Environmental,Health and Safety Report 2004 / 05

The vision of the Housing Authority (HA) for sustainable housing is to progressively achieve sustainable development in public housing that balances social, economic and environmental needs contributing to healthy living, sustainable construction and enhancement of the total urban environment. We aim to provide quality public housing in the most cost-effective way and strengthen partnering with all stakeholders in the community. Through continued enhancement to our service quality, we will manage and maintain our properties with a view to maximizing their economic life and contribution and make full use of human, financial, and new technology resources in achieving sustainable development.

At present, we are committed to adopting planning, design, construction and maintenance practices that effectively address environmental, health and safety (EHS) issues. We endeavour to assess the future needs of our residents and to work with interested parties from all sectors of the economy including our partners in planning and development. We aim to contribute to the development of a vibrant urban environment with sustainability at its core.

To demonstrate this commitment, we provided a snapshot of our existing practices and initiatives in this report.

Environmental, Health and Safety Policy

We strive to prevent and minimize environmental impacts and to safeguard the health and safety of our residents, employees and relevant stakeholders. By providing a cleaner, safer and greener environment for our tenants, we build a healthy community with healthy citizens.

To achieve this, we have established two distinct sets of Environmental and Safety policies, which give our staff a clear direction in pursuing an Environmental, Health and Safety culture in daily operations.

To promote healthy living and a green environment;
To develop a strategic framework and implement environmental management for the promotion of sustainable development;
To strictly comply with and fully implement all relevant environmental legislation and regulations;
To address environmental concerns and incorporate environmental initiatives in planning and design, construction and demolition, marketing and estate management activities;
To minimize environmental impacts (air, dust, noise, waste and water) to residents and the public from our operations;
To develop procurement policies to minimize the use of resources and achieve cost effectiveness;
To promote environmental awareness and participation among staff, residents and contractors through education and publicity programmes; and
To review and seek continual improvement on the implementation of an environmental management system.

To provide information on safety and health criteria in building HA projects for contractors, the public and other key stakeholders;
To make safety and health performance one of the critical considerations in tender selection for all new and existing building projects;
To build up a safety profile of contractors for continuous assessment of safety performance;
To monitor contractor safety performance by independent and in-house assessment;
To work through partnership by incorporation of contractors’ input in respect of safe construction technology and equipment; and
To promote safety and health issues particularly related to HA projects to enhance the safety and health of persons involved.

EHS Governance and Management

HA has a robust organizational structure that includes specific committees and working groups on environmental and safety issues. EHS governance and management are addressed at the highest and most appropriate levels of the Authority, which ensure transparency, sufficient levels and forms of disclosure, accountability, communication and well structured management systems. These attributes are essential in ensuring effective EHS governance and management throughout HA.

In August 2004, the Housing Department Environmental Committee (HDEC) was restructured to enable escalation of environmental protection and associated issues to the highest level of the Department. This was achieved by placement of the Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Housing) (PSH) cum Director of Housing (DoH) as the chair of HDEC. The Environmental Management Representatives are all the heads of divisions at directorate (D3) levels and include also the Green Manager of the Department. At the same time, the Housing Department Environmental Sub-committee (HDESC), chaired by the Deputy Director (Development and Construction), was established to oversee the progress of environmental matters in detail.

Under this new establishment, the direction on environmental management can be more effectively distributed to the Divisions. This also facilitates DoH to have a direct overview of the environmental performance of the Department. The Terms of Reference of both HDEC and HDESC have been revised.