Hang Seng Bank and Towngas

Introduction

Current environmental issues such as pollution, climate changing, global warming, acid rain and deforestation are the hot topics to discuss and pay attention (converse energy future, nd, online). Those issues are mainly caused by greenhouse gases, high demand of forest for different industry use, pollutants in the atmosphere, huge creations of waste etc and resulted in larger and harmful effect (ditto). As a consequence, it becomes an alert to warm human who have to protect their environment and limited resources.

Due to those concern, Curtin (2018, online) stated that 66% of customer are willing to pay more for sustainable goods in 2015 which is 16% raising that compare with 2013 (Mccaskill, 2015, online). 45% of interviewees agreed that environmental commitment would affect their sales intention (ditto). Two of three consumers claimed that brand trusts would be the main factors to influence the purchasing (ditto). As a nut shell, those statistics proved that it is critical for companies to emphasize on corporate environmentalism. Not only to increase the probability by saving operation cost, but also rise the competiveness by building up the reputation and image.

For the purpose of this report, we would study the case of Hang Seng Bank and Towngas and also illustrated their operation, performance and future planning. At the same time, we would also find out how those achievements become beneficial for environment and business.

Case 1 – Hang Seng Bank

Hang Seng Bank founded in 3 March, 1933. It is a Hong Kong based financial and banking service company which located in Central. Hang Seng bank established and implemented their own environmental policy in 2003. They are concerning the damage to natural and environment. Thus, they believe that this policy is able to add value to their bank and stakeholders, and also build the contribution to the environment. They have set up 10 main point to achieve the target. Not only encourage their employees to conduct their duties in an environmentally responsible manner, but also promote public awareness for the importance of environmental protection.

Hang Seng bank gained the recognition ISO 14001 environmental accreditation in 2005 for headquarters building (Hang Seng bank, nd, online). At the same time, they became the first local bank which reached this certification for all Hong Kong offices and branches in 2011 (ditto). In this regard, they realized that this leadership and marketing strategies which able to reinforce their brand image and promote their corporate value and show their commitment to overall environmental policy and target. Citizen may hardly imagine how a bank put their effort to environment if comparing with manufacturer. We would show different division how Hang Seng bank to achieve those approach.

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Firstly, the paper would be the 1st goal for Hang Seng bank to engage. In 2017, they have minimized the paper consumption from 1500 tonnes to 1300 tonnes. By adopting the e-communication service, it saved 76.3 million sheets of paper in 2017. Fair Reporters (2017, online) claimed that paperless would save the paper cost and printing cost. Additionally, it could also save labor costs, storage costs, postage and upgrade or replacement cost for the copiers or fax machine etc (Kempner, 2014, online). Besides, not only saving the cost, it could help to protect the data security and also easily for searching, filling and organization to increase the work efficiency (Paychex, 2015, online).

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Secondly, saving energy consumption would be one of the activities for HS bank to implement. It also showed the decreasing around 7,000 gigajoules and 0.08 gigajoules per full time employee compared with 2015. They also have reduced nearly 3,360 tonnes of CO2 emissions between 2017 and 2015 by shortening the use of electricity and employee travel. They carried out two actions in 2017 for this improvement. First, they installed chilled ceiling and fresh air systems for Hang Seng 113 office building that utilize around 25% less energy per year compared to conventional air conditioning systems. Second, they adopted low energy LED office lighting and is only about 55% of the maximum allowable density regarding the newest energy code requirement stipulated under government rules.

As a consequence, it absolutely provide financial saving in energy bill (City Green Solutions, nd, online). It could also help to minimize the maintenance fee due to extend lifecycles for the buildings (ditto). Meanwhile, the largest sources of generating energy in Hong Kong is coal (Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, HKSAR, 2017, online). It could help to protect the environment by decreasing the demand of electricity as it contains a high level of carbon dioxide and will cause global warming and greenhouse gases emissions (Bright Hub Engineering, nd, online).

Thirdly, except for saving the energy and paper, Hang Seng bank also focus some education and some green activities. For instance, they stopped serving shark's fin at bank functions in 2003 and removed endangered reef fish from their menus so as to support the conservation of biodiversity. They also supply a sustainable seafood menu which endorsed by WWF at their banquet hall. Hang Seng bank could save the charge for costly ingredient and also gain the brand image and educate the staff. What’s more, it could also protect the natural environment, prevent overfishing and preserve of marine habitat and stable stocks (WWF, nd, online).

For their future planning, Hang Seng bank understand that environmental issue will affect their business and stakeholder, especially in energy, emissions and waste. Therefore, they have set a goal of reducing annual CO2 emissions per employees to 2.0 tonnes, minimizing waste and paper use by 75% and 66% respectively. Also, they are planning to purchase 100% sustainably sourced paper by 2020. Under those green concept, it is no doubt that it could help to save the water, electricity and also trees (Miller, 2011, online). Furthermore, brand image is important for business. Customers would appreciate the company who own a “green” image since it shows as a responsible corporate citizen (ditto).

Furthermore, Hang Seng 113 building got the Platinum certification under the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design scheme in 2017 which is Hong Kong’s first domestic bank office building to be awarded. It requested to earn 80 or more points based on different aspect such as water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, material and resources, indoor environmental quality etc (Samarasekera, 2017, online). They were also awarded the Joint Energy Saving Award at the 2017 CLP GREEN PLUS Recognition Award. Under those activities to earn the positive image, Hang Seng bank becomes the most suggested bank by customers in Hong Kong for 13 consecutive years. Also, their e-banking customer has also increased 1.9 million (7%) in 2017. They also gained HK$18.8 billion in 2017 (John, 2018, online). Even though it may not all influenced by green image, there is no doubt that Hang Seng bank did a successful green marketing activities to grow customer.

Case 2 - Towngas

Towngas founded in 1982 and is one of the largest energy suppliers in Hong Kong. They mainly supply the gas for residential, commercial and industrial sectors. In 1999, their Tai Po gas production plant has been certified to ISO 14000 standard. Being as a role of responsible corporate citizen, they complied with the strictest regulatory conditions and benchmarked against the highest international standards and Codes of Practice. Except for following the regulation, they also set the future actions and target to satisfy the customer needs and become competiveness for leading in Asia and environmental-friendliness.

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As an energy supplier, they concerned about the energy resources and production facilities are effective for protection and improvement of the environmental performance. For that reason, they have eliminated the coal and heave oil and adopted to use naphtha in 1973. In addition, they added landfill gas to fuel mix which is the first organization in Hong Kong to adopt. In 2006, they harnessed natural gas as the main of energy resource to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and also air pollutants. Under this action, it is reduced the CO2 emission for 23% compared between 2005 and 2017.

Under the gas production process, they also took action for caring the impact to the environment. Even though the gas sales is more than 235 million MJ than 2016, their resources conversation is better than 2016. For instance, in 2017, they have minimized the use of electricity around 13,000 GJ between 2016. Besides, they utilized the waste heat recovery system in order to recover and reuse waste heat which is able to cut CO2 emissions by 2,700 tonnes in 2017. Meanwhile, they made use of treated rainwater and saved around 3,806 cubic metres water in 2017. They also saved 20,000 cubic metres of water from different facilities such as warming ammonia drums, air compressor station cooling towers and phase 2 cooling water. Consequently, they could save the cost for purchasing the water and also converse the resources due to reductions in water demands (Connor Pincus Group, 2015, online).