Decarbonisation Inside and Out

Interview with the founders supporting Hong Kong's green buildings and our Challenge.

When it comes to decarbonising physical buildings, impact must be driven from both inside AND outside. That is what one of Hong Kong Green Tech Challenge's (HKGTC) Strategic Partners, Inside X Outside IXO Partners , believes. 

Our community lead 🌺 Fangqin Chuah (蔡枋芩) sat down with Lizette McNeill and Vimal Karpe , the Managing Partners of decarbonisation engineering and advisory firm IXO Partners , to understand the work they do and how their expertise is providing a significant boost to the Challenge and the startups that apply.

Could you share more about IXO’s story and your role in IXO?

Vimal: IXO stands for Inside cross Outside and our firm is focused on decarbonisation engineering and advisory. We are civil engineers with a combined experience of 27 years working in the building industry. We have worked on end-to-end projects, from engineering design through to construction-stage execution, as well as dealing with issues post-construction - meaning investigation and remediation of defects during the operational life of a building. Before our current roles as Managing Partners of IXO, we had worked as engineering consultants for MNCs locally and internationally on some significant global projects. We founded IXO to drive decarbonisation, using our construction knowledge and use it to drive practical targets and measurable actions during the investment and pre-planning stages. 

How do you split your responsibilities across your partnership?

Lizette: Although we are both civil engineers, we have specialised. Vimal’s focus is on the “inside” as a structural design specialist, whereas I come from the “outside” as a facade design specialist; hence the name Inside cross Outside. Together we are truly complementary. The two building components - main structure and envelope -  account for up to 80% of embodied carbon. Furthermore, the facade significantly impacts the operational carbon of a building during its lifetime - we estimate by up to 40%, due to direct solar gains, ambient temperature across the envelope, and air infiltration/exfiltration. 

Vimal: Actually this was a foundational reason we set up IXO: to bring focus to embodied carbon aspects and interlinked operational carbon considerations. 

What motivated you to become a Strategic Partner in the HKGTC?  Which part of the Challenge resonate most with you?

Vimal: Beyond the pure embodied versus operational carbon aspects, we see our role as helping to drive capital towards practical technologies and fit-for-purpose technologies. This is the piece which resonates with us and what we are most excited about. We see a lot of money going into green tech and as building designers and engineers, our interest lies in whether the technology works in practice, whether it can be designed with; thus be considered a long term solution. We want to take our experience and support Carbonless along with the program’s partners and participants  in driving financing towards meaningful decarbonisation via mass technological innovations. 

Lizette: The flip side here is it is quite clear to us there are technologies either in development or being funded which are not fit-for-purpose. Fit-for-purpose in our industry typically speaks to perceived risks, of the type we are exposed to in our day-to-day work - particularly surrounding safety, cost, durability. The unfortunate downside here is that major gaps begin to open up between intention and outcome when it comes to innovation. If these concerns aren’t keyed in and rigorously addressed during the technological development, then these gaps become insurmountable. We know we have the right type of expertise to bridge these technical gaps; we know the types of questions engineers like us will ask around procurement, safety, durability, before they consider designing with or ultimately specifying technology. We can therefore put in place robust strategies to navigate known risks before they become roadblocks to successful adoption. 

How do you see your partnership with the HKGTC contributing to the long-term success and impact of the participating startups?

Lizette: The Challenge focuses on mature technologies, which we see as useful and a key differentiator.  While early-stage solutions are promising, it can be difficult to envision their development, application, and real impact. In contrast, mature technologies provide a clearer link between technology and application. This makes it easier to scale their impact and address the complexities in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.

Vimal: There is also a really interesting aspect here around Project Partners offering to pilot technologies on current or near-term projects. This is not common for most green technology challenges and presents a significant opportunity to implement, test in the market, and upscale solutions. Furthermore, as the HKGTC moves into implementation stages, we see it as our role and also our responsibility to advise on risks and opportunities along the entire journey. As an end-to-end advisory firm we would therefore continue to underpin the ecosystem; to support the Carbonless Asia team, HKSTP - Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation , the startups and potentially the Corporate Partners, in defining and helping to mitigate risks around critical engineering-related design, construction and post-construction considerations.

What message do you have for the Startups? 

Vimal: THINK BIG AND GO LARGE! We see a lot of the time that innovations tend to focus on low-hanging fruit; smaller and unfortunately less impactful technologies, as everyone wants to fund pilots which are immediately implementable. What this effectively means is that opportunities are being missed which could address major and more impactful decarbonisation. We are here to support big moves, however complex they might appear. What we want to emphasise is that no startup should feel discouraged to bring technology into Hong Kong for any reason: not for physical testing and durability reasons; not for capital-intensiveness issues; not for economy-of-scale concerns; not for traditional construction or skilled labour concerns; not for regulatory reasons. 

Lizette: Complexity is ultimately something that can be worked out, particularly with an effective ecosystem of support which Carbonless has integrated into this Challenge. If anything, over-simplification is the enemy of effective and meaningful decarbonisation. We want to reassure Startups that we will be there at every step of the way - along with others - to drive large and potentially complex solutions into existence, and to support the scaling of these technologies for mass adoption in Hong Kong’s built environment.

Looking ahead, what is your vision for the future of green tech innovation in Hong Kong and the broader Asia-Pacific region? How can initiatives like this Challenge drive sustainable change?

Vimal: To achieve Hong Kong's climate vision and goals, we need more than just technological experimentation; we would like to see this initiative unlock an ecosystem of sustainable change, particularly around  policy adjustments in building code regulation. To really achieve the intent of Hong Kong’s climate vision, we would hope to see and support the Challenge in helping to transform the current practices in the city, by focusing on those three critical elements we highlighted earlier: Carbon, Circularity, and Climate Resilience.

Lizette: We also see the need to make technology and innovation more accessible and therefore more understood by the broader community. When we envision Hong Kong as a hotbed of green innovation, we equally see a future where existing buildings can be transformed into ‘overnight’ laboratories; where schools and learning centers are able to engage in part-time initiatives; where mini-manufacturing sites and re-processing hubs are scattered across the city. We ultimately see a future where Hong Kong is marked out as a global leader in green financing initiatives, paired with an innovation mindset.

Discover the minds behind the Challenge as we continue to feature the people supporting this initiative. Subscribe to the Carbonless Futures newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates. Know a #proptech or #cleantech company? Share the Challenge with them before applications close on 2 August 2024.