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At present, both the Government and the community at large have high aspiration for a sustainable society. In the provision of public housing, HA has demonstrated its efforts to bring forward a range of initiatives aiming at addressing the social, economic and environmental needs of its tenants. Over the past year, we managed to accomplish tasks as scheduled through wider application of site oriented design green measures at operation and estate management, as well as establishing closer dialogues and partnership with green groups, professional bodies, government departments, tenants and the community.
Working towards the goal of sustainable development in public housing, in addition to the various green measures initiated, we will continue in the years ahead to:
- apply micro-climate studies to enhance environmental performance in design and planning of all new housing projects. These studies make use of the natural environment to optimize and balance the wind environment, natural ventilation, daylight, solar heat gain and road traffic noise to create a healthier, more energy efficient and quality living environment;
- minimize environmental impacts while applying LCA and LCC to maximize building life cycle cost effectiveness;
- actively partner with Public Rental Housing residents to separate waste at source;
- improve construction safety ;
- promote environmental and safety awareness of stakeholders and build in sustainability element in residential estate programmes wherever practical through closer partnership with green groups and professional parties; and
- maintain closer liaison with the Government, the Council for Sustainable Development and others alike for synchronized alignment in sustainable development framework.
A summary of our focuses for 2005/06 and beyond is listed below with details of specific targets and initiatives shown in Annex C.
To reduce environmental risks, we will
- maintain a clean and healthy environment through continued implementation of various schemes and measures;
- complete our asbestos survey and abatement programme; and
- replace cast galvanized steel water pipes for estates with undesirable water quality and participate in the Fresh Water Plumbing Quality Maintenance Recognition Scheme; and
- strengthen the green practices in our offices.
To continue our efforts in waste management, we will
- increase the estate domestic waste recovery rates for recyclable materials and extend the “waste separation at source” scheme to all estates by phases;
- continue our recovery of spent fluorescent tubes and used rechargeable batteries; and
- reduce construction and demolition waste through the development of a waste index, along with the new and revised waste management guidelines.
To further improve energy efficiency and encourage innovation, we will
- extend the micro-climate studies to all building projects;
- encourage the application of the LCA/LCC Study in procurement of building materials;
- explore the adoption of additional energy efficient equipment in a pilot project and seek to improve our building services design guidelines; and
- continue to reduce energy consumption in our Headquarters and office premises, and to extend our same concerns to properties under the management of The Link Management Limited.
To conserve natural resource, we will
- use water recycling systems in all large diameter bored piling works;
- identify a pilot scheme in our estate to test on reducing the flushing water consumption; and
- revise construction specifications to adopt sustainable timber doors in pilot projects.
To reduce noise nuisance, we will
- replace more water pumps with quieter ones in our housing estates; and
- explore quieter construction equipment and technology.
To enhance greening and landscaping, we will
- provide and improve landscaping in new and existing estates; and
- promote residents’ involvement in estate greening.
To improve our safety performance, we will
- reduce the accident rate for new works to below 25 per 1 000 workers; and
- continue to partner with industry stakeholders to promote construction safety awareness through a territory-wide publicity campaign.
To continue the promotion of EHS awareness, we will
- extend the “Green Delight in Estates” partnering programme with green groups and other educational activities to our estates; and
- enhance staff awareness and knowledge on EHS issues through training.
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