Media & Publications

ESG is trending now and SMEs should be prepared, CCSG Assistant Project Manager Mr. Darwin Leung shared with the readers our centre’s findings on the readiness of local SMEs in this sustainable transformation and what can be done to speed it up.

Link to interview

ESG is the trend and Academia urges big corporates and SMEs to collaborate to co-create a sustainable business ecosystem.

Link to interview

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) development is currently a hot topic in the global corporate community. ESG entails looking at a company’s strategy and ability to manage risks and opportunities arising from the aspect of environmental protection, social responsibility and corporate governance. Under Hong Kong’s regulatory regime, ESG is not a mandated practice for unlisted companies. However, with consumers’ and investors’ growing awareness of sustainability, businesses, regardless of their scale, must conform to this global trend and align with ESG norms to remain competitive.

Link to the interview (P.10 – 19)

ESG has been a hot topic in the corporate world. Corporations are expected to integrate the concerns from Environmental, Social and Governance aspects into their business model for it to be sustainable. NOW TV Finance channel has invited Professor Wai-Fung Lam, Director of the Centre for Civil Society and Governance, University of Hong Kong to share with the audiences about the origin of ESG.

Link to the interview

Supported by The Hongkong Bank Foundation, the Partnership for Sustainability Leadership in Business (PSLB) programme under the CCSG at The University of Hong Kong organised the third Knowledge Primer (KP) today, with the theme ‘Rethinking Sustainability for SMEs: Go Circular and Build Resilience’. The event brought together over 120 sustainability experts and industry practitioners. The KP started by releasing the findings of the ‘Diagnostic Study for SME Sustainability Survey’, which provides a landscape analysis of the uptake of ESG and sustainability by Hong Kong SMEs, and identifies the pain points that hinder their capacity to take further action. The Study also provides a baseline for any future research and market analysis on SMEs’ sustainability efforts and achievements.

Read more: Press Release

The Partnership for Sustainability Leadership in Business (PSLB) programme under the Centre for Civil Society and Governance (CCSG) of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) today organised its first Knowledge Primer (KP). Themed “Sustainability and the ‘New Normal’: Building Business Preparedness and Leveraging New Opportunities”, the event brought together over 300 sustainability experts and industry practitioners to discuss how integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities into core business strategies can enhance their adaptiveness to the “new normal” challenges while contributing to a sustainable future. The Sustainable Value Chains (SVC) Commitment and SMEs Sustainability Leadership Recognition Scheme, which connect large corporates and SMEs and provide capacity building resources to co-create SVC in Hong Kong and the region, were officially launched at the event.

Read more: Press Release 

[Hong Kong] In response to rapid social-ecological changes on a global scale—climate change, resource scarcity, social exclusion and change of customers’ aspirations— and the United Nations’ call for actions to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many businesses have risen to the challenges and taken actions to contribute to sustainable development. To support and further enhance these efforts and the business sector’s role in promoting sustainability, The Centre for Civil Society and Governance (CCSG) of The University of Hong Kong, with support from The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), has initiated a four-year action research project—“Partnership for Sustainability Leadership in Business (PSLB)”. This Project is the first-of-its-kind collaborative endeavor leveraging the strengths of academic institutions, businesses, regulators and the community at large to support the business sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong and the region, to build Sustainable Value Chains (SVC) and to promote the SDGs.

Read More: HKU Media