Purpose		Criteria		Scope
		Independent Verification		Dissemination		Feedback

Purpose

This Sustainability Report 2006/07, Sustainable Housing: Our Commitment and Your Participation, is our second Sustainability Report and reaffirms our commitment to society as well as presenting the Housing Authority (HA)'s business, environmental and social performance.  In this report, the HA presents information and data on its strategies, systems, operations and performance in relation to the three main pillars of sustainability: economy, environment and society.  The report has been prepared to provide a clear and balanced picture of HA's performance in 2006/2007. 

We believe that communication with our stakeholders is key to our success.  As such, we have prepared this report with our diverse stakeholders groups in mind: tenants and homeowners in our estates, business partners, our staff and government colleagues, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media and the public.

Criteria

We have developed this report with reference to the Environmental Protection Department's A Benchmark for Environmental Performance Reports, and incorporated relevant elements recommended in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Guidelines 2006, and the GRI sector supplement for Public Agencies published in March 2005. 

We have not reported against every indicator in the GRI set.  Some indicators are better suited to private sector organizations (such as manufacturers) than to the public sector.  We have however attempted to take as many GRI reporting elements and indicators into the scope of our reporting as possible, and used feedback on previous reports and discussions with stakeholders to ensure that the report's content meets the expectations of our target audiences.

Scope

This Report describes the environmental, social and economic performance of the Housing Authority (HA) as a whole for the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007 for public rental housing estates owned by the HA, and for new developments under planning and construction.

Independent Verification

A third-party was invited to verify the Report to ensure its completeness, accuracy and reliability.  The structure and contents of the Report was reviewed by the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA). The HKQAA's independent verification statement is provided here.

Dissemination

The summary of this report is also distributed as a brochure in two languages, Chinese and English. 

Feedback

We take into account all comments suggested by our readers, as we believe these comments will help us continuously improve our service delivered to the public.  We would welcome your feedback on this Report by sending the Feedback Form (Pdf version or MS-Word version), by email to emu@housingauthority.gov.hk , or by post to:


Senior Manager, Environmental Management
Environmental Management Unit
Hong Kong Housing Authority Headquarters
33 Fat Kwong Street, Ho Man Tin.
Kowloon, Hong Kong

Feedback from Last Year
Our first Sustainability Report (2005/06) has helped us gather valuable feedback from our stakeholders.  The feedback was not only related to the reporting and communication process, but also included suggestions on sustainability initiatives and processes.  We thank all parties for the feedback, and are working to address them as appropriate. 

Here is a selection of the comments provided to us: