Welcome to Climate Changed, a series profiling members of the Tatler community, who are leaders in the world of sustainability, on how they’re tackling the threat of the climate crisis head-on. Here, Hong Kong’s serial entrepreneur and adventure athlete Malcolm Wood shares with Tatler his views on sustainability leadership and how he works to integrate greener solutions in his restaurants
When it comes to sustainability, Malcolm Wood (Asia’s Most Influential 2022), the outdoor adventurer, filmmaker and co-founder of Maximal Concepts, is a realist—and takes a practical approach to finding solutions. “To be human is to consume—and to do business is to consume,” says Wood.
“Everyone is hypocritical. I do things very sustainably, but I have a global business.” Building restaurants—Maximal Concepts boasts the likes of Mott 32, The Aubrey and Limewood—takes resources, as does “getting on a plane and continuing to do things.” And instead of putting his head in the sand, Wood says he uses his platform to influence those around him. “If you are leading your business, you are the person responsible and also the solution…in the way that you run your organisation and spread the message to people downstream.” And while still inevitably taking from the environment, he does this “in the lowest-impact way possible.”
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At his restaurants, ethical sourcing is a priority. In the kitchens, sustainable and compostable options have been gradually adopted, in place of disposable plastics, for several years. At John Anthony, the now-shuttered Chinese restaurant in Causeway Bay that operated between 2018 and 2020, the interiors featured curtains with organic, non-chemical-based dye from Lamma Island and terracotta that had come from deconstructed buildings in mainland China.
Inspired by his involvement in films with A Plastic Ocean (2016), Wood set up Plastic Conscious in October 2017, a company which develops biodegradable alternatives to plastic cling film and heavy duty bags; it provides these items to his restaurants in Hong Kong, as well as numerous others. Wood also wants visitors at his restaurants to consider a more sustainable diet. “I’m pushing a plant-based menu that makes less money than selling its meat counterparts.” It doesn’t necessarily yield profits—but Wood is persistent with it.