By Sustainable Innovation staff | Dec 10, 2008

Thumbnail: 

The social responsibility movement has almost completely bypassed corporate Hong Kong.

Virtually none of Hong Kong's top listed companies have adopted CSR policies, an Oxfam-sponsored survey has found. Only 16 out of 43 companies bothered to reply to its 20-page questionnaire, and of those half scored below 10% - including property giants Sun Hung Kai, Li Kashing-controlled Cheung Kong, Henderson and  Wharf.

"There is no excuse for these top listed companies not to take the lead in the movement," said John Sayer of Oxfam Hong Kong.

There is one tepid excuse they might wave in their defense, however, which is that they are merely following their government, as exemplified by its approach to green ICTs.

Like its regional rival Singapore, Hong Kong has failed to set a target for cutting data center emissions or improving the level of data center energy efficiency.

The green IT policy in both cities is "best effort".

The Hong Kong OGCIO says agencies are required to "implement server consolidation and virtualization as far as applicable" and "use energy efficient (e.g. with power saving features) equipment for IT systems and data center facilities". That's the entire energy efficiency policy for Hong Kong's public sector IT.

The Singapore government set up a dedicated body, the National Environment Agency, to preside over the city's own indifference to carbon emissions. Likewise, it has no targets.

Contrast those efforts with the detailed carbon emission and energy efficiency programs of the majority most Fortune 500 companies -  the very companies Hong Kong and Singapore spend so much time and energy trying to attract.

Hong Kong's Secretary for the Environment, Edward Yau, said in a recent speech that environmental protection gain "could only be achieved with public participation". What is really missing in fact is participation of the government.