Samuel Kwong Tin-sang, group manager, environment, health and safety, Swire Beverages
I joined Swire Beverages in 2005, and I have an assistant to help me in my environment, health and safety duties. We focus on strategic planning and management and leave the in-house environmental specialists at each plant to look after the daily nitty-gritty. This is why I am not based at our Hong Kong plant in Sha Tin, although I do regularly visit the environment team there.
Before joining Swire Beverages, I worked for a consultancy firm and a public transport operator. I have a degree in civil engineering and a higher degree in environmental protection.
My company has 13 plants in Hong Kong, the mainland, Taiwan and the United States. At the head office in Hong Kong, we are responsible for setting group-wide environmental policy and strategy and overseeing the environmental performance of all our operations.
Given my present role in planning and management, much of my time is spent on communicating with my plant-based colleagues locally and overseas, and discussing their environmental performance, needs and concerns.
We have a common environmental management system at all our plants to help maintain consistent performance. We devised the system at the head office. As our plants are bound by different local regulatory standards, this common system must meet all these different standards.
The ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18000 certification are the most widely adopted standards worldwide. We don't just comply; we pitch our system above these and other relevant standards to help drive environmental protection where we operate.
