EKEO building is a champion of sustainability by using a raft of integrated green building technologies and features, lean construction methods and low embodied energy materials to become Hong Kong's first low carbon temporary office and attains the BEAM Plus Platinum (Provisional) rating. Through this visit, members could understand visionary and integrated approach, as well as key sustainable features in the development of the Office. For more information about this building, please visit here.

The visit is limited to BEC members only. Please return the registration form to membership@bec.org.hk to reserve a place. For more information, please contact Ms Jun Ng (jun@bec.org.hk).

BEC Supporting Events

BEC Members Corner

Commencing in January 2013, BEC E-newsletter will introduce a new section “BEC Members Corner”. BEC members can make use of this section to introduce their recent achievements, success stories, innovative ideas or solutions in environmental sustainability by submitting an English article with maximum 250 words to us. Please note the submission deadline for January’s BEC E-newsletter is 20 December 2012 (Thursday). Please note that BEC reserves the rights of editing and publishing.

To submit an article or enquire about this new section, please contact Ms Joey Hui (joey@bec.org.hk) or Ms Skyla Chan (skyla@bec.org.hk).