I am proud to present our first Sustainability Report. This report has its coverage expanded from environment, health and safety to embrace distinctly the social as well as economic facets with reference to the Global Reporting Initiatives guidelines.

Sustainable development has always been our driving force for the provision of affordable public housing as we progressively explore ways to improve our performance in a balanced manner - environmentally, socially and economically. We have reviewed innovative building and operational methods for implementation in our estates and offices. In the past year, we have practised extensive use of precasting and prefabrication methods as a cost-effective approach in decreasing environmental impacts to our society. We have also been undertaking pilot projects on the use of alternative sources of energy such as solar power in some existing estates.

On the social and economic fronts, we always value our stakeholders' interests and endeavour to address their concerns on timely and prudent basis. We engage with them through consultation meetings at project levels and gather views from the public on housing policies and estate management through our round-the-clock feedback channel.

As a year-end remark, I must cite our newly introduced "Total Maintenance Scheme" (TMS) and "Green Delight in Estates" (GDE) as two good examples representing our efforts towards sustainability. Under the customer-oriented TMS, we share and have trust in the high satisfaction of our tenants living in their well-maintained flats of longer economic life. Through the educational programme of GDE, we witness the growing cohesion of our tenants in their desire and care for greener neighbourhoods. More and more positive involvement of our stakeholders will definitely help us in building a sustainable community in our estates.

Thomas CHAN Chun-yuen

Director of Housing