Hong Kong – Eight projects approved for funding under Sustainable Development Fund

The following is issued on behalf of the Council for Sustainable Development:

     The Council for Sustainable Development (SDC) announced today (August 12) that eight new projects have been approved for funding under the Sustainable Development Fund.

 

     This is the 14th round of applications for the Fund. The Fund was open for application from October to December 2021. The responses were overwhelming, with 84 applications received. The eight approved projects, lasting from 11 months to 24 months, involve a total grant of about $9.74 million (See Annex). 

 

     A spokesperson for the SDC said, “These eight projects are of diverse types and cover a wide spectrum of target recipients including students, youths, the elderly, ethnic minorities, new arrivals, small and medium-sized enterprises and so on. These projects will promote a low-carbon lifestyle to the general public through a cross-sectoral approach, so as to help our society move towards carbon neutrality, facilitate sustainable development in the community and meet the objectives of the Fund.”

     Grantees will hold a series of activities with new themes and distinctive features, many of which are to be introduced for the first time since the establishment of the Fund, for example:

 

• Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups will leverage the advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) to hold “Environmental, Social and Governance” youth summits in Guangzhou and Foshan, so as to promote exchanges between youths and professionals in the GBA;

• Silence Limited will accommodate the needs of the hearing-impaired community and produce tailor-made promotional videos, brochures and workshops to help them understand the practice of a low-carbon lifestyle; and

• UNESCO Hong Kong Association will assist schools in moving towards net-zero campuses, promote green schools through carbon auditing, and encourage the integration of sustainable development principles into school administrations and curricula.

     The Sustainable Development Fund was set up in 2003 to provide financial support for initiatives that will help enhance the public’s understanding of sustainable development and encourage the application of sustainability principles in Hong Kong. So far, 14 rounds of applications have been processed and a cumulative total of 82 projects have been approved for grants from the Fund.

 

     Details of the newly approved projects are available at the Fund’s website (www.eeb.gov.hk/en/susdev/sdf/approvprj.htm).