Destinations Known | What is a B Corp and why aren’t hotels rushing to show they ‘walk the sustainability talk’? There are only 3 certified in Asia – and the first was in Hong Kong
- B Corp Certification signals that a company is socially and environmentally responsible and in Hong Kong, 25 possess it – but only one hotel
- Certification can take up to a year and needs renewing every three, while the ‘B’ doesn’t yet stand out enough from the BS, aka greenwashing, rife in the sector
Have any readers stayed at the Hotel Ease · Tsuen Wan, in Hong Kong’s New Territories? Or even heard of it?
It ain’t The Pen, the MO or the Regent, but in March 2019, this 160-room “high-rise lodging with a funky eatery” (as the internet refers to it) on Chun Pin Street, Kwai Chung, became the first hotel in Asia to get B Corp certification.
“To get what?” you may well ask.
Visit the Hotel Ease website, and you have to dig deep to find any mention of the certification … there it is on the Awards page, between a silver design gong from Italy for the Eat@Ease restaurant and a Hotels.com “Loved by Guest” winner badge from 2019.
Possessed by 25 or so Hong Kong businesses across various industries, B Corp Certification signals a company is socially and environmentally responsible, and is meeting “high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials”, claims B Lab Global, the United States-based non-profit organisation – or “movement” – that bestows the honour.
