The Housing Authority (HA) has a longstanding commitment to minimise the environmental impact of our daily operations. In line with this, and in support of the Government's overall move, the HA has taken a big step in the direction of holding paperless meetings.

In preparation for this, we have had to beef up our IT support. We have arranged new notebooks and a secure working platform. We have also upgraded our hardware and infrastructure in the Committee Room to enable paperless meetings. Indeed, the Committee Room on the 10th floor of our headquarters building, where HA Committee meetings are held, has recently undergone a major facelift. This is the first major renovation since its opening some 20 years ago. In order to facilitate the convenient connection of the equipment necessary for paperless meetings, major improvement works have been carried out on the computer networking and cabling. A new conference table has also been installed to provide for easy connection of the notebook computers as well as more space for committee meetings.

Work will start soon to carry out even more ambitious renovations in the HA Chamber on the 10th floor. Similar to the Committee Room, major re-networking and re-cabling will be carried out. The design and layout of the Chamber will also be revised to enable barrier free access and allow more flexible use of the space for a range of different meetings by the HA and its sub-committees. Work will start in the middle of the year and will take a few months to complete.

I look forward to a completely new outlook for the Chamber. Not only will we be able to enhance our environmental performance through the move to paperless meetings, the use of more advanced technology will also help to improve our overall efficiency. With the many challenges that we face in project delivery and the management and maintenance of such a large portfolio as the HA's, higher efficiency in every aspect of our work is indeed essential!

D W Pescod
Director of Housing

The Housing Authority (HA) has participated in the annual Hong Kong Flower Show for many years. This year, its landscape design "Green Delights at Home" has proudly won the Gold Award for Outstanding Exhibit (Landscape Display). Mr Duncan Pescod, Permanent Secretary for Transport and Housing (Housing), visited the show on 16 March.

The focal point of the landscape design is a small house featuring vertical greening and some decorative musical notes. Strolling through the dazzling arrays of blossoms, shrubs and herbs, visitors will gain a sensuous experience. A winding corridor adorned with colourful floral arches leads to an elegant landscape with a water feature in the middle. The design is a mimic of a lively community. Welcoming visitors of all ages and physical abilities, the walkways are wide enough for pushchairs / wheelchairs and installed with tactile paths for the visually-impaired. The whole design and arrangement reflects the HA's efforts in providing people-oriented services as well as a green and quality living environment for all public housing residents.

Organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Hong Kong Flower Show 2011 is open from 11 to 20 March, between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm, at Victoria Park, Causeway Bay. Members of the public are welcome to visit the HA's display there.

The Housing Authority (HA) has been presented a Safety Leadership Award (Champion in the Client-Developer Category) by the Lighthouse Club and Construction Industry Council, in recognition of its efforts in achieving the highest standards of health and safety in its projects, and in leading its project teams and contractors to attain such standards with a very practical approach.

At the presentation ceremony, Deputy Director of Housing (Development and Construction) Ada Fung said the award, as a mark of distinction for safety leadership in practice, has duly acknowledged the dedication of colleagues and all stakeholders to uplift safety standards.

The Housing Authority (HA) jointly organised a safety workshop cum technical seminar in early March with the Construction Industry Council, Labour Department, Occupational Safety & Health Council, Buildings Department, Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Hong Kong Construction Association and the Professional Hoisting Engineering Association, to promote safety in construction sites. The seminar attracted about 370 participants, including works contractors and HA staff.

A wide range of topics was covered in the workshop cum seminar, including (1) Good Practice Promotion Kit – Lifting Operation of Tower Crane, (2) Guidelines on Safety of Lift Shaft Works, and (3) MTRC's "iSafe" initiative. A video on the workshop and related information will be uploaded to the E-learning Portal of the Housing Department for experience sharing.

To secure competent and reliable business partners, the Housing Authority (HA) has been striving to adopt equitable procurement principles and mechanisms. A multi-disciplinary project team of the Housing Department has thus developed a new procurement approach in a bid to further improve the quality of public housing design and construction. The team's effort has won itself an award in the Department's Extra Mile Plan 2009/10. Members of the team -- Chief Architects Theresa Yim and Rosa Ho, Senior Architect Sonia Yung, Senior Manager/Environment Rosman Wai, Senior Manager/Procurement Alan Hui, Senior Structural Engineer Danny Chung, Senior Building Services Engineer T K Ng and Senior Quantity Surveyor/Contract Advisor K M Yeung were invited to share with Housing Dimensions how they have gone an extra mile to improve the procurement model for the public rental housing development in Kai Tak Site 1B.

Theresa Yim, head of the project team, provided the background, "Under the conventional two-envelope procurement model, there is no mechanism for tenderers to propose innovative ideas in their tender submissions which are evaluated for their technical proposal and price only. We have made a breakthrough by introducing the Integrated Procurement Approach (IPA) which involves a three-envelope tendering system, requiring tenderers to submit innovation proposals, in addition to their design / technical and price proposals." She noted, "Kai Tak Site 1B, one of the recent largest development projects with over 8 000 flats and a contract sum of 2.9 billion dollars, offers a unique opportunity for the implementation of the IPA."

The new approach is innovative in various aspects. K M Yeung said, "To meet our goals of further enhancing public housing quality and meeting customer expectations, we started to involve the contractors at the early stages when developing the IPA. This has allowed us to make good use of the expertise from designers, builders and manufacturers, etc." He added, "An external consultant was also appointed as Dispute Avoidance Advisor to provide independent advice for dispute mitigation at the pre-tender stage. This helps minimise potential disputes in the construction stage and sets a good example of risk management for the industry."

Upon completion of the tender award procedures, the project team organised some workshops for all concerned tenderers to share their experience. "That was our first attempt to involve both the successful and unsuccessful tenderers. The workshops served to forge meaningful exchanges between the practitioners and our colleagues," Alan Hui said. Happy to see that the tenderers found the new model very effective, T K Ng remarked, "The IPA facilitates our interaction with the contractors while enabling them to better understand our design concept and requirements."

The new procurement system encourages tenderers to propose green ideas for environmental sustainability. "An exceptionally innovative idea is the introduction of the iCreteTM System, an environment-friendly concrete design and production system, which enhances sustainability by reducing cement content and hence carbon emission on the one hand, while also improving durability of the cement," Danny Chung pointed out.

"The benefits of this IPA exercise are far reaching. Some green ideas developed in the Kai Tak project can even be applied to other projects. These include reusing the power generated by the lifts, combining the rain water harvesting and root zone irrigation systems into one, etc," Sonia Yung remarked.

Theresa Yim shared her feeling when working on the project, "We worked intensely as if we were rushing to beat the deadline of a group project during our school days. Our project team, headed by the Deputy Director and all the assistant directors of the Development and Construction Division, was one of the largest ever. We got together frequently for brainstorms and exchanges, even during lunchtime and very often till late at night."

"We were able to accomplish the task, from establishing the new model, preparing the tender documents, assessing the tenders, to commencing the contract, within only 14 months. The process was challenging, as many things were new to us. It was tough but we did enjoy it," Rosman Wai said.

The successful implementation of the IPA is attributed to the joint and committed efforts of the whole team. "The task was thought to be difficult but the tendering process turned out to be surprisingly smooth. Thanks to the unfailing support of our senior management and the dedication of all the team members, we have been able to unleash our potentials and give our best," concluded Theresa.