Firms Back Asia Inc Forum Green Meet
11th June 2010
Debbie Too
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Friday, June 11, 2010 – Page 13
Published on The Brunei Times
LOCAL businesses are throwing their weight behind Asia Inc Forum’s National Environment Conference 2010 slated next month.
HSBC has joined forces with the Asia Inc Forum to promote environmental awareness, by volunteering the bank’s fleet of Prius vehicles to carry the National Environment Conference 2010 logo.
“We are partnering with HSBC in using their Toyota Prius, a car designed for its fuel efficiency and environmental commitment, as we believe this is the perfect vehicle to promote the message of this year’s National Environment Conference, which will be held on July 1,” said Stuart Kemp, executive director of Asia Inc Forum.
“This is a small campaign that will allow people to keep environmental awareness at the top of mind, and I am optimistic that the awareness will keep growing,” said HSBC Chief Executive Tareq Muhmood, who added that nine of the HSBC Prius vehicles will be carrying the logo.
Tareq said that initially the idea behind the purchase of the company vehicles was to “put action behind their words”. “We are thrilled to be a part of this, and before we purchased the cars, I asked whether it was better to get a more powerful and cheaper car, or we could put some action behind our words on going green and pay a bit more for the Prius, and people at HSBC were opting for the Prius,” he said.
He added although petrol prices in Brunei are cheap the move to purchase the Prius, was hopefully going to be a catalyst so that people would not take the petrol prices for granted and that it was a move to show that HSBC doesn’t as well.
The National Environment Conference will bring together about 300 delegates from the public and private sectors, stated the press release issued by the Asia Inc Forum.
Wade Hughes, director general of Business Development and Public Strategy from Alcoa, said, “I believe that the conference will be a platform where people can share and learn from each other and tackle these common problems, and what it best means for working upstream through the supply chains to reduce the waste.”We all get packaging sent to us, we all have inefficiencies on our appliances, and we’ll only solve all that by working together,” he said.
He added that the only way to solve all environment problems is by “working together, in one single solution”. “There is no individual organisation that has all the answers and it’s a question on how you can combine all your resources and thinking and coming up with an answer,” he said.
He added that by tackling waste inefficiencies, companies would actually be losing more money through it. “By companies taking waste out of their process whether it’s in a home or the company all those who have done it successfully have said that it has reduced their cost,” he said.
Total E&P Borneo BV is also supporting the conference, with a Total executive one of the speakers.
Speakers include Wade Hughes, director of Business Development and Public Strategy for Far East from Alcoa, and Katie Stafford, corporate engagement strategy leader from the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and the Heart of Borneo initiative.
They will discuss what Brunei’s priorities should be and whether there are trade-offs between economic and environmental priorities, and also to discuss what Brunei can learn from other countries.
An open forum on the future of energy and whether there are alternatives to gas-fuelled electricity, and whether the need for alternative energy be moderated by increased energy efficiency will follow. Speakers include Janice Larson, director of renewable energy from the Ministry of Energy in Canada and Ludovic Le Gurun, operations director from Total.
The Brunei Times
Source URL: http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn/business-national/2010/06/11/firms-back-asia-inc-forum-green-meet