Introduction

What’s ESG?

ESG is a guiding framework for sustainable development across various industries. ESG principles provide companies with a structured approach to managing and measuring their operation impact in areas that go beyond financial performance, reflecting a commitment to responsible and sustainable practices.

Why ESG?

Various countries and regions, notably the European Union (EU), have started to embrace ESG, with disclosure requirements originally confined to their respective domestic operations but increasingly extended to the whole supply chain. In fact, the EU has become the first jurisdiction to require such ESG disclosure along the whole supply chain from this year onwards, thereby making ESG a global issue. In the meantime, the Mainland is also moving fast and formulating its own ESG disclosure standards that are planned to be applicable to all companies, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), by 2030. With such developments, international ESG adoption will likely be irreversible.

The impact of ESG is especially relevant to the trading and logistics sector due to its intrinsically international nature of business. With logistics being one of the pillar industries, Hong Kong in particular should ride the global ESG trend, lest we will lose out to our competitors in the global supply chain.

Where should I start?

An ESG roadmap is now formulated to outline a framework for our logistics industry’s reference, so as to raise the industry’s awareness of ESG and assist the industry in following and consequently meeting international ESG requirements, thereby consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong’s position as an international logistics hub.