Two weeks ago, I went to watch “The Inconvenient Truth”, the documentary on global warming based on the work of Al Gore. The figures in the movie were so striking that at that time I thought the movie should become a compulsory watch for everybody in Hong Kong. People had to realize what was happening to the Earth. But something struck me even more during that movie. A couple of local Hong Kong people stood up in the middle and left the theatre never to return. How was that possible? How could anybody be so indifferent about the future of the Earth? I then started to tell my friends around that they had to watch the movie and that it was so important to realize that if habits are not changed there will be serious repercussions. But with movies like “The Devil Wears Prada” or “The Departed” the Hollywood remake of a Hong Kong blockbuster, there was little chance many people would go and watch this amazing documentary.
As I was reading “The Tipping Point” from Malcom Gladwell at that time, it got me thinking about the “stickiness” of the green message in general and why it seemed it received so little attention in Hong Kong. I thus decided to look into this issue by going at the EcoAsia Expo in Hong Kong organized by the Trade Development Council. On October 27th I took my notebook, my pens and my camera and went there to try to better understand the phenomenon. Why were people little interested in the future of the Earth around here? How could we get them to do more? Especially with a section of the expo on green consumer products, I was looking forward to see what products would affect consumers’ daily life and how they could be marketed.
The expo, targeted purely at buyers, did not have the kind of innovation I was looking for, but I still met some very interesting people and learnt more about what the government in Hong Kong is doing for the environment. As this post is already pretty long, I will detail some of these points in later posts on the topic. The most important thing I retain from the expo and the seminars that were held is a number: 1% to 2%. This is the objective the Hong Kong government has in terms of renewable energy by 2012. This means that by 2012, 1% to 2% of the energy produced and used in Hong Kong will be from renewable sources, like wind and solar power. To put this in perspective other numbers were shown at the expo. Tokyo has an objective of 20% renewable energy by 2020 and even more strikingly India today has a 5% renewable energy ratio. Way to go Hong Kong…
If you are interested in Green Technologies, please do look at the following links:
As I was reading “The Tipping Point” from Malcom Gladwell at that time, it got me thinking about the “stickiness” of the green message in general and why it seemed it received so little attention in 
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