Nov
10
2021
Plant physiologist Sharon Robinson has been monitoring plant health in Antarctica for more than 20 years and her findings are sobering. After a successful pilot project, she marked a series of Antarctic sites with tags on rocks in 2003 for on-going observation. She wanted to learn more about the endemic plants and how they survive in …read more
Nov
10
2021
With degrees in chemical engineering and materials engineering from Vietnam universities, followed by a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Melbourne, Thuy Quynh Nguyen was inspired to use her expertise to limit bushfire damage to Australia’s rural homes.
Nov
5
2021
Chris Uren studied a masters of business administration course online at Macquarie University and it completely changed his career trajectory. Now almost 32, he had been employed as a frontline team member in the international division of Qantas and, like so many thousands of airline employees, he was stood down when the Covid-19 pandemic started to …read more
Oct
1
2021
June Wong So-kwan picks up plastic takeaway cups and boxes, plastic bottles, and supermarket plastic wrappings and containers on her regular rubbish collection trips to Hong Kong’s beaches. “When I do beach clean-ups in Hong Kong I find a lot of these kinds of wrappers, the pre-pack containers,” she says. “This is what you can …read more
Sep
13
2021
A diamond ring can signal joy, love, commitment and, maybe these days, environmental awareness. The global demand for ethically-sourced and environmentally-sound jewellery is steadily growing and big names, from the world-famous Tiffany brand to the massive Asia-based Chow Tai Fook group, have developed deep sustainable jewellery policies.
Aug
21
2021
A production stage manager at a theme park, Helen Wu is in her 40s and she is both childless and a committed environmentalist. Since her wedding last year, her friends and colleagues have repeatedly asked her when she will have a baby, but her answer doesn’t change. “No,” she says. “As I grow older, more …read more
Aug
3
2021
Lung Lung Thun is one of the rare breed of women watch collectors. She researches the history of individual watches. She discusses watches, she understands watches and she buys watches – often larger men’s watches with complicated mechanical movements. She recently bought her first vintage Patek Philippe – the 3970 – a wildly expensive perpetual …read more
Jul
29
2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought Hong Kong’s world-famous tailoring industry to its knees, says Stanton Ho, co-founder of the local menswear establishment Refinery. Dressy social occasions have been lost in the dust of lock-downs and social-distancing rules. Nine-to-six office rules and dress codes have changed, perhaps forever.
Jul
27
2021
As plastics horror stories pile up, consumers across the developed world are turning away from the modern convenience of plastic bags and plastic packaging, or at least trying to avoid single-use plastic as much as they can. There have been too many dead whales found with bellies full of disposable bags, boxes and bottles; too many …read more
Jul
9
2021
Over the centuries, Hong Kong’s lush subtropical woodlands have been burned, accidentally and deliberately – cut down for fuel, slashed to make way for agriculture, flattened by typhoons, replanted to stabilise hillsides, cut down to make way for development, devastated by insect plagues and replanted again. Whatever happens, they keep coming back.
