Environmental,Health and Safety Report 2004 / 05

	Estate Management

	Tin Yuet Estate - the Winner of Green Property Management Award

	As a means of raising environmental awareness and protection at our public housing estates, we are running this yearly Green Property Management Award for the third consecutive year in 2004/05. In this year, a total of 19 estates were recognized for their green property management efforts. Of the Housing Department Category, the championship was awarded to Tin Yuet Estate at Tin Shui Wai, which demonstrated an all-rounded success in promoting environmental management within the estate. Mr. WC Kwok, Housing Manager of Tin Yuet reckoned that was the outcome of concerted efforts from the community and his estate management staff. The estate management has only taken up the management of Tin Yuet since the end of 2003. In view of a rather unpleasant impression towards Tin Shui Wai District in general, they have purposely aimed to brighten up the estate by setting a theme of “Greening the Environment”.

As a means of raising environmental awareness and protection at our public housing estates, we are running this yearly Green Property Management Award for the third consecutive year in 2004/05.

In this year, a total of 19 estates were recognized for their green property management efforts. Of the Housing Department Category, the championship was awarded to Tin Yuet Estate at Tin Shui Wai, which demonstrated an all-rounded success in promoting environmental management within the estate.

Mr. WC Kwok, Housing Manager of Tin Yuet reckoned that was the outcome of concerted efforts from the community and his estate management staff.

The estate management has only taken up the management of Tin Yuet since the end of 2003. In view of a rather unpleasant impression towards Tin Shui Wai District in general, they have purposely aimed to brighten up the estate by setting a theme of “Greening the Environment”.

Photo: Tin Yuet Estate - Population intake in 2001 and Housing Department has undertaken the estate management since end 2003

Photo: Tin Yuet management team experience sharing session

In doing so, they first decided to enhance the environmental management of Tin Yuet by having a management team to oversee the environmental issues. The team was formed by appointed officers as green managers, green ambassadors and supporting staff. Besides, regular experience sharing sessions were held for members to review their concerns on environmental issues. Training on horticultural knowledge was also organized to enhance various aspects of greening.

Under this set up, the green commitment of staff has become so strong that they were all self motivated to looking for areas of improvement in the estate environment. Meetings in every other month have been held as follow up actions to monitor the sustainability of green improvement works.

Brilliant innovations by the team on greening, waste management, etc. included a “homemade community garden and plant nursery” making use of recyclables, energy savings and extensive dissemination of green information.

Greening

Special features of the community garden includes:

a plant nursery and a composting area developed at the site of an abandoned storage area;
an educational green trail set up within the plant nursery by placing tags of plant details;.
garden and domestic kitchen wastes used for cultivating the composting area and the compost produced for application to planters and potted plants within the estate; and
use of extracted red pepper juice as pesticide.

Waste Management

Some good practices of waste management concept on waste re-use, recycling and avoidance were applied in the estate. These were:

use of disposed globe-shaped light fittings for putting potted plants;
use of cooling water collected from air-conditioners for garden irrigation;
use of disposed wooden materials for estate decoration; and
metal tin box collection bins at ground floor of each estate block, which were in addition to the standard set of three recycling bins for aluminium, paper and plastic.

Photo: Using disposed wooden materials for decoration

		Energy Management Several energy saving measures were introduced for the lighting in refuse rooms and public area with effective results. The lighting systems in all estate refuse rooms have been equipped with independent switches to conserve energy. It is estimated that this simple change can save around 57 800 units of electricity each year! After replacing double lighting tubes with single tubes and increasing the lights cleaning frequency, the energy demand of hallway and stairwell lightings can be reduced by about 25%.

Photo: Replacing double lighting tubes by single tubes

Energy Management

Several energy saving measures were introduced for the lighting in refuse rooms and public area with effective results.

The lighting systems in all estate refuse rooms have been equipped with independent switches to conserve energy. It is estimated that this simple change can save around 57 800 units of electricity each year!
After replacing double lighting tubes with single tubes and increasing the lights cleaning frequency, the energy demand of hallway and stairwell lightings can be reduced by about 25%.

Green Information Exchange

Apart from the training and experience sharing sessions for the management staff, Tin Yuet has built in many ways to promote environmental awareness to our living tenants. To name a few, these include:

green messages and circulars displayed at the bulletin boards and Green Corners at ground floor lift lobbies;
use of the liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors located at the building common areas to convey new environmental initiatives; and
slogan competition of the residents for the estate “Operation Tai Ping Tei” Cleansing Day.

Photo: Slogan competition on "Operation Tai Ping Tei" Cleansing Day

	The Green Property Management Award to Tin Yuet Estate is a vivid testimony to the strong partnership between the estate management team and residents by implementing often simple but effective initiatives. We look forward to learning about other examples of such effective partnering at the next 2005/06 awards.

The Green Property Management Award to Tin Yuet Estate is a vivid testimony to the strong partnership between the estate management team and residents by implementing often simple but effective initiatives.

We look forward to learning about other examples of such effective partnering at the next 2005/06 awards.

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