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Meet this year’s five recipients of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise
Since 1976, Rolex has been honouring outstanding individuals who work to advance people and planet. The watchmaker supports over 150 projects.
The post Meet this year’s five recipients of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise appeared first on The Peak Magazine.
Meet this year’s five recipients of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise
Since 1976, Rolex has been honouring outstanding individuals who work to advance people and planet. The watchmaker supports over 150 projects.
For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.
Gardens in the Sky: Hong Kong’s Urban Farms Are on the Rise
With their heads in the clouds and their hands in the soil, a group of office workers are busy harvesting the fruits of their labour in urban farms on the roof of a Hong Kong skyscraper. Invisible to those below, a sprawling garden of radishes, carrots and rhubarb is flourishing at the top of the 150-metre tall Bank of America tower, a stark and colourful contrast to the monotone shades of concrete, steel and glass of the city's financial district.
The farm is among more than 60 that have sprouted across the space-starved city since 2015 -- on decommissioned helipads, shopping mall rooftops and public terraces -- thanks to urban farming initiatives in Hong like Rooftop Republic. Cofounder Andrew Tsui sees the rooftop farms as a way for people to reconnect with how sustainable food can be produced in what he calls the current "instant-noodle city lifestyle" that sees so much waste.
"What we are looking at is really how to identify underutilised spaces among the city and mobilise the citizens, the people, to learn about food," the 43-year-old told AFP during a blustery site inspection of the skyscraper's garden.
Tsui believes Hong Kongers need to re-establish a relationship with what they eat that has been broken "since we started outsourcing our food and relying so much on industrialised production."
Piles of food waste
According to government statistics, Hong Kong throws out some 3,500 tonnes of food waste a day -- the equivalent weight of 250 double-decker buses. Less than a quarter is recycled.
Around 90 percent of the food eaten by the city's 7.5 million inhabitants is imported, mostly from mainland China. And while Hong Kong is one of the most densely packed places on earth, there is still considerable space to grow food locally. Tsui said some seven million square metres of farmable area is currently cultivated. But more than six million square metres on the city's rooftops remain unused.
"So we could have the potential of doubling the supply of land for growing food," he said. "The challenge for us is to design urban farming as a lifestyle to integrate into our daily life," he added. "And the first step for that, of course, is to be accessible."
To incorporate urban farms into the blueprints for office buildings, Rooftop Republic closely collaborates with architects, developers and property managers. Major companies are signing up.
As well as the Bank of America garden, financed by property consultancy giant JLL, Singaporean banking giant DBS has partnered with Rooftop Republic to set up an academy that runs workshops for beginners as well as professional courses.
"In Hong Kong, most of the people focus on the commercial value of the properties. But we want to promote the concept of sustainability," said Eric Lau, the group's senior director of property management.
New skills
People working in urban farms say the projects also help build community spirit among those who cultivate the crops. After retiring from the public service, Lai Yee-man said she turned to farming to connect with nature and her neighbours. The 60-year-old initially learned techniques and tricks from professionals to develop her farming plot in the New Territories region of Hong Kong -- a rural area close to the border with mainland China.
But now she is passing on her knowledge to fellow residents working the Sky Garden, a 1,200 square-metre facility on top of a mall. There, residents cultivate edible flowers and fruit trees and can attend lifestyle classes like mindful gardening.
"People attach greater importance to their health now, they will buy organic food," said Lai. "Here, we teach them not to waste... and to cherish their food," she explained, adding that the majority of what the mall farm grows goes to local food banks.
Tsui recognises that few young Hong Kongers currently have an interest in learning how to grow food. But younger people are often concerned about the environment and climate change, so the opportunity to generate enthusiasm is there for the taking.
"If coding is the skill set to learn for the 21st century, growing your own food is a necessary new skill that we all need to learn to ensure a regenerative and green planet," he said.
(Main image credit: Anthony Wallace / AFP)
This article was published via AFP Relaxnews.
The post Gardens in the Sky: Hong Kong’s Urban Farms Are on the Rise appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
The Industry’s First Vegan, Biodegradable Beauty Blender is Here
The cosmetics industry is gradually going green with organic, zero-waste, biodegradable and even compostable products, each more innovative than the next. After mascaras, eyeliners and other sustainable makeup essentials, makeup tools too are embracing the green revolution with its first vegan and biodegradable beauty blender.
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Image Credit: EcoTools[/caption]
Towards more natural materials
Bathrooms of the future will have less waste, more natural materials and fewer ingredients that are harmful to skin (and health). The cosmetics industry, like many other sectors, is undergoing a revolution to meet new consumer demands. This includes developing the kind of personal care products, cosmetics and makeup essentials that we're not used to finding in the beauty departments of our favorite stores.
In recent months, this has given rise to a zero-waste mascara with refills for life, an eyeliner that transforms into flowers at the end of its life, and a deodorant made of natural wood that is guaranteed for life. And products like this look set to multiply in the coming months to help drive down the environmental footprint of the cosmetics sector.
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Image Credit: EcoTools[/caption]
A vegan beauty blender that’s entirely biodegradable
This week's beauty innovation comes from the EcoTools brand, which, after unveiling bamboo brushes with removable heads, has launched a makeup sponge that's entirely biodegradable. It is, more precisely, a beauty blender, an essential tool for the application of foundation, concealer and other correctors, usually made from silicon, although more and more brands now offer plant-based alternatives. Here, the brand has come up with a compostable sponge that is able to degrade naturally in 180 days.
Dubbed the "BioBlender," the sponge is made with five natural ingredients, including water, corn, a natural preservative, a natural pigment, and Bionanopol -- a compound that makes the sponge biodegradable and compostable. All in all, it's a short ingredients list that's both natural and vegan, designed to respect skin as well as the planet. This biodegradable beauty blender retails at around $6 (approx. HK$47).
This article is published via AFP Relaxnews.
The post The Industry’s First Vegan, Biodegradable Beauty Blender is Here appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.