Savouring Our Future - Green energy and architecture in our good life

Our masterplan for Maxim’s Centre’s construction dates all the way back to 2012, when sustainability was not as popular as it is today. But saving energy has always been one of our core values. The principles of sustainability and comfort are imbued in every aspect of our day-to-day work.

The Hong Kong Green Building Council awarded Maxim’s Centre with a Final Platinum rating under its BEAM Plus New Buildings 1.1 version.

A HKGBC Beam Plus building

Maxim’s Centre in Lai Chi Kok was officially opened in 2015. Green design was integral to the building from the start of its development. Key green features of Maxim’s Centre include:

Double-glazed windows to effectively introducing daylight while minimizing the solar heat gained

Over 40% of the gross area features green design, including a Sky Garden

Improved indoor air quality – voluntary participation in the Environmental Protection Department’s IAQ Certification Scheme

Environmentally certified construction materials – over 50% of timber used is FSC certified

Dual-flush toilets in compliance with the Water Supplies Department’s Quality Water Supply Scheme

Domestic water meeting the Quality Water Standards of the Water Supplies Department

The Hong Kong Green Building Council awarded Maxim’s Centre with a Final Platinum rating under its BEAM Plus New Buildings 1.1 version. “In recent years we have upgraded all office lighting to LED, as well as using natural and reused construction materials, among other measures,” said Catherine Cheung, Head of Projects & Engineering Food Manufacturing of Maxim’s Group. Catherine noted that these measures involved higher costs but they were worth it.

Install solar panels in office and factories

The next major challenge was how to further reduce carbon emissions. “As well as our headquarters, we have three factories; why not install solar panels on their roofs? Their energy can be connected to the grid directly,” said Catherine, who pointed out that each building’s different rooftop area and structures added complexity to the panels’ installation. In order to maximise the panels’ sunlight absorption, each installation site needed to be analysed deeply.

“For example, the cakes and bakery factory in the Tai Po Industrial Estate is a steel structure, which has a lower load capacity than regular concrete. It prompted us to adjust the solar panel weight.” A clever double-deck design was devised which not only reduced the panels’ weight, but also the rooftop’s heat absorption rate, enabling a cut in indoor air conditioning usage – a real ‘three birds with one stone’ solution!

Up until 2019, solar energy facilities owned by Maxim’s Group generated a total of 284,000 kw of electricity, a number equal to planting 4,800 trees and absorbing 110,400 kg carbon dioxide.

Workplace goes green

Along with saving energy and cutting carbon emissions, employee wellness is a matter of great importance to the Group. “It is a rare thing to be able to bathe in natural light in a Hong Kong office,” said Cannes Ting, an IT Department management trainee. “We can even watch the sunset in the evening!” Cannes loves to take lunch at the Sky Garden, whose flowing, curvilinear chairs remind him of being in a park.

There are also recycling bins on different floors of the building for paper, batteries, plastic bottles, metals and glasses. The company also holds green talks on a regular basis, taking care of both the hardware and software aspects of the cause

I switched to an electric car because it’s quieter, has zero exhaust emissions, and is cooler while in operation. It’s just more environmentally friendly. The office’s EV charging station supports my daily commute, especially when I was driving more during the peak of the pandemic.

Michael, Supply Chain, Maxim’s Group

Green is the focus of Maxim’s Centre’s design. From its Sky Garden and green facades to recycling air-conditioning drainage for toilet flushing, we try to cut carbon emissions from many different perspectives. We also remind colleagues to limit the use of paper and water. We can all do our own part for the environment.

Suki, Office Administration, Maxim’s Group

"What upmost necessitous for start-ups is a job case, so it is a rare opportunity for a company willing to try new technology products developed locally in Hong Kong." Martin Zhu, co-founder of i2Cool

Decarbonizing cooling paint inspired by a desert ant species

To survive the scorching desert, Saharan silver ants grow with unique hairs that reflect light like a prism. This natural curiosity inspired the i2Cool startup team at Hong Kong Baptist University to develop iPaint, an energy and refrigerant-free radiative cooling paint that can be applied directly to building facades, rooftops, and vehicle bodies. By blocking incoming radiance from the sun it creates a cooling effect, effectively reducing interior temperatures by 5-6℃.

Maxim’s Group is constantly on the lookout for new ways to facilitate energy and carbon reduction, and it soon saw the potential of the startup’s innovative idea. It is only natural for the two to come together to explore options for a decarbonizing trial in a real-life operational scenario.

The dense silver hairs on the body of the Saharan silver ant can increase the reflection of near-infrared rays, and under full sunlight, dissipate the heat from the ant's body to help them keep cool. (Web image).

iPaint energy-free cooling paint uses a solar reflectance and passive radiative mechanism to create a cooling effect, emitting thermal radiation out to the cold atmosphere.

120 square meters of iPaint on the headquarters' rooftop

Though its vehicles rarely experience prolonged exposure to sunlight, Maxim’s and i2Cool decided to conduct a test run using Maxim’s transportation fleet to support decarbonization research and development. But as well as applying iPaint to some vehicles' roofs, the Maxim’s technical team found another test subject that was less obvious but no less critical, condensing water pipes of the Central air-conditioning system.

"The air-conditioning of the entire office building relies on the central water-cooled chiller system and dissipates heat through the cooling tower. Some of the condensing water pipes are vertical to the building, while the other horizontal ones must be exposed to the sun for a long time. One drawback is that they are susceptible to intense sunlight, leading to overheating and a need for increased power consumption to dissipate the heat.” explains Ken Ng, Infrastructure and Technology Project Manager of Maxim’s Group.

Maxim’s Group and the i2Cool team ultimately applied nearly 120 square meters of iPaint on the headquarters' rooftop and water pipes. Some areas were deliberately left unpainted in order to yield control data for future comparison.

"If the two parties hadn't deliberately explored the test site, no one would have considered trialing from the rooftop water pipe."

Support local scientific research by providing a test platform

The professional research team at i2Cool includes professors, PhD graduates, and young scientists from the School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, and Ken emphasizes that their cooling paint technology is unconventional and groundbreaking. To Maxim’s, this collaboration is less about reducing temperatures and cutting electricity bills, and more about creating synergy and mutual benefits by supporting local startups. Its significance is in exploring more possibilities for future environmental development.

"The experimental installation of iPaint on Maxim's Group Centre rooftop pioneered the application of iPaint’s outdoor equipment before we could successfully promote it to other buildings."

Trees planted

10,000 Trees

Families helped

15 Families

Carbon sequestered to date*

250,130 Kg CO₂

Carbon sequestered over lifetime*

2,500,000 Kg CO₂

Maxim's Group has sponsored the planting of SIX forests with a total of 6,000 trees, benefiting 14 local tree-planting families and sequestrated over 84,000 Kg CO₂ to date.

Tree planting accelerates natural habitat recovery, while the vegetation can help sequestrate carbon in the soil to slow down the greenhouse effect.

Modern conventional farming and industrialized animal husbandry often deforest large pieces of land for a single purpose. Initially, plantations grow naturally on land, and through the process of photosynthesis, the plants help sequestrate carbon from the air, form soil carbon in the topsoil, and maintain the carbon cycle. Damaging the covering vegetation will inhibit the carbon cycle.

Human activities lead to the disappearance of trees on earth

According to a study published in “NATURE” in 2015, the earth currently homes 3 trillion trees. However, since anthropogenic activities like farming and industrial development starts, the number of trees has almost halved (49%). The United Nations encourages enterprises to directly support tree planting or influence their supply chain to support sustainable farming and support businesses that adopt eco-friendly approaches in production.

Converting customer spending to support tree planting

This explains why Maxim’s Group has been planting trees in Asia since 2021 through an impact innovation start-up EcoMatcher. The first forest was born back in 2021 during the event - In the Moo for Love, where over 50 outlets under Maxim’s Group participated as a gesture of support. Whenever customers purchase dishes made of plant based meat, part of the revenue goes into sponsorship for tree planting, the sponsorship has since continued throughout different campaigns. To date, Maxim's has sponsored the planting of six forests in Thailand with a total of 6,000 trees, benefitting 14 local tree-planting families. Maxim’s reforestation campaign enables consumers to take part in tackling climate change. Locally, Maxim’s has also collaborated with green organizations to support tree planting, for example, we planted 100 saplings on Lantau Island after Typhoon Mangkhut caused damage to the city in 2019.

Every tree gets a unique code which is like a “Tree ID”. Once the code is entered, the program will “fly” to the exact location of the tree. .

Create Tree ID Card with Blockchain Technology

It is not hard to plant a tree but understanding the process and its impact transparently would be the key. EcoMatcher leverages various innovative technologies to make the whole tree-planting process easy and transparent, which is why Maxim’s has worked with them. By integrating tree farmer training, satellite orientation, and blockchain technology, EcoMatcher’s digital platform can collect and show information from latitude and longitude, plantation, date of planting, and weather to its current status clearly on your screen. You can see the smiling face of Ngor, a tree farmer in Northern Thailand. You can read an introduction about his own family, and you can also see the trees planted a year ago up until now, that has helped sequestrate 25kg of carbon.

Ngor became a tree farmer 2 years ago, and to date, he has planted 10,000 trees. He explains why he decided to plant these trees:

“The climate has become so drastically different now, and I hope to play a part in tackling climate change. We hope farmers can use natural fertilizers instead of artificial fertilizers in farming," said Ngor, a tree farmer in Northern Thailand.

The simple act of tree-planting brings tremendous fruitful results:

Increasing soil carbon, and maintaining the carbon cycle
Preserving natural habitats of wildlife and increasing biodiversity
Benefiting local farmers, especially empowering women with higher income and social independence

A tree as a gift

Through technology, trees can as a gift to Maxim's colleagues, each tree is unique, and each gift so. More people feel that business and sustainable development are closely linked.

Technology allows me to "participate" in overseas tree-planting activities. It is resourceful and impressive!

Sharon, m.a.x. concepts

It is meaningful that tree planting can beyond helping the planet, but helps the local groups that manage the forests!

Joseph, Quick Service Restaurant and Catering Services Division

The gift of a "Tree" aroused my interest in planting so I keep browsing more about planting.

Garfield, Human Resources Department

Part of the revenue from Maxim’s products will be directly donated to support tree planting

BOB (stands for “Bottle of Bread”) is a beer co-launched with local startup Breer, which upcycles surplus bread in the brewing process. Maxim’s Group will plant a tree for every 6 bottles of BOB sold.

Since August, Maxim’s MX has launched its first “Plant as you Eat” campaign by using Impossible Pork in its dishes. Maxim’s MX will plant a tree for every 2 kilograms of Impossible pork consumed.

Cherry tomatoes planted with zero pesticides and zero chemical fertilizers through regenerative farming methods. A tree is planted by Maxim’s Group for every 2kg of tomatoes sold.

(Data as of August 2023)

Green energy and architecture in our good life 22/07/2022 18:25 Reading Time 6 Mins Let’s Reduce Carbon #Decarbonization #Green office

An ant-inspired decarbonization mission in support of a local startup 11/04/2023 03:00 Reading Time 5 Mins Let’s Reduce Carbon #Decarbonization #Local tech #Innovation

Build a Cooler Planet with Maxim’s “Forest” 27/02/2023 15:16 Reading Time 6 Mins Let’s Reduce Carbon #Decarbonization #Nature #Circular economy #Reforestation

Human activities lead to the disappearance of trees on earth

Converting customer spending to support tree planting