Event Spotlight – Shared Impacts, Shared Achievements

Swire Properties recently extended a warm welcome to more than 170 tenant representatives and sustainability partners at the GPP Forum 2024. 

Held at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, the annual event recognised the remarkable sustainability achievements by GPP tenants across our Hong Kong office portfolio. This inspirational forum also unearthed opportunities to collaborate and advance our collective goals. Highlights:

GPP Academy: Green Ideas Exchange Workshop

1. The event kicked off with the GPP Academy: Green Ideas Exchange Workshop, where participants exchanged industry knowledge and best practices, and networked with each other. Co-hosted with the Business Environment Council (BEC), the session brought an enthusiastic crowd together over coffee served in Muuse reusable cups. GPP tenants shared insights on challenges and opportunities they experienced during the GPP programme, and participated in a dynamic group exercise that focused on best practices and sparked conversations and ideas that could reshape our approach to sustainability.
   
   
2. Our tenants also benefitted from a sharing session by Victoria Gilbert, APAC Director at Globescan, a global insights and strategy consultancy, which positioned macro developments in sustainability within an Asian context. The presentation highlighted findings from their Sustainability Leaders 2024 Report, including the ongoing significance of climate change, biodiversity loss and other sustainability challenges both globally and locally.
   

GPP Panel & Awards Presentation

• The presentation of the GPP awards began with welcome remarks from Don Taylor, Director, Office, at Swire Properties, followed by Patrick Ho, Head of Sustainable Development (SD), with an update on Swire Properties’ SD efforts and progress towards net zero emissions

• Phoebe Leung, Senior Sustainable Development Manager, highlighted the GPP’s achievements to date, noting the platform’s rapid expansion from 13 participating tenants in 2021 to over 100 in 2024 — representing 54% of Swire Properties’ occupied lettable floor area or equivalent to 3.8 million square feet of office space. She also touched upon the programme’s significant impact and improvements in energy, waste and water performance.

• Samantha Kong, Senior Manager at BEC, moderated a panel discussion with GPP tenants on what sustainability means for their firms and how the GPP is helping them achieve their goals.
  
  
  • • Derek Liu, Senior Director and Executive Legal Counsel at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), discussed the firm’s recent move to Two Taikoo Place and how BCG has integrated sustainability and wellness into the office design. This includes a focus on ensuring workstations have a direct light of sight to natural light.
      
      
    • Gladys Li, Sustainability Supervisor at Polar Air Cargo, highlighted how the GPP has helped raise employee awareness of waste management. Polar’s participation in the GPP has focused their office’s attention on waste separation at source, with more employees now understanding the important role they can play in diverting waste from landfill with simple behavioural changes. The impact is being felt across Polar’s portfolio, with the GPP inspiring the development of sustainable office guidelines that are now applied to multiple locations. 
      
      
    • Matthew O’Callaghan, Partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, outlined the firm’s overall approach to sustainability, which focuses on “Clients, Colleagues and Community”. Colleagues have been the main driver for sustainability at Freshfields in Hong Kong, with Matthew noting strong interest on waste and energy consumption among employees. 
      
      
• During the award ceremony, the 2023/24 awards were presented to five tenants in the Sustainable Fit-Out & Renovations category and 75 tenants in the Sustainable Office Operations category. Read more about the top performers here.
  
  

The GPP Forum 2024 exemplified our shared commitment to accelerating collective sustainability efforts through meaningful collaboration with tenants and partners. By exchanging knowledge and celebrating achievements, we continue to advance towards a more sustainable future. We look forward to continuing to innovate, and achieve even greater progress as we work closely with our key stakeholders in the coming year.

The GPP is our flagship programme towards achieving our SD 2030 Strategy and longstanding commitment to fighting climate change, in joint efforts with our office tenants in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Learn more about the programme on the GPP Website.