On Saturday, November 19th, members of SOM’s Hong Kong office and City Design Practice traveled to a beach on Lantau Island to participate in the Hong Kong Coastal Cleanup Challenge. The annual volunteer event engages communities, schools, and businesses, raising awareness about plastic debris and empowering citizens to become direct agents of change for waste management and pollution.
Arriving at the beach, the volunteers encountered an overwhelming amount of trash with plastic bags tangled in mangroves and Styrofoam strewn everywhere. Armed with gloves and trash bags, the group of nine, led by Directors Ame Engelhart and Peter Kindel, went to work restoring the area. For SOM’s City Design Practice, the experience provided a hands-on opportunity to demonstrate its core commitment: reshaping our urban future through environmental stewardship and uncompromising environmental principles.
Now in its 16th year, the Hong Kong Coastal Cleanup Challenge is the largest volunteer event of its kind in the region. It has engaged 270,000 participants who have cleaned up over 22 million pieces of trash.