More than 30 guests joined us on Tuesday, 5 June for a very successful Evening Forum .
Despite a very rainy evening, more than 30 guests joined us on Tuesday, 5 June for a very successful Evening Forum on Growth through Sustainable Business Practices at HSBC in Barangaroo.
Lars Mehlan, Director – Events & Marketing of the German Chamber, opened the evening by welcoming all guests and thanking our Executive Member HSBC for hosting the event. Following was Hamish Kelly, Managing Director & Head of Global Banking (Australia) who welcomed all participants on behalf of HSBC. He also elaborated on the importance of sustainability to HSBC.
Afterwards he introduced Steven Münchenberg, Director at Futureye, as the moderator for the evening and took his seat on the panel. Steven then introduced the other panellists, being Dr Graham Sinden, Director, Climate Change and Sustainability Services at EY; Taimor Hazou, Leader, Public and Government Affairs at Dow Chemical; and Andrew Petersen, CEO at Sustainable Business Australia.
Andrew started the panel discussion with an introductory keynote address. He introduced the importance of sustainability in Germany and Australia and particularly mentioned ambition, authenticity and accountability as the key drivers for sustainable business practices in today’s business world. The panel then moved on to discussing practical experiences of sustainable business practices with particular insight gleaned from Dow Chemical.
The panel also touched on the range of companies and industries and what factors drive them to embrace sustainability. There was also mention of the role financial institutions can play to facilitate change to more sustainable practices. After a very informative discussion it was up to the audience to ask questions and debate their interests in more detail with the panellists.
This Evening Forum was both informative and a great success, which was mostly due to the very engaging nature of the guests and those on the panel. We would like to thank our panellists for taking the time and sharing their insights with our members and friends. Also big thanks to our Executive Member HSBC for hosting the event.
We are looking forward to many more engaging discussions in the future.