This Report		Our Vision and Priorities		Environmental Performance
		Social Performance		Economic Performance		Stakeholder Engagement
		Way Forward

This Report

The Sustainability Report 2006/07, Sustainable Housing: Our Commitment and Your Participation, is our second Sustainability Report that reaffirms our commitment to society while presenting the Housing Authority (HA)'s business, environmental and social performance. This Report describes the environmental, social and economic performance of the HA as a whole for the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007. 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.

Our Vision and Priorities

The Housing Authority is responsible for developing and implementing public housing programmes to meet the housing needs of people who cannot afford private housing.  We have been working to ensure the implementation, maintenance and sustainability of an effective housing programme that will not only meet Hong Kong's requirements but also contribute towards a stable and happy community. 

Environmental Performance

We set 28 environmental targets for the year 2006/07 ranging from waste management, awareness and participation, energy efficiency, landscaping and greening, water, air, noise and hazardous materials.  Of these targets, 26 were fully met, one achieved substantial progress and one fell short.  Our environmental performance for 2006/07 is outlined below:

Increased estate landscaping and greening has greatly improved amenity comfort and the quality of our estates:

• About 5 300 trees, 587 200 shrubs and 51 600 annuals were planted.
  
• Landscape improvements completed at 18 selected estates with the upgrading of
  110 000 m² of greenery.
  
  
  

  	School Children Participated in Landscape Improvement in an Estate

  
  
  
  
• Successfully re-landscaped the green areas of two thematic gardens - the Anti-mosquito Planting Strip at Sun Chui Estate and the Fruit Garden at Tai Hing Estate. 
  
• Introduction of vertical green panel system at Eastern Harbour Crossing Phase 4 (under construction).
  
  
  

  	Eastern Harbour Crossing Phase 4 Fitted with Vertical Green Panels (under construction)

Installation of water reduction appliances/facilities led to a decrease in water consumption:

• A reduction of 6.17% of potable water consumption against 2005/06 was achieved by the end of March 2007 due to the installation of water saving systems by landlord in Public Rental Housing estates.
  
• Water Recycling Systems implemented in 21 building contracts resulted in a water saving of approximately 12%.
  
  

Implementation of air quality measures led to better air quality in offices, construction sites and estates:

• Microclimate studies are used for the planning and design of all our new estates to create a healthy, environmentally friendly and sustainable living environment for tenants. This initiative won the Hong Kong Institute of Architects' Special Architectural Award for Architectural Research in 2006 and Hong Kong Institute of Planners' Award in 2007.
  
  



	Microclimate Studies - Air Ventilation Assessment Study for a New Housing Project





• We use precasting and prefabrication and 'hard-paved construction' technologies to reduce dust emission significantly.
  
  
  

  	Pre-cast Technology Adopted for Kwai Chung Flatted Factory
  	Hard Paved Construction at One of Our Construction Sites

  
  
  
• We avoided using building materials that include ozone depleting chemicals.

• Hydraulic concrete crushers, as opposed to percussive breakers, are now used in our demolition projects to reduce construction noise.
  
• We have replaced 16 high speed pumps with low-noise, low speed pumps.
• In 2006/07, we received only 4 noise complaints, as compared to 8 last year, and no noise abatement notices from the Environmental Protection Department.
  

Number of Noise Complaints Against Construction Sites

Utilisation of energy saving measures and appliances has decreased energy consumption:

• We have continued to use energy efficient products in our operation.
• Energy consumption for our office premises was 40.38 million kWh, representing a cut of 7.88% compared to 2005/06's consumption.
  
  

Annual Electricity Consumption in Housing Authority offices (kWh in millions)

• We promoted wider application of renewable energy.  More trial use of solar energy was conducted on projects.
  
  



	Solar Panels Installed for External Lighting





• Compared to 2005/06, energy consumption for public areas slightly increased from
  68.9 kWh to 69.4 kWh per flat per month.  This was due to the fact that new buildings with more electrical installations have been developed.
  
  

Energy Consumption in Public Area of Estates (kWh per flat per month)

Waste management measures have decreased waste generation and material consumption:

• We encouraged the use of building materials that are long-lasting and can be easily maintained to reduce waste generation.
• We implemented a waste separation at source scheme at 60 estates.
• On average our residents generated 0.735 kg /capita day of domestic waste in 2006/07 compared to 0.74 kg and 0.78 kg in 2005/06 and 2004/05, respectively.
  
  
  
  Improvements in Residents' Daily Domestic Refuse Generation
  (kg per person per capita day)
  
  
  
  
  
• In total, 12.3% of paper, 28.3% of aluminium cans, 6.2% plastic bottles and 6.8% of used clothes were recovered for recycling from our estates.
  
  



	Collection Facilities for Recyclables




• Waste paper collection increased by 5.36% as compared to 2005/06.
  
  
  
  Improvements in Waste Paper Collection in Housing Authority Offices (kg)
  
  

Social Performance

We set 10 social targets for the year 2006/07 covering safety and the Marking Scheme. Of these targets, 9 were fully met and 1 achieved substantial progress. Our social performance for 2006/07 is outlined below:

Implementation of safety measures in our construction sites and maintenance works has led to a better safety record than the local industry:

• We continued to implement our Safety Audit Scheme and Performance Assessment Scoring System to assess site safety and performance of our contractors. At the end of 2006, the average score improved by almost 4% compared to figures at the end of 2002.
  
• Our accident rate for new works construction sites has dropped from 55.8 per thousand workers in 2001 to 11.5 in 2006. One fatal accident occurred in 2006/07.
  
  
  

Accident Rate for New Works per 1 000 workers, compared to
Local Construction Industry Average

Implementation of hygiene and health initiatives protect our residents and the community:

• We have updated the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates to include penalty fines for noise nuisance and smoking on enclosed common areas.
  
• We provided designated outdoor smoking areas in our estates to ensure minimum disruption and nuisance to other estate residents.
• We conducted preventative measures to eliminate black spots of mosquito breeding and to ensure the cleanliness and environmental hygiene of our estates.
  
  

Training and other initiatives ensure our employees are developed:

• We have provided general training courses for our departmental staff and individual-tailored training courses on specific issues for selected staff. A number of training programmes have also been extended to our contractors to align service quality.
  
  



Training of Employees and Contractors





• We provided subsidies for our staff to pursue continuing professional education outside of office hours.
• We proactively investigated possible instances of non-skilled worker exploitation and provided education to the workers on their rights and contract condition of their employment with a hotline to prevent such actions.
  
  

Implementation of various initiatives to manage housing resources and provide better customer services:

• 18 700 flats were allocated to waiting list applicants, bringing the total number of Public Rental Housing (PRH) flats in use to 677 800 by the end of March 2007.
  
• 9 129 PRH units were recovered for re-allocation to waiting applicants in 2006/07 due to investigations into suspected tenancy abuse cases.
• Stringent checks on eligibility of public housing tenants for subsidised housing were conducted on some 4 200 cases.
• We maintained average waiting time for general PRH applicants and elderly single applicants well within the pledge of three years and two years respectively.
  
  

Trend of Average Waiting Time (years) for Public Rental Housing Applicants





• E-Payment Card system has been made available for tenants to pay their monthly rent at over 760 convenience stores operating 24 hours allowing a more convenient method of payment.
• The number of overcrowded households dropped to 4 587 through the Overcrowding Relief Exercise and Living Space Improvement Transfer Scheme.
  

Economic Performance

We set 4 financial targets for the year 2006/07 covering rent adjustment, maintenance, and vacancy reduction. All were fully met. Our financial performance for 2006/07 is outlined below:

Implementation of initiatives to improve the financial situation of the Housing Authority (HA) and benefit our tenants:

• We continued to explore opportunities to improve and strengthen our financial and risk-management processes in order to provide maximum financial and business value in all our activities.
• A rent adjustment mechanism was introduced which sets rents based on the household income of Public Rental Housing (PRH) tenants.  
• A one-month-off rent remission was granted for our PRH tenants and interim housing licensees in February 2007.  
• We launched a Phase 1 Sale of Surplus Home Ownership Scheme Flats with average selling price set at 70 per cent of assessed market values.
  
  

Improvement of cost effectiveness to enhance the occupancy rate and maintain the quality of housing

• We conducted various measures to shorten the re-letting period and improve the letting rate of our vacant flats.
• To prolong the life of our older estates we continued to conduct checking on the condition and carried out preventative maintenance and improvement.
• The Total Maintenance Scheme checks both the external and internal condition of flats in 30 estates annually.  By the end of March 2007, our ambassadors had visited 34 400 homes and issued over 26 600 repair orders. 
  
  



	Total Maintenance Scheme Repair Activities





• The Comprehensive Structural Investigation Programme looks at the structural safety and economic sustainability of our estates that are over 40 years old.  Through this programme, 5 estates will be sustained for a further 15 years. 
• The Independent Checking Unit continues to provide third party monitoring and control of all new HA developments and alteration works.
  
  
  
  

Stakeholder Engagement

We set 10 stakeholder engagement targets for the year 2006/07 covering awareness raising and participation initiatives. All were fully met. Our stakeholder engagement performance for 2006/07 is outlined below:

Implementation of communication programme strengthens the connection between the Housing Authority (HA) and the communities we serve:

• The 'Housing Channel' communicates housing-related messages to Public Rental Housing tenants. 
• Fire safety messages are spread through fire drills and publicity programmes to tenants, and through seminars to contractors and staff
• Our bi-weekly online newsletter, 'Housing Dimensions', keeps our staff and other stakeholders informed of the HA's major developments.  
• We continued to enhance the HA website, which consists of about 20 000 content pages in both Chinese and English versions catering for every stakeholder's interest.
• The Green Corner, located in our headquarters, showcases our green initiatives.
  
  



	The Green Corner educating the public on environmental issues

Stakeholders' participation in implementing our goals:

• Through the 'Green Delight in Estates' programme, a series of education activities were held in collaboration with local green groups to raise environmental awareness, including workshops, recycling days and other activities.
  
  



	Launching of the Recycling Day in 'Green Delight in Estate' programme




• 'Action Seedling' was launched in 14 construction projects to motivate contractors to undertake their corporate social responsibility and encourage community participation in the greening of new housing estates at an early stage.
  
  



	School pupils participating in planting seedlings and nursing plants




• "Lets Give Yau Tong a New Look" engaged the public in a mural design competition to express their vision on sustainability.
  
  



	Wall Murals at Yau Tong Phase 1 Showing Tenants' Visions on Sustainability

Implementation of feedback mechanisms lets us know how to improve:

• Our customer satisfaction survey in 2006/2007 showed that 86.7% of the respondents considered the Total Maintenance Scheme either satisfactory or highly satisfactory.
• 81.4% of our residents were satisfied with the planning and design of their estates as a whole on newly completed projects as found in the Resident Survey.
• More than 6 000 visitors visited our Maintenance Education Path and Mobile Maintenance Education Booths which provided home care information.

Way Forward

To continue achieving our vision for sustainable housing, we have identified and committed to various targets in 2007/08. Key targets are summarized as follows.