Turning 87 in August and worth more than US$8 billion, Lui Che Woo still goes to the office every day, betraying a fondness for routines. “Philanthropy is just part of my routine,” the founder of Hong Kong’s K. Wah Group and Macau gaming concessionaire Galaxy Entertainment Group says. One of Forbes Asia’s 2016 Heroes of Philanthropy, over the past year, Lui has transferred the anything but routine sum of US$1.2 billion to endow the new Lui Che Woo Prize and ensure the sustainability of his decades of giving, mainly in education and medical science, through the Lui Che Woo Foundation.

Sustainability, embracing both nature and technology, is a key plank of the Lui Prize for individuals or organizations dedicated to “the nurturing and enrichment or world civilization,” in three categories, each with a specific annual focus. There’s nothing routine about the size of the prize awards, HK$20 million (US$2.6 million) each, nor about  the three inaugural Lui Prize laureates, announced on July 26.

In the Sustainability category, this year focusing on global food supply, the winner is Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice that helped extend the green revolution. Professor Yuan, now 85, developed groundbreaking rice strains now widely planted in China and across the globe.

The Betterment of the Welfare of Mankind category this year focuses on treatment and control of epidemics, infectious diseases and chronic illnesses. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF; Doctors Without Borders) wins for its efforts to control the outbreak of cholera in Haiti in 2010 and Ebola in West Africa in 2014. MSF continues to treat 10,000 Ebola survivors in seven countries, and on any given day has more than 30,000 healthcare professionals on the ground around the world addressing acute and long term issues.

The third prize category for Promotion of Positive Life Attitude and Enhancement of Positive Energy” specifically targets “individuals or organizations whose behavior and achievement inspire, energize and give hope to others” this year. ”Positive energy may be a new term to some people, but we’re talking about traditional values such as mutual understanding, harmony, true happiness, shared love and selflessness,” Lui explains in an exclusive interview. “We live in a world with material riches, but what really matters is inner peace and a willingness to help people.”

The inaugural prize for Positive Energy goes to former US President Jimmy Carter, who has arguably has had history’s most important post-Oval Office career. “Since 1980, Mr. Carter and The Carter Center have consistently been at the forefront of the protection of human rights; the promotion of democracy; the mediation, resolution and prevention of conflicts (for example, in Haiti, Bosnia, Ethiopia, North Korea, Sudan and other countries); the promotion of gender and racial equality; and the support of free and fair elections through impartial monitoring all over the world,” the prize citation says.

Those aren’t necessarily qualities you’d expect to be lauded by a Macau casino mogul whose profits and gaming license, expiring in 2022, depend to an overwhelming degree on the goodwill of Beijing. But Lui is serious about philanthropy and about making an impact with the prize.

MSF and Carter have each won the Nobel Peace Prize, but Lui rejects labeling his awards as Asia’s Nobels. “This is definitely an international award,” he says, and these inaugural award winners come from Asia, Europe and America. The annually shifting focus areas ensure the prize “answers the needs of the world,” Lui adds, a strategy straight out of business, where listening to the customer, not political leaders, is routine.