COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

yesterday was nothing short of insane.

my day included lunch with one of the world's only masters of wine and ended with the official media dinner for business of design week at the w hotel.

in between,i managed to sandwich in participation at a swire focus group on sustainability, a meeting with the asiapac head of interactive media for intel and speaking at web wednesday. unfortunately, i consumed alcohol at the last three events, accounting for why i woke up at 5 am this morning! luckily, my biggest travail of today will be media training by hill & knowlton.

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at the swire focus group, which saw representation from wwf, green power, friends of the earth, clear the air and designing hong kong, among other groups, the same point was made again and again: in a city such as hong kong, the tipping point IS the private sector. without corporate leadership and vision, we cannot substantively progress the cause of the environment. all too often, the reticence of business is caused by the mistaken perception that, the interests of the various stakeholders are NOT aligned. but reality and our own advocacy has demonstrated that, in fact, this conflict is illusory, yet one which the government continues to perpetuate. it is a perverse but presumably age-old habit which causes government to assume that environmental regulation is a zero sum question for society -- where business MUST lose out if the environment is to gain? this thinking, so outmoded, no doubt persists from the era of nascent environmentalism (the 1960s) when green business was thought to be an outre conceit of hippies and radicals! of course, the opposite is true and it is the practices of a company such as swire which demonstrate that green business is really the only sensible, profitable business these days if one wants to flourish in today's fiercely competitive global economy where energy efficiency and green values are central building blocks of brand and shareholder value. all that said, it is the civic responsibility of a huge company such as swire to weigh in forcefully on the pros and cons of green business during this crucial time when, for the first time, the government is about to tighten hk's air quality management policy. i was happy to hear that,in fact, swire HAD submitted a statement to the government during the public consultation. now, whether its submission had teeth or not... that's a different matter. one thing is certain though, business, government and green groups are NOT THINKING at cross-purposes when it comes to hk's air quality. on the other hand, the OUTWARD behavīor of hk business - continued reticence and toadying to the government -- probably belies its actual commitment to sustainable business development. that the government seems to insist on perpetuating the misconception that business interests and the environment are adversarially aligned, obviously reinforces this pernicious dynamic. NGOs can only help to break this impasse. what is genuinely required is true leadership and vision from the companies which are the pillars of hong kong's economy.

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