KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) is looking to co-create innovative business solutions with visionary sustainability changemakers, with the goal of revitalising and contributing towards the circular economy.

Through HLB LaunchPad initiative, the bank is inviting impact organisations and startups to pitch their out-of-the-box ideas focused on the circular economy, while providing

them with the opportunity to be further developed in collaboration with it.

"The circular economy is an economic system that reduces waste and maximises resources by reusing, recycling, and regenerating materials and products, with the goal of retaining materials at their peak usability at all times while minimising environmental effect.

"Based on this, there are three challenge statements that organisations can choose to

tackle namely 'Enhancing Green Building & Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions',

'Reimagining How Goods are Produced for SMEs', and 'Exploring Innovative Solutions in Waste

Management'," Kevin Lam, group managing director and chief executive officer of HLB said.

Lam highlighted the bank's long-standing commitment to marrying environmental sustainability with economic viability.

"As a financial institution with a deep-rooted entrepreneurial heritage, we are constantly committed to future-proofing our businesses by ensuring that our operations are both economically competitive and climate resilient.

"This extends to us implementing various sustainability-focused practices and initiatives in our internal and external proceedings, from reducing our operational carbon emissions by 21 per cent since FY2019, to providing green financing to businesses and introducing an ESG Assessment Framework for our business banking customers," he added.

https://www.nst.com.my/business/corporate/2024/05/1050538/hong-leong-bank-help-revitalise-circular-economy