The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) issued a consultation paper entitled “Review of the Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting Guide and Related Listing Rules” in May. Carbon Care Asia co-organised a seminar with HKU SPACE on 18 June 2019 to share with corporate representatives its insight and foresight into the proposed amendments and the appropriate responses. Divided into two sessions, the event was fully subscribed within days of open invitation, testifying to the importance of ESG reporting to the business sector.

Ms Chloe Mok, CCA Director of Sustainability Strategy explained the key focus of the proposed amendment, including requirements of clearer governance responsibility and closer alignment with international reporting standards. In a follow-up elaboration, CCA Senior Sustainability Consultant Dr Lindsay Mai cautioned companies on five aspects of the amendment that might be easily overlooked, such as the impact of Mandatory Disclosure Requirements on governance reporting and the importance of materiality assessment and stakeholder engagement.

In between the two sessions of the seminar, Mr Chong Chan Yau, Co-founder and CEO of CarbonCare InnoLab, announced the official launch of CarbonCare® Label 2019 which encourages corporate initiatives in carbon reduction and the overall enhancement of the quality of ESG reporting. Another announcement was made by Ms Chloe Mok and Dr Bruce Cheung, Acting Head of College of Life and Science of HKU SPACE, on the launch of two certificate programmes on “Sustainability” and “Climate Resilience” co-offered by CCA and HKU SPACE. Available in September this year, these programmes aim to enhance the training of sustainability professionals working in both the public and private sectors.

The second half of the seminar focused on looking beyond the HKEX consultation as well as solutions to comply with new reporting requirements. Ms Bonnie Yip and Ms Edith Yau, CCA Principal Sustainability Consultants, explained how the report-oriented ESG Reporting Guide and the assessment-oriented recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) can be integrated to present a company’s comprehensive roadmap of climate solutions and its business prospects under the impacts of climate change. Sharing CCA’s partnership experience and illustrating with case studies, the speakers suggested various ways of enhancing the effectiveness of data collection, conducting effective risk assessment through materiality analysis and engaging stakeholders. These solutions can very well respond to different new requirements form the public and improve the reporting performance of a company.

The panel discussion towards the end of the seminar was moderated by Mr Albert Lai, CEO of CCA. The consultant team of the Company answered questions from the floor on topics such as the impacts of ESG and TCFD reporting on investors and the resources required for full compliance of the ESG Reporting Guide.

Photo captions:

1. Professor Sonny Lo, Deputy Director (Arts and Sciences) of HKU SPACE, gave the welcome address.
2. Dr Lindsay Mai, CCA Senior Sustainability Consultant, analysed key proposed amendments in the Consultation Paper.
3. Co-founder and CEO of CarbonCare InnoLab, Mr Chong Chan Yau, announced the official launch of CarbonCare^® Label 2019 which aims to raise climate awareness and encourage action.
4. Dr Bruce Cheung, Acting Head of College of Life and Science of HKU SPACE, introduced the two new sustainability programmes to be co-offered by CCA and HKU SPACE.
5. Ms Chloe Mok, CCA Director of Sustainability Strategy, explained the new reporting trend of aligning with international standards as reflected in the HKEX proposed amendments.
6. Ms Edith Yau, CCA Principal Sustainability Consultant, explained the process of corporate risk assessment to participants.
7. Illustrating with case studies, CCA Principal Sustainability Consultant Ms Bonnie Yip gave a presentation on how to fulfil ESG requirements.
8. Participants showed keen interest in how to improve ESG performance during the Q&A session. CCA representatives (from left) Ms Edith Yau, Principal Sustainability Consultant; Ms Bonnie Yip, CCA Principal Sustainability Consultant; Mr Albert Lai, CEO; Ms Chloe Mok, Director of Sustainability Strategy; and Dr Lindsay Mai, Senior Sustainability Consultant answered questions from the floor.
9. The keen interest of many companies in this seminar testifies to the importance they attach to the new trends in ESG reporting.