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Press
Releases - 1998
Promoting
corporate environmental reporting in Hong Kong
A series
of seminars will be held for business executives and green
managers to promote the adoption of Corporate Environmental
Reporting -- a business strategy for corporations to win community
support by making public their environmental performance.
The seminars,
which will start tomorrow (Tuesday) and last until Thursday
(July 16), are organised by the Environmental Protection Department
(EPD) in collaboration with the Planning, Environment and
Lands Bureau, the Centre of Environmental Technology Limited,
the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong
Productivity Council.
A Principal
Environmental Protection Officer of EPD, Mrs Shirley Lee,
said, "Many large corporations worldwide have embraced Corporate
Environmental Reporting as a smart business move to engage
their stakeholders, investors, legislators, neighbours and
green groups in regular dialogue to gain widespread rapport
on their environmental related business decisions."
"Businesses
in Hong Kong will need to catch up with the rest of the world,"
Ms Lee said.
"According
to an international survey in 1996, nearly 75 per cent of
corporations in Europe and North America are now disclosing
environmental information in their annual reports; some 25
per cent - 30 per cent are producing stand-alone environmental
reports.
"However,
a local survey on 500 public-listed companies in 1995 revealed
that only 11 per cent of Hong Kong's firms attempted to make
some mention on the environment in their annual financial
reports; and only two companies ever published their stand-alone
environmental reports," she added.
During
the three-day seminars, speakers from the United Kingdom and
Hong Kong will brief management personnel of the public and
private sectors on the benefits of Corporate Environmental
Reporting and how to achieve them.
Topics
of the seminars will cover recent developments amongst the
world's leading economies, how best to use reporting to enhance
stakeholders dialogue, public expectations on environmental
reporting and one local example.
The events
will be held at the Hong Kong Productivity Council, Centre
of Environmental Technology, Hong Kong General Chamber of
Commerce and EPD.
The seminars
are planned to tie in with the publication of a pamphlet on
Corporate Environmental Reporting, jointly issued by EPD and
the Centre of Environmental Technology Limited, the executive
arm of the Private Sector Committee on the Environment.
The pamphlet,
which will be distributed to seminar attendees, contains answers
to questions that organizations may ask on environmental reporting:
why organizations need to report, how to get started, what
content to report and where to get useful information on the
subject.
Copies
will also be sent to interested corporations, business and
industry associations, educational and professional institutions.
The bilingual
pamphlet can be collected at the reception counter on the
28th floor of Southorn Centre, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. It will
also be available on EPD's Internet Website at http://www.info.gov.hk/epd/
by end July 98.
End/Monday,
July 13, 1998
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