Green Council Successfully Organises the Asia Carbon Footprint Network Conference 2015 with Keynote Address

Delivered by Mr Wong Kam-sing, JP, Secretary for the Environment, Environment Bureau of the Government of the HKSAR

Hong Kong, Oct. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Council, Hong Kong's leading non-profit organisation for environmental labelling and carbon footprint reduction, successfully hosted the "Asia Carbon Footprint Network Conference 2015" together with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ("ESCAP") and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute in order to promote increased awareness of environmental protection and the development of a regional strategic framework for addressing and managing carbon emissions in Asia. Mr Wong Kam-sing, JP, Secretary for the Environment, also the Guest-of-Honor of today's conference, delivered opening keynote address.

Hong Kong served as the host city for the first time for the conference, which brought together the 14 member organisations of the "Asia Carbon Footprint Network" in Asia, and was attended by international experts, policy makers and researchers to discuss what is seen as one of the biggest threats and challenges of our time, climate change. Distinguished speakers and scholars shared their views and insights over the 2-day conference as well as looked at both regional and international cases on how the member organisations can work closer on together on implementing industry best-practices to tackle the issue. 

Linda Ho, CEO of Green Council said, "We are honoured to host the Asia Carbon Footprint Network Conference 2015, especially since it coincides with the Green Council's 15^th anniversary. We are also delighted that Hong Kong was chosen as the host city and we hope that this will increase the local awareness and interest in climate change issues and carbon footprint reduction, as well as the promotion of eco-products and eco-labelling. By bringing together all the member organisations of the Asia Carbon Footprint Network we are able to join forces on how to address climate change, inevitably a challenge which requires collaboration on an international level and it is our ambition to make ACFN conferences the premier platform in Asia to discuss these issues. In these few days we have had the opportunity to meet our regional and international partners to hammer out forward-looking strategies on how to engage both the private and public sector and which initiatives we can launch to reach the wider community."

The third Asia Carbon Footprint Conference focused on the topic "Recent Development and the Way Forward", with local support from the Environment Bureau of the Government of the HKSAR as well as companies and other supporting organisations. More than 160 conference delegates gathered in Hong Kong to discuss the latest industry trends and policies. Steven Choi, Project Manager at the Green Council said, "The Green Council will continue to support projects and initiatives that can achieve a wider outreach when it comes to carbon footprint reduction and eco-labeling, and hosting the Asian Carbon Footprint Network Conference 2015 has been major stepping stone as part of this strategy, as well as our support of the Eco Expo Asia 2015 where the Green Council has been a major exhibitor. Since the inception of the Green Council in 2000, we have seen a significant increase and interest for eco-labeling and eco-products, and a large part of this has been derived from the demand side as consumers in Asia want to see more environmentally-friendly products and services. We were happy to see that companies expressed a strong interest in the labelling schemes that were raised during the conference, and we intend to step-up our efforts on regional collaboration on this front."

About Green Council

The Green Council (GC) is a non-profit, non-partisan environmental association in Hong Kong. A group of individuals from different sectors of industry and academics shared the vision to help build Hong Kong into a world-class green city for the future. Green Council was formed in May 2000 with the aim of encouraging the industrial and commercial sectors to include environmental protection in their production and management processes. The Green Council was registered as a non-profit making organisation in December 2000. For more information, please visit: http://www.greencouncil.org.