HKUST Sustainability 46 Environment Social and Governance Report 2021-22 Overview Materiality Contents Environment Social/People Governance/ Driver SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES ESG Frameworks Community Engagement in Waste Reduction To engage our campus community to adopt the new Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Charging scheme to be launched by the Hong Kong Government in 2023, HKUST has formed a new working group in 2022 with members across Sustainability/Net-Zero Office, Campus Management Office, Campus Services Office, Health, Safety and Environment Office and Student Housing and Residential Life Office. The scheme aims to achieve waste disposal reduction through behavioral changes and the working group will implement different pilot schemes for offices, residents and caterers next year to get them ready for the new scheme and educate members on the importance of waste reduction at source and separation for recycling. Empowering Sustainable Mindsets Our active members from the green team also embraced the vision of sustainable actions and organized a series of activities including campus beach, food sharing over Chinese New Year snacks, plant-based talk with Green Monday, hiking trail clean-up, and umbrella repairing workshops over the year. The LG7 community garden organizing committee has revitalized the space through organic gardening training and sharing of common resources by members. The space not only contributed to biodiversity on campus but also promoted the well-being of our students and staff. Network Another group of students across different disciplines supported by the Sustainability/Net-Zero Office collaborated with Redress to promote circular fashion to our campus community. The group has launched a series of activities including a second-hand clothes collection and educational talk and organized a pop-up store in the library to reduce waste sent to the landfill. A new bee ambassador program was launched over the summer to let our students and staff maintain the beehives at the President’s Lodge garden. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary, a roundtable discussion was organized on Earth Day to address the problems associated with coronavirus and the environment. Our alumni and current students exchanged ideas on innovative ways to tackle Covid-19 related waste problems, industry trends in addressing the circular economy, and insights on building a more sustainable community. Net-Zero Journey: Innovation Challenge In June, 30 HKUST Undergraduate and Postgraduate students from Clearwater Bay and Guangzhou campuses with different backgrounds of studies participated in the SSC Net-Zero Journey: Innovation Challenge funded by the Tung Foundation. It was an 8-day certificate training program that included a design thinking workshop with a retreat camp held in the Hong Kong Science Park, followed by a week of workshops on lifecycle analysis, design, prototyping, and storytelling on campus. The teams unleashed their creativity and developed smart and sustainable solutions to help our campuses reach Net-Zero which were presented to VIPs on the final day to win the awards.
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