[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.]
Welcome to the Link Sustainability Lab, an innovative non-profit collaborative platform where like-minded individuals and organisations can come together and create actionable pathways towards sustainable lifestyles and business models. The first theme of the Lab, located in the heart of the community at Link’s flagship mall Lok Fu Place, is “Take ‘eat’ seriously”.
Giving people a reason to cherish food
Approximately one-third of the solid waste in Hong Kong’s landfills is organic waste. Local NGO Food Angel, an advocate for food waste recycling and a long-standing partner of Link for over seven years, recognises that one of the main obstacles to promoting a culture of cherishing food is a lack of motivation to change.
“Empathy is essential,” says Heather Tse, Project Manager of Food Angel, who hosts a virtual reality theatre workshop at the Lab that takes children and their parents through a first-person point of view of food characters on the consequences of their food choices. “After taking part in the workshop, children become more intrinsically motivated to change their eating habits, making their peace with food one step at a time.”
With the workshop proving to be an effective formula and a crowd favourite, Heather hopes to collaborate with schools through the Lab to reach more students so they can learn about the value of food from a young age and eat with a grateful heart.
Powering a low-carbon transition for businesses
In addition, Link teamed up with CLP Power and sustainable food consultancy Grassroots Initiatives to curate “Sustainable Cha Chaan Teng”, a showroom within the Lab to showcase how even Hong Kong’s most traditional cafés can transition into sustainable businesses.
“There’s a lack of transparency in our food value chain but the solutions are actually simple,” says Peggy Chan, Principal Consultant of Grassroots Initiatives and Executive Director at Zero Foodprint Asia. “The more sustainable suppliers are, the more willing they would be to share information with their buyers, such as chefs, food service operators, and procurement teams, enabling them to make better sourcing decisions. A fair-trade coconut oil supplier, for example, would likely provide more details about its processes compared to its conflict palm oil counterpart. Ultimately, sustainability can only be achieved if we work together.”
Chan believes that the Lab, which counts many local small to medium-sized food and restaurant businesses among its neighbours, is exactly where the transfer of knowledge and cultural shifts need to happen to generate real impact. In July, Grassroots Initiatives will host a tailored workshop on sustainable operations for food and beverage operators at the Lab.
Lena Low, Senior Director – Customer Success and Experience of CLP Power, notes that sustainable operations have become an important consideration for every company that wants to achieve long-term business development. Therefore, CLP offers a suite of energy services and solutions, such as free energy audits, to support customers to meet their energy management needs.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Link to set up a fully electric kitchen inside the ‘Sustainable Cha Chaan Teng’ to showcase the benefits of electric cooking. This enables us to add value to Link’s tenants and inspire more businesses to increase awareness of their energy consumption and adopt energy-saving practices, while doing our part in supporting sustainability and ESG.”
CLP also supports the Link Tenant Academy by sharing the latest energy-saving information with Link’s tenants and providing useful data via CLP’s Smart Energy Online system for businesses to analyse their energy usage, identify energy saving opportunities and reduce operating costs.
“We look forward to more collaboration opportunities with Link and customers who aspire to make their business operations more sustainable.”
Sustainable fisheries within reach
Buying local ingredients is one way to practice low-carbon living. Together with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), Link produced a documentary to help the public better understand local sustainable fisheries.
These efforts are important, says Dr Peter Luk, Fisheries Officer (Aquaculture Projects) of the AFCD. Although local fish farms are supported by government policies, there is still a need to encourage local fish stalls to sell and promote locally farmed fish, and that starts with public education and promotion.
“Because of overfishing in the past 50 years, some local seafood types that used to be widely available, such as the Hong Kong grouper, have become rare. On the other hand, members of the public are still not familiar with the practical benefits of local fish farming, such as the aquaculture environment and food safety of accredited fish.” Dr Luk thinks that the Link Sustainability Lab is an ideal platform to promote the commercial and sustainability value of local fish farming.
Link’s Managing Director of Corporate Affairs Lorraine Chan encourages individuals and groups from different sectors in society to participate in and take advantage of the collaborative platform provided by the Link Sustainability Lab.
“The purpose of the Lab is to promote the public and businesses’ understanding that sustainable development is a part of everyday life, actionable and achievable by anyone. Whether you’re a shopper, tenant, supplier, business partner, industry peer or community organisation, we hope this space can be an ideal platform for you to learn about and explore sustainable development practices.”
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.]
Welcome to the Link Sustainability Lab, an innovative non-profit collaborative platform where like-minded individuals and organisations can come together and create actionable pathways towards sustainable lifestyles and business models. The first theme of the Lab, located in the heart of the community at Link’s flagship mall Lok Fu Place, is “Take ‘eat’ seriously”.
Giving people a reason to cherish food
Approximately one-third of the solid waste in Hong Kong’s landfills is organic waste. Local NGO Food Angel, an advocate for food waste recycling and a long-standing partner of Link for over seven years, recognises that one of the main obstacles to promoting a culture of cherishing food is a lack of motivation to change.
“Empathy is essential,” says Heather Tse, Project Manager of Food Angel, who hosts a virtual reality theatre workshop at the Lab that takes children and their parents through a first-person point of view of food characters on the consequences of their food choices. “After taking part in the workshop, children become more intrinsically motivated to change their eating habits, making their peace with food one step at a time.”
With the workshop proving to be an effective formula and a crowd favourite, Heather hopes to collaborate with schools through the Lab to reach more students so they can learn about the value of food from a young age and eat with a grateful heart.
Powering a low-carbon transition for businesses
In addition, Link teamed up with CLP Power and sustainable food consultancy Grassroots Initiatives to curate “Sustainable Cha Chaan Teng”, a showroom within the Lab to showcase how even Hong Kong’s most traditional cafés can transition into sustainable businesses.
“There’s a lack of transparency in our food value chain but the solutions are actually simple,” says Peggy Chan, Principal Consultant of Grassroots Initiatives and Executive Director at Zero Foodprint Asia. “The more sustainable suppliers are, the more willing they would be to share information with their buyers, such as chefs, food service operators, and procurement teams, enabling them to make better sourcing decisions. A fair-trade coconut oil supplier, for example, would likely provide more details about its processes compared to its conflict palm oil counterpart. Ultimately, sustainability can only be achieved if we work together.”
Chan believes that the Lab, which counts many local small to medium-sized food and restaurant businesses among its neighbours, is exactly where the transfer of knowledge and cultural shifts need to happen to generate real impact. In July, Grassroots Initiatives will host a tailored workshop on sustainable operations for food and beverage operators at the Lab.
Lena Low, Senior Director – Customer Success and Experience of CLP Power, notes that sustainable operations have become an important consideration for every company that wants to achieve long-term business development. Therefore, CLP offers a suite of energy services and solutions, such as free energy audits, to support customers to meet their energy management needs.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Link to set up a fully electric kitchen inside the ‘Sustainable Cha Chaan Teng’ to showcase the benefits of electric cooking. This enables us to add value to Link’s tenants and inspire more businesses to increase awareness of their energy consumption and adopt energy-saving practices, while doing our part in supporting sustainability and ESG.”
CLP also supports the Link Tenant Academy by sharing the latest energy-saving information with Link’s tenants and providing useful data via CLP’s Smart Energy Online system for businesses to analyse their energy usage, identify energy saving opportunities and reduce operating costs.
“We look forward to more collaboration opportunities with Link and customers who aspire to make their business operations more sustainable.”
Sustainable fisheries within reach
Buying local ingredients is one way to practice low-carbon living. Together with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), Link produced a documentary to help the public better understand local sustainable fisheries.
These efforts are important, says Dr Peter Luk, Fisheries Officer (Aquaculture Projects) of the AFCD. Although local fish farms are supported by government policies, there is still a need to encourage local fish stalls to sell and promote locally farmed fish, and that starts with public education and promotion.
“Because of overfishing in the past 50 years, some local seafood types that used to be widely available, such as the Hong Kong grouper, have become rare. On the other hand, members of the public are still not familiar with the practical benefits of local fish farming, such as the aquaculture environment and food safety of accredited fish.” Dr Luk thinks that the Link Sustainability Lab is an ideal platform to promote the commercial and sustainability value of local fish farming.
Link’s Managing Director of Corporate Affairs Lorraine Chan encourages individuals and groups from different sectors in society to participate in and take advantage of the collaborative platform provided by the Link Sustainability Lab.
“The purpose of the Lab is to promote the public and businesses’ understanding that sustainable development is a part of everyday life, actionable and achievable by anyone. Whether you’re a shopper, tenant, supplier, business partner, industry peer or community organisation, we hope this space can be an ideal platform for you to learn about and explore sustainable development practices.”
