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- Invitations should be, as far as practicable, in electronic means so as to avoid unnecessary and excessive printing of invitation card.
- Do not use corsages and reduce name badges to an absolute minimum and confine to those that are absolutely essential.
- When attending events, notify the organisers that government attendees will not use or accept any corsages and badges should be avoided as far as practicable. Organisers should also be notified well in advance that attendees will not accept souvenirs and gifts.
- Souvenirs in the form of handicrafts made by the elderly, children or persons with disability or certificates of appreciation may be accepted on an exceptional basis.
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- For hosting Chinese cuisine in restaurants/hotels, the number of main dishes should be limited to 6 or below to avoid excessive food.
- Avoid dishes prepared using food ingredients that are likely to be captured/harvested in ecologically unfriendly ways.
- Avoid using one-off disposable tableware, e.g. straws, cutlery, food/drink containers and individually packed wet tissues.
- Provide drinking water in glasses or through water dispensers. Bottled water/beverages should be avoided as far as possible.
- Avoid using plastic straws and paper coasters/cup covers. Event participants should be encouraged to bring their own reusable tableware.
- For normal meals during an event, encourage staff to bring their own meals or schedule meal breaks instead of ordering lunch boxes.
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- The use of materials for events and functions should be carefully chosen to the effect that the materials can be repaired if damaged and reused for other purposes after the event.
- All decoration materials, name badges, tableware such as cups, spoons, plates, forks, chopsticks, etc. should be carefully chosen to the effect that they can be reused. One-off disposable items should be avoided.
- Separate all recyclables and keep them clean to facilitate recycling of waste, and prepare the plan to collect recyclables and arrange recyclers to collect them at the end of the event.
- Include recycling requirements in the cleansing contracts (including the type(s) of recyclable materials, the submission of recycling records, etc.) and specify the restriction on the disposal of reusable and recyclable materials after the event as far as practicable.
- Avoid offering impractical souvenirs. Discourage the distribution of reusable shopping bags (including but not limited to non-woven bags) except on a need basis. Obtain the participants’ preferences in receiving the souvenirs prior to the events to allow a better estimate on the required quantity and avoid excessive production as far as practicable.
- Left-over or surplus materials of an event and even the decoration furniture should be reused and proper outlets for such materials should be identified prior to the event.
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- Adopt electronic platform (e.g. e-mail, website, etc.) in disseminating information. If distribution of printed materials and display of posters and banners at site are necessary, the printout quantity should tally with the actual needs so as to avoid excessive printing and unnecessary disposal.
- Avoid one-off promotional materials that cannot be reused (e.g. pong bong sticks, flags, etc.). If specially-designed promotional material for individual event is necessary, preference should be given to recycled materials or single type of materials. For recurrent events, the designs and contents of the relevant promotional materials, if necessary, should facilitate their recurrent use.
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- Consider holding publicity events at outdoor venues to make use of natural ventilation and daylight.
- If the events are to be held in shopping malls, give priority to those which have pledged, under the “Energy Saving Charter”, to maintain their average indoor temperature between 24 to 26 degrees Celsius in summer months. Please visit the website of "Energy Saving Charter" at https://www.energysaving.gov.hk/esc2024/en/charter/index.html, for details.
- Avoid all unnecessary items such as excessive decorations and lighting, impractical souvenirs, excessive printed promotional materials (in terms of quantity, size and use of ink).
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- Select convenient locations such that participants can arrive at the venue by public transport.
- When the use of government/private vehicles is needed for travelling to the event venue, use minimum number of vehicles.
- When using an event organiser or contractor, include appropriate green requirements in the service contract.
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- Switch off electrical devices and equipment (e.g. photocopiers and computers) which are not in use.
- Set computers and office equipment in the energy-saving mode where possible.
- Identify and replace equipment that is not functioning properly, e.g. malfunctioned lights, booming fans and dripping air-conditioners, as such equipment usually consumes more electricity.
- Minimize the use of personal electrical appliances such as fans and table lamps in the office.
- Switch off some or all of the lighting and air-conditioning at lunch breaks, when working overtime and after office hours.
- Turn on the air-conditioning only when necessary. Set the temperature at 25.5 degree Celsius and select a suitable air delivery speed. Dress lightly to minimize the use of air-conditioning.
- Keep doors and windows shut when air-conditioning is on to retain the cool air.
- Avoid turning on the air-conditioning in advance. If it is necessary to do so, turn it on no earlier than 15 minutes before the venue is occupied.
- If a large number of people are expected to be present at a venue, do not lower the temperature of the air-conditioning. Instead, set the air delivery mode to "high" to provide sufficient ventilation.
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Switch off the lighting, air-conditioning and other
equipment immediately after using conference/function
rooms.
Energy saving notice near lighting switch in conference rooms
- Draw the blinds or curtains to keep out direct sunlight in summer. Make use of natural lighting in other seasons to reduce the use of electrical lighting during daytime.
- Use the staircases instead of the lift when going up or down one or two floors where possible.
- Encourage the use of compact fluorescent lamps. Replace electromagnetic ballasts of fluorescent lamp by electronic ballasts.
- Install motion sensors to automatically control on/off of lighting in common areas such as toilets.
- Reduce, where appropriate, the illumination in common areas of offices and car parking areas.
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Replace, where appropriate, electrical appliances with
Grade 1 or Grade 2 Energy Labels.
Refrigerator with Grade 1 energy label
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- Think twice before you make a photocopy. If it is not essential, try to manage without one.
- If a photocopy is unavoidable, reduce the number of copies to the minimum necessary.
- Print/photocopy on both sides of clean paper.
- Do not photocopy books and manuals as the copyright may be infringed.
- Only documents which are likely to be of genuine interest to other officers should be photocopied for circulation. Routine correspondences should not be circulated.
- Use paper printed on one side for drafting.
- Try to prepare, revise and submit drafts for clearance in soft copies. Print hard copies only for the final version of the document.
- Buy photocopiers and printers with double-sided printing function.
- Before using a photocopier, make sure that the setting is the desired one.
- Always remember to clear machine settings after photocopying.
- Avoid printing e-mails and other e-documents unless for record purposes. If printing of e-mails is necessary, try to trim the e-mail chain and only print the ones needed.
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Avoid using paper listed below, which has
no/limited recycling outlets, in all office
operations including in-house or outsourced
printing jobs-
- thermal paper;
- paper coated with wax or plastic;
- adhesive removable notes;
- cartons and wrappers for food and drinks, etc.;
- foil gift wraps;
- paper cups, plates and cutlery;
- napkins, tissues and paper towels;
- adhesive labels, tapes and stickers; and
- photo paper.
- Use recycled paper instead of virgin paper.
- Reuse single-sided paper, envelopes, loose minute jackets, tags and other paper office items.
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Avoid using paper listed below, which has
no/limited recycling outlets, in all office
operations including in-house or outsourced
printing jobs-
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- Use e-faxes as far as practicable.
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Use emails for communication as far as
practicable.
Using email to disseminate the information
- Make better use of electronic means in disseminating information e.g. uploading publications onto website/homepage using CD-ROM, QR Code and/or through emails.
- Post circulars and notices on bulletin boards, in particular e-bulletin boards accessible by communal terminals.
- Commenting or editing of documents on-screen using different fonts or color by different parties.
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Send greeting cards in festive seasons by
electronic means.
E-christmas card for Housing Authority
- Adjust the margin and font size of documents as far as practicable in order to optimise use of paper for printing.
- Use the “Print Preview” function to check the layout and style of documents before printing.
- Adopt electronic templates of letterheads, memoranda and forms to avoid pre-printing for adjustment.
- Incorporate an always up-to-date letterhead design on all letters, thereby eliminating outdated, leftover paper letterhead stock.
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- Program fax machine to eliminate separate confirmation journal.
- Do not use a leader page for outgoing faxes if the document is self-explanatory. The name of the recipient and sender and the fax number can be written on the front page of the document.
- If a fax leader sheet is necessary, a shorter header form should be used to avoid excessive blank space.
- Avoid sending original documents after they have been sent by fax or e-mail.
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- Send unclassified documents without envelopes.
- Use transit envelopes where a cover is necessary for despatch of documents between and within government offices.
- Circulate documents using routing slips rather than sending out individual copies.
- Examine critically who should be on the distribution list of the documents and eliminate outdated or unnecessary recipients.
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- Put a single-sided paper collection box (yellow box) and a waste paper recycling box (green box) near the photocopiers.
- Maintain a sufficient number of collection boxes at convenient locations within office area.
- Put scrap paperboard, newspaper and office paper only into recycling bins. If practicable, waste paper should be further sorted into these three categories to facilitate recycling.
- Remove the wax-coated or plastic-coated covers/inside pages of magazines for recycling under the category of newspaper.
- Paper recyclables should be kept dry and clean. Adhesive tapes on paperboard and staples/paper clips on office paper should be removed as far as possible.
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- Review list of publications including departmental reports and keep the number of paper publications to the absolute minimum.
- Encourage sharing of document in meeting especially when there are more than one representatives from a B/D.
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- Separate all recyclables, such as metal cans, plastics, waste paper, glass bottles and other recyclables, from non-recyclables for easy collection. Keep the recyclables clean to facilitate their downstream handling.
- Place the separated recyclables into recycling bins for the cleansing contractor or local recyclers to collect.
- Bring your own mug instead of using disposable paper cups or consuming water/beverages in plastic bottles.
- Reuse the pen shafts by using refills instead of simply throwing away the whole ballpoint pens.
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Recycle ink/toner cartridges of printers/fax
machines/photocopiers.
Recycling bins for four types of waste
- Collect materials such as damaged, old and unwanted compact discs (with all the data and information on the diskette deleted), and other plastic wastes, e.g. CD/DVD cases, plastic film wraps, caps and shafts of used pens, broken plastic rulers, etc. for recycling.
- Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable batteries as far as practicable.
- Use the greener clutch pencils and refills instead of traditional wooden pencils.
- Use less glue that contains benzene and ethyl acetate – paper clips and pins will often do.
- Use less correction fluid that contains the ozone depleting 1,1,1-trichloroethane.
- Reduce the use of fluorescent pens by underlining the text instead.
