The Report		Our Vision and Management Approaches
		Our Services		Environmental Performance
		Social Performance		Economic Performance
		Stakeholder Engagement		Way Forward

The Report

This Sustainability Report 2007/08, Stepping Forward in Sustainable Housing, is the third Sustainability Report published by the Housing Authority (HA). It provides a detailed account of our commitments and efforts toward sustainable development. It clearly depicts our management philosophies, operations and achievements in relation to our economy, environment and social performance from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008.

This Report was prepared with reference to the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) G3 Guidelines and the GRI sector supplement for Public Agencies. We have also taken stakeholders' comments, views and expectations into consideration when we prepared the report.

For more information, please send e-mail to our Environmental Management Unit (emu@housingauthority.gov.hk).

Our Vision and Management Approaches

The HA Headquarters

The HA is a statutory body that develops and implements a public housing programme in providing subsidised public housing to low-income families in Hong Kong. We provide affordable quality housing incorporating sustainable considerations to balance the economic, social and environmental needs and concerns of our stakeholders in housing development and management programmes in pursuit of performance excellence and harmonious living environment.

Our Services

HA's Public Rental Housing: Ma Heng Estate

We plan, build, manage and maintain different types of public housing, including rental housing estates, interim housing estates, and transit centres. As at March 2008, we own and manage 673 800 Public Rental Housing (PRH) flats in 190 estates, around 168 130 square metres of commercial and retail facilities and 26 400 car parking spaces within our PRH estates.

Environmental Performance

We set 26 environmental targets for 2007/08 covering greening and landscaping, noise mitigation, waste management, energy reduction, water conservation, community awareness and hazardous materials. Of these targets, 24 were fully met and 2 fell short. Our environmental performance during the year is highlighted below.

Implementation of air quality improvement measures to reduce air quality impact caused by our operations

Roving Exhibitions at Housing Estates

• We installed deodorisers in refuse collection points, introduced "hard-paved construction" at all building and piling sites and avoided using ozone depleting chemicals in our building.
• We participated in the "Better Air Quality Engagement Process" to collect tenants' views on ways to improve air quality.

Improvement of greening and landscaping to enhance the quality of living environment

"Action Seedling" Community Participation Programme

• Our "Action Seedling" continues to encourage stakeholders to nurse seedlings for planting in future development projects.
• Newly formed slopes and soil slopes, covering 870 square meters, were hydro-seeded and constructed with planters at toe and crest.
• We planted about 2 400 trees, 575 600 shrubs and 64 300 annuals in PRH estates and improved
  landscape design for 22 PRH estates covering
  16 000 square meters.

Implementation of noise mitigation measures to reduce and minimise noise nuisance

• We introduced the Enhanced Precast and Prefabrication System to further reduce construction noise nuisances to the community.
• We replaced 18 high speed water pumps with low-noise, low speed pumps in PRH estates.

Implementation of waste minimisation measures to support waste reduction and recycling

Small Scale 'Distributed Compactor System' installed in each domestic building

• We adopted a new refuse handling system for all new developments completed after October 2005 to reduce refuse volume for storage and to prevent odour leakage.
• Our construction and development projects generated 30% less construction wastes than similar private sector projects.
• As of March 2008, a total of 90 PRH estates have participated in the programme on Source Separation of Domestic Waste and 39 PRH estates received Certificates of Merit from the Environmental Protection Department.

Source Separation of Domestic Waste Ceremony

• In 2007/08, we recovered 14.3% waste paper, 32.31% aluminium cans, 9.48% plastic bottles, over 9 000 kilograms of biscuit and sweet tins and 44 710 moon cake tins for recycling in our estates.
• The average domestic waste production from our residents is 0.7238 kg/person/day representing a 11.7% reduction of total domestic waste when compared with 2002/03.

• The quantity of waste paper collected in our offices in 2007/08 is 3.3% higher than last year.

• We have been awarded the "Gold Wastewi$e Logo" for the seventh time in the Wastewi$e Scheme organised by the Environmental Protection Department.

Adoption of energy saving initiatives to reduce energy consumption

• We recorded a 3.69% reduction of total energy consumption compared to the consumption in 2006/07, equivalent to a reduction of over 16 600 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and monetary savings of HK$23 million.




PV Pole Lamp

• We incorporated a solar photovoltaic (PV) power system into the design of the redevelopment project of Lam Tin Phase 7 and 8 and connected to the power grid of the estates to evaluate the operating and energy-saving performance of this renewable power system.
• All of our development projects are complied with the Building Energy Standards and Codes.

Installation of water reduction facilities to minimise water consumption

Schematic of Twin Water Tanks

• We trial run a pilot project of installing water-saving dual flushing cisterns and water saving faucets in the development of Shek Lei Phase 10.
• We planned to adopt twin water tanks at all new PRH blocks to reduce water wastage and enable an uninterrupted water supply to the tenants during maintenance or cleaning.
• We achieved a reduction of 1.6% water consumption for installations under landlord in our PRH estates through implementing various water saving initiatives.

Replacement with environmentally friendly materials to conserve resources

Softwood Timber Doors Installed in PRH Estates

• We completed the pilot test of using softwood timber doors in the construction of Eastern Harbour Crossing Phase 4.
• By using reusable metal hoardings, metal formwork and prefabricated building elements as well as the substitution of pulverized fuel ash, we avoided using about 16 640 tonnes of timber and saved 12 800 tonnes of cement in our construction projects.

Social Performance

We set 12 social targets for 2007/08 covering safety, marking scheme and staff awareness. Of these targets, 11 were fully met and 1 achieved substantial progress. Our social performance during the year is highlighted below.

Implementation of effective safety measures during our construction and maintenance works to significantly reduce the accident rate

• The Pay for Safety Incentive Scheme encourages contractors to adopt appropriate safety measures.
• Our accident rate for new works has reduced significantly from 55.8 per thousand workers in 2001 to 11.9 in 2007. We recorded zero fatality in 2007.



• We continued to adopt the Performance Assessment Scoring System and Safety Audit System to assess, monitor and measure the performance of our contractors. In 2007/08, we audited about 40 building, piling, demolition and civil engineering contracts.

Type of Contractors	Average PASS Score Improved (Compared with figures at the end of 2002)
Building Works	3.1%
Electrical	15.1%
Fire Services and Water Pumps	16.3%
Lifts and Escalators	3.6%



• We collaborated with the Occupational Safety & Health Council to convene the industry to participate in the Safety Charter "Partnering for a Safety Culture".

Implementation of preventive measures to protect workers' right and wage payment

• We adopted the employment of Labour Relation Officers and on-demand bonds in 29 new contracts protecting workers to foster timely payment of wage.
• We introduced a Demerit Point System and an electronic Facial Attendance System to protect non-skilled workers from exploitation and violation of regulations.

Implementation of various initiatives to foster harmonious living

• We launched a series of initiatives in the allocation and management of PRH estates to practice the "Ageing in Place".
• We arranged volunteers to carry out visit and safety assessments ensuring a safer living environment for elderly tenants.
• Through our "Tin Shui Wai in Celebration" programme, we worked with different stakeholders to cultivate harmony in Tin Shui Wai.
• We continue to adopt universal design principles in all our new projects.


Volunteers for Senior Day 2008


Tin Shui Wai in Celebration – Foot Finger Drawing


Multi-sensory map at Shek Kip Mei Estate

Enhancement of housing quality to provide a comfort living environment

• Our Comprehensive Redevelopment Programme continues to identify and clear old housing blocks for re-development. As at end of March 2008, we cleared a total of 559 old housing blocks.
• We continued to inspect and upgrade water supply system, lift, wiring and drainage pipes in our housing blocks.
• We upgraded the communal aerial systems for the launch of Digital Terrestrial Television broadcasting and provided free Wi Fi services in our housing estates.

Rewiring inside domestic flats	Free public Wi Fi services

Implementation of hygiene and health initiatives to protect our tenants

• We extended the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates to cover "Illegal gambling in public" and "Using leased premises for illegal purposes" and implemented the Enhanced Marking Scheme for our commercial and retail properties.
• We continued to provide intensified cleaning and disinfection of public places with high risk of flu infections.
• We checked all hygiene black spots and eliminated all potential mosquito breeding grounds.

Hand-sanitisers at lift lobbies at Shek Pai Wan Estate	Ovitrap













• We organised special petrol team during festivals to combat against littering and illegal cooked food hawkers in our estates.

Provision of numerous training opportunities to enhance staff capability and development

Team Building Training

• We offered various sponsorship schemes to encourage staff to build up their professional capability continuously.
• We provided flexible e-Learning platform to encourage self-learning among our staff.
• We launched the "Promotion of HA Core Values" initiative and expanded our training programme to enhance competences and exposure of staff.
• 86.2% of users rated our courses as very effective and above.




• The Housing Department has been awarded the "Caring Organisation Logo" by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service for the third year.

Economic Performance

We set 4 financial targets for 2007/08 covering rent adjustment, vacancy minimisation, preventing abuse of housing resources and maintenance. All targets were fully met. Our financial performance during the year is highlighted below.

Introduction of rent adjustment and assistance to lessen financial difficulties of tenants

• A rent adjustment mechanism was introduced to allow rent for PRH estates to be adjusted according to changes in tenants' household income.
• We relaxed the eligibility criteria of the Rent Assistance Scheme to make the scheme more readily available to tenants who are suffering genuine financial hardship.

Implementation of various measures to optimise housing resources

• We continued to investigate suspected cases of tenancy abuse and the applicants' eligibility for subsidised housing.
• We launched several initiatives to combat rent arrears including operation of a hotline, launching a phased "Auto-dialing Rent Reminder" service and adoption of autopay for rent payment.
• We rolled out a phased programme to sell all the surplus HOS flats to fully utilise our housing resources.
• We introduced new and diversify letting strategy to improve the letting rate of our vacant flats.

Improvement of operations to achieve cost-effectiveness

• We improved our building design and construction techniques to achieve structural cost-effectiveness.
• Since implementing the Total Maintenance Scheme, we inspected around 93 000 homes covering around 85% of the units in 50 estates and completed 150 000 repairs.



Redevelopment of the Flatted Factory in Kwai Chung	Services under our Total Maintenance Scheme















• We continued to explore various new R&D initiatives to enhance our operation efficiency.

Stakeholder Engagement

We set 5 stakeholder engagement targets for 2007/08 covering communication, awareness raising, and participation. All targets were fully met. Our stakeholder engagement performance during the year is highlighted below.

Provision of effective communication channels to enhance public understanding on housing information and services

• We introduced e-initiatives to enhance the public accessibility of housing information.
• An online photo library showing the interior shots of HOS flats were available during the sale of our surplus HOS flats.
• The Housing Channel provides latest housing information and sustainable initiatives to our tenants.
• We published 25 issues of an online newsletter "Housing Dimensions" to provide a quick update on the HA's latest initiatives for staff and the public.
• The Housing Authority Hotline handled 1 538 000 telephone calls during the year, provided a direct communication platform between the HA and the public.

Implementation of community involvement programmes to raise general awareness and to facilitate formulating future housing policies

• A series of workshops were held for the public to discuss the design for the public open spaces at Yau Tong Estate and the Ngau Tau Kok Estate.
• A competition was held among professional institutions to gain public views on revitalising Mei Ho House, one of the oldest resettlement blocks in Hong Kong.
• We worked with local green groups to launch "Green Delight in Estates" and "Preserve Planet Earth" programmes to raise environmental awareness of the community.



Mei Ho House	Green Delight in Estates



• We promoted fire safety awareness among tenants through special incentive scheme, fire drills and various publicity programmes.

Provision of feedback mechanisms to seek views for improvement

• We conducted annual Public Housing Recurrent Surveys to seek tenants feedback and identify areas for improvements. Overall tenants' satisfaction has increased from 52.1% in 2003 to 71% in 2007.
• Our Public Housing Recurrent Survey indicates that around 77% of respondents felt our Enhanced Marking Scheme contributed to the cleanliness and hygiene of commercial facilities.
• Over 80% of the respondents are satisfied or very satisfied with the overall fire safety environment in our estates.
• Based on the result of the staff opinion survey, we introduced both long- and short-term measures to align staff aspirations to our goals and objectives.

Way Forward

We always look for advancement in fulfilling our mission to provide sustainable housing to our tenants. We have identified and committed to various targets in 2008/09. Our targets are summarised and highlighted below.

To continue promotion of sustainability issues:

• Promote environmental awareness in the Housing Authority (HA) work place, in Public Rental Housing (PRH) estates, and in the community, for example by launching campaigns to promote waste reduction and recycling in PRH estates and joint programmes with green groups and the Estate Management Advisory Committees, displaying information on environmental issues at our headquarters' Green Corner, providing environmental messages on the e-Learning Portal, and organising tree planting days in selected estates.
• Conduct various initiatives for HA staff, for example, activities organized by the HA Staff Club, active communication with staff, and obtain feedback to enhance operational effectiveness.

To reduce water consumption:

• Reduce water consumption by conducting trial schemes in new projects, using self-stopping or movement-sensing water taps, conducting a replumbing programme to minimise pipe bursting and leakage, studying the feasibility of using rain water for irrigation and general cleaning.

To enhance greening and landscaping:

• Increase greening in estates through hydro-seeding and tree planting of newly formed slopes, providing green treatment to hard surfaced slopes, improving existing vegetated slopes, upgrading existing landscapes, and allocating open areas in selected estates for setting up theme gardens.

To lessen safety and environmental risks:

• Further abate the remaining asbestos-containing materials in existing HA managed properties by implementing asbestos abatement programme through estate redevelopment programme and asbestos removal works.

To reduce noise nuisances:

• Reduce noise nuisance from water pumps in PRH estates by replacing 3 000 rpm water pumps with 1 500 rpm water pumps.

To maintain our waste management practices:

• Increase domestic waste recovery rate of paper, aluminium cans, plastic bottles and used clothes by arranging publicity activities such as Waste Recycling Credit Scheme for all PRH estates, publicity campaigns, and implementing various initiatives to encourage paper recycling in HD offices.
• Implement waste separation at source programme in all estates by phases.
• Reduce generation of waste, including A3 and A4 paper consumption and construction and demolition (C&D) waste generation.
• Use environmentally-friendly paper in printing of all publicity materials (except sales and marketing publication) by implementing its use as a pre-requisite in all printing jobs.

To continue improvements on energy efficiency:

• Reduce electricity consumption by adopting Energy Codes and obtaining energy certificates for landlord services installed in new domestic blocks, shortening operating hours of air conditioners and lighting in shopping malls, enhancing staff awareness of energy savings, exploring the use of more energy efficient equipment, and exploring the application of green design for building services equipment.

To improve our safety performance:

• Improve safety performance by monitoring contractors closely, holding regular seminars on audit findings and best safety practices, participating in safety campaigns, providing safety training to staff, and developing a consolidated safety handbook and guidelines.

To uphold our social contribution:

• Continue to actively work with relevant stakeholders to promote better understanding of HA policies and initiatives through different publicity channels.
• Conduct various initiatives for HA staff, for example, activities organised by the HA Staff Club, active communication with staff, and obtain feedback to enhance operational effectiveness.
• Continue implementation of the Marking Scheme in all PRH estates and factories to enhance the living and working environment respectively.

To fine tune our economic performance:

• Minimise the vacancy of PRH estates.
• Conduct tenancy control and education campaigns with an aim to reduce abuse of housing resources.
• Assess older estates to identify where preventive maintenance, restoration and improvements should be made.