“The world will never become sustainable if we – China – will not become sustainable.” – how much Hong Kong can impact China’s pollution and why it’s sometimes just a suitcase away.

Andrew L. Thomson, CEO, Business Environment Council, Hong Kong, China

Today, an enterprise can do a lot to improve the world’s environmental and social conditions. It can adopt pro-grams of social responsibility, it can redesign its produc-tion or even supply chain to be more sustainable – in terms of environment and social issues, it can engage in community projects and support other initiatives. It also can join a network of similar minded enterprises, together adhere to international standards and hold each other responsible.
That’s the concept behind the Business Environment Council that Andrew Thomson is now heading after joining in 1993 as Assistant to the Execu-tive Director. In addition to the NGOs current activities, Andrew espe-cially focuses on shaping of the Hong Kong Har-bour and on sustainable construction of buil-dings. “The harbour used to be almost 2 km wide, now it’s merely 800m. The rest has been reclaimed for construc-tion land, animal habitats in the area have been destroyed and the shores covered with concrete. I have a vision of this harbour as a world class place that is friendly for people – maybe for an evening walk -, and provides vi-brancy and accessibility with sensitive integration with the nature environment – both the land and the sea.”

Enjoy reading about some of Andrew’s activities in the selected quotations below and you may be able to read more in our book “MyImpact”.

Andrew’s selected quotations:
“We are here on Hong Kong Island, but mainland China is not far away and the pollution in the city has got much worse during the last couple of years. Pollution does not recognize any boundaries; it’s a cross-border phenome-non.”

“Sustainability is very pressing here. The world will never become sustainable if we – China – will not become sus-tainable.”

“I guess my love and passion for nature comes from the 70ies when I watched Jacques Cousteau films, and was inspired by his love of the ocean and calls for conserva-tion. Ironically, I grew up in Coventry in the UK, a land-locked city, but even from an early age I appreciated the environment and understood the need to protect it.”

“Everyone wants to live in a clean environment.”

“Choices often are made under collective pressure, e.g. under free market conditions companies are pressured to provide services or products for the lowest price. In the absence of broader societal pressures, care for the envi-ronment or workers usually does not end up in this equa-tion.”

“Sustainability is not a status, it is a complex series of process that keep us on a balanced development path. Growing awareness of these issues is beginning to point us back towards the right direction, but clearly this is not a business as usual path.”

“There are around 80’000 manufacturing units in South China owned and managed by Hong Kong entrepreneurs. These companies contribute to our regional economic growth and our regional pollution. However, these leading entrepreneurs can move whole industries; so if they change their behaviour, towards sustainability it’s a big step for us and for China as a whole – we need such champions to help carry forwards this green industrial revolution.”

“There are various reasons why you do things in life; sometimes they are not very transparent. It would be even hard for me to tell you how or why I got exactly where I am today.”

“If I look at my work as a fight, I get frustrated. But I get a kick out of working with some industrialists who really get it, and who spread the word.”

“Often you work to change minds, minds of managers, or engineers… It is about overcoming perceptions like: “it’s not my responsibility” or “it’s too expensive”.

Some background on Andrew Thomson:
Andrew Thomson was born, grew up and went to school in Great Britain. He gained his PhD working as a Cas-trol sponsored research assistant addressing a range of issues related to the efficiency and environ-mental performance of lubricating oils including emission related poisoning of exhaust catalytic con-verters, application of bio-oils and fuels, to lubricant degradation patterns with a view to extended durability and zero drain concepts.

The environment and sustainability were always an im-portant part of his education and later work, and he stu-died a degree in Environmental Science at the time of the publication of “Our Common Future – the Brundtland report”

In 1991 it was difficult to find a job in UK and a friend told him about the growing environmental issues and oppor-tunities in Hong Kong. Andrew grabbed a suitcase and came. He started in the area of PR, organizing campaigns for green groups and doing environmental consulting throughout Asia.

In 1993 he joined BEC as an Assistant to the Director and eight years later took over the leadership of the NGO which now employees 30 staff. In his free time Andrew enjoys being in nature, mountain biking, rock climbing, and adventure racing as means to explore Hong Kong’s and Asia’s less urbanized areas.

He describes his most challenging new role as welcoming a new baby daughter into the world 28th October 2005, and growing with her on a daily basis.

Some background on the Business Environment Council:
The Business Environment Council Limited (BEC) is a non-profit, membership orga-nization founded in 1989, and based in Hong Kong. It is a Regional Network Partner of the World Busi-ness Council for Sustain-able Development (WBCSD).
BEC works with business and the community to address environmental and sustainability concerns, with the overall objective of improving performance, and moving Hong Kong towards sustainable development. This is achieved by engaging its members and harnessing their commitment to sustainability and sound corporate social responsibility, developing part-nerships, conducting strategic projects for private and public sector clients, and by transferring best practice and technology from overseas and other more.

BEC believes that profit and sustainable development are not diametrically opposed, and that the green agenda is a business agenda. Its growing membership indicates that BEC is not alone in this belief.
BEC’s vision is that Hong Kong's businesses can become a model for sustainable development in Asia through the in-tegration of environmental and social responsibility into existing business practices. Its mission is to advocate the business case for sustainable development, and encou-rage the uptake of practices, which reduce waste, con-serve resources, prevent pollution and improve corporate environmental and social responsibility.
All BEC’s work is based on the underlying principle that good environmental and social practice is not a burden on business. It is a valuable asset with a positive impact on an organization's bottom line.

If you would like to engage with the work of Andrew Thomson or get to know more about the Business Environment Council please visit www.bec.org.hk,

or for more specific possibilities contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch