Hong Kong, 24 November 2021 - With tourism being one of its four pillar industries, Hong Kong is in an advantageous position to expedite green recovery by facilitating sustainable development in tourism and hospitality industries through technology and innovation. With this goal in mind, GREEN Hospitality today revealed its new project at a launch event, sponsored by InvestHK and co-organised by The Mills.
This nine-month project titled, “Green Recovery for the Tourism and Hospitality Industries in Hong Kong Through Technology & Innovation”, with grant support by the Innovation and Technology Fund, aims to help propel the hospitality industry towards a green post pandemic renewal by connecting stakeholders, sharing knowledge, resources, and facilitating collaboration and innovation.
As an integral connector between the government, the hospitality industry as well as other stakeholders, GREEN Hospitality, during the project period, will host both online and in-person events; publish a business directory of innovative sustainability solutions; release business case studies; provide bilingual guidebooks for local businesses; and produce a toolkit with sustainability and green recovery resources.
“At GREEN Hospitality, we are delighted to be receiving the grant from the Innovation and Technology Fund as it demonstrates the Hong Kong government’s support of our project, which can unleash the immense potential of green recovery for the tourism and hospitality industries in Hong Kong, through technology and innovation,” said Ms. Lucia Loposova, Executive Director of GREEN Hospitality. “From the hospitality partners, innovators, and civil society organisations who have signed up to support our project, as well as the previous dialogues we have held on various sustainability issues across sectors and supply chains, we can see more intentional efforts in the tourism and hospitality industries in accelerating sustainability goals. The project, essentially, is leveraging that work and momentum to transition Hong Kong towards a green recovery. We are very excited about this project.”
Kicking off the project launch was Ms. Christine Loh, Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and former Under-secretary for the Environment HKSAR Government, Environment Bureau. In her keynote speech on net zero and the hospitality industry, Ms. Loh emphasised that “Decarbonisation action will intensify with climate change and the food & hospitality business will be affected. Now is the time to rethink the way we do business, collaborate, innovate and manage our climate impacts better.” Highlighting food wastage being responsible for around six percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, Ms Loh added, “This long standing issue in the industry needs to be addressed immediately. By cutting food waste the hospitality industry would not only save money but significantly improve their environmental footprint.”
The potential for the hospitality industry to reach net zero is immense, if we harness innovation and technology to expedite green recovery, as Dr. Shauhrat Chopra, Assistant Professor at the School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, said at his panel. “Data driven stories need to be conveyed to make robust sustainability decisions and create businesses that are circular in nature. We need to look more closely at things like where our food is coming from, where it will go in terms of waste - the system that takes into account the entire environmental footprint, not just one aspect of it. The need of the hour is to take a holistic perspective and quantify it so that one creates a behavioural change narrative.”
Adding to this Ms Carmen Ng, Director of Sustainability, Langham Hospitality Group, said that, “The current situation presents a great opportunity for the hospitality sector to look within, working closely with stakeholders to develop innovative ways to facilitate a more sustainability-centric approach in our industry.”
Taking cue from that thought, Mr Angus Tsang, Researcher at The Mills Fabrica, in his presentation on textile tech and innovation trends, demonstrated how hospitality textiles has been witnessing exciting technological breakthroughs in the path towards sustainability. And Ms Megan Lam, Co-Founder & CEO, Neurum Health, talked about data driven mind wellness innovation benefitting the hospitality workforce & guests. She shared an interesting case study of a quarantine hotel that used its mental wellness app, Clara, and supported its guests in coping with the situation mentally and emotionally.
Unveiling of the F&B Playbook
The event celebrated not just the commencement of the said project, but also the release of the F&B Playbook, an in-depth guide with solution-oriented practices and innovations, co-curated by GREEN Hospitality and TREEHOUSE . The playbook aims to inspire hospitality businesses to take creative food waste reduction actions while improving business outcomes.
Founder and Chef of TREEHOUSE, Mr. Christian G. Mongendre’s hands-on experience on food waste reduction and insights provided much of the backbone of the F&B Playbook.
Through these engagements with hospitality representatives, sustainability experts, innovators, academia, civil society, and the government, GREEN Hospitality hopes to create new business opportunities for innovation and technology companies and start-ups. And will help in facilitating sustainable recovery and building resilience of this industry and its supply chains.
Disclaimer:
Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material/event (or by members of the project team) do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Innovation and Technology Commission or the General Support Programme Vetting Committee of the Innovation and Technology Fund.
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