Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) has organised the 19th global trade platform Eco Expo Asia at the AsiaWorld Expo on Lantau Island from 30 October to 2 November, pushing forward business opportunities and advancements in sustainable environmental solutions.
Under the theme of “Fostering Green Innovations for Carbon Neutrality”, this year’s Expo has set up several zones featuring different regions to showcase the latest innovation solutions from all over the world, including green transportation, green building, technology, green finance, ESG-related services, waste management, and circular economy.
Global insights
The event has attracted more than 190 exhibitors from the Greater Bay Area (GBA) to share products and technologies in waste management, environmental acoustics and water quality management. A new Anhui Pavilion debuted, featuring technologies related to air quality, water treatment and water quality management.
Several mainland companies were invited to join the event and share their cutting-edge technologies on topics like waste treatment, circular economy and energy efficiency.
“Our preliminary research shows that Hong Kong’s landfill projects are nearly saturated,” said Qian Wang, customer manager of NANDA Technology, “We believe there will be great business opportunities for our company’s waste treatment technology in Hong Kong.”
Overseas group exhibitors hailed from Canada, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway. Technologies and services related to waste management and water quality were presented, along with technologies concerning new energy, energy efficiency and green building. The exhibitors also covered eco-friendly materials and organic products.
Carbon neutrality
One of the highlights of the Expo is the fifth Hydrogen Economy Forum (HEF5) held on 31 October featuring the latest policies and technological advancements, which sets to promote extensive adoption of hydrogen to realise carbon neutrality in Hong Kong.
According to the policy address released on 16 October, the government is committed to implementing strategies and initiatives towards hydrogen development in 2025. These include the introduction of a bill of safe use of hydrogen fuel, and formulation of a hydrogen energy certification approach, with a view to promoting the long-term development of green and low-carbon hydrogen application in Hong Kong.
Several stakeholders from Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and Mainland China have been invited to share insights on policy directions, opportunities, challenges, and pilot projects to showcase the importance of promoting hydrogen.
In the forum, Zhou Jun, executive vice president of Towngas group shared the green transformation experience of the company on hydrogen research and development (R&D) and application.
Ecodesign
Another huge emphasis of this year’s Expo focuses on how to better reach sustainability targets from a more fundamental perspective in terms of the source of wastes, and this is where ecodesign comes in.
Ecodesign refers to the method of designing a product or service with the environment in mind, meaning that the product would seek to reduce its environmental impact, promote sustainability, and increase overall business with an improved life cycle.
The conference held on Friday invited four different industry leaders from fashion, architecture, IT and retail to share their views on ecodesign and the concept behind their products respectively.
Sustainable designs have been adopted in different industries in Hong Kong in recent years to promote sustainable consumption and production to connect the three Rs of waste management process — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Shashank Singh, sustainability lead of Colgate APAC, shared the brand’s overarching Smiling Planet campaign to highlight the sustainable packaging of their toothpaste. This campaign demonstrated Colgate’s commitment of eliminating plastic waste by 2025, more than 83% of the brand’s packaging by weight is now recyclable due to innovations like its recyclable toothpaste tube, according to Singh.
Speaking of the importance of choosing eco-friendly products, Stephanie Chan, associate director of the sustainable shirt brand DETERMINANT, said, “If you are going to purchase the last shirt of your life, trust me, we are poised to be the gamechangers and DETERMINANT is your choice.”