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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hak-kan and a written reply by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, in the Legislative Council today (March 18):
Question:
Regarding the implementation of energy-saving measures in government buildings, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the Government has indicated that it will endeavour to make the new Central Government Complex (CGC) at Tamar, which is under construction, "one of the Government's greenest complexes", whether the Government will set specific energy-saving targets for CGC; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) given that the authorities have indicated that they will use various energy-saving facilities in CGC, but CGC will not be completed until 2011, whether the authorities will, in the light of the latest developments in energy efficient technologies, review from time to time the types of energy-saving facilities to be used in CGC before its completion;
(c) whether it has assessed if the overall electricity consumption of the relevant offices of various policy bureaux and departments will be reduced after they move to CGC; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the rate of reduction; if the assessment result is in the negative, the reasons for that; and
(d) given that various policy bureaux and departments had implemented energy-saving programmes and set specific electricity saving targets during the financial years from 2003-2004 to 2006-2007, whether at present the Government will consider launching similar programmes; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(a) We will assess the environmental performance of the Tamar Development Project from a comprehensive and holistic perspective. It is our requirement that the Project should achieve the highest grade (i.e. the Platinum grade) under the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (BEAM) of the HK-BEAM Society.
The Hong Kong BEAM, which defines the performance criteria for a range of sustainability issues relating to the planning, design, construction, commissioning, management, operation and maintenance of the buildings, is used to assess the performance of buildings in the following aspects:
(i) hygiene, health, comfort and amenity;
(ii) land use, site impacts and transport;
(iii) use of materials, recycling and waste management;
(iv) water quality, conservation and recycling; and
(v) energy efficiency, conservation and management.
Buildings awarded the Platinum grade means that their overall performance in various aspects has reached the "Excellent" level.
After commissioning, the Government will conduct a carbon audit on the Central Government Complex (CGC) and implement an emission reduction campaign to further reduce its greenhouse gas emission.
(b) The Tamar Development Project is an environmentally sustainable project, incorporating a number of environmentally-friendly measures and energy-saving building services features (including energy efficient and renewable energy installations). As it is a design-and-build contract, the scope for changing the design is fairly limited. However, we will continue to consider the possibility of incorporating more energy-saving facilities in the project having regard to the development in energy-saving technologies provided that the overall programme is not affected and no extra funding needs to be sought.
(c) Apart from adopting various green measures and energy-saving building services options in design, we will proactively implement internal management measures to enhance the energy efficiency of our offices after we move into CGC. However, the electricity consumption of a government department depends on many factors, including the design of the host building, the fitting-out of the office and its mode of operation, etc. Since there is vast difference in terms of design, fitting-out and mode of operation between the buildings where the government departments are currently accommodated, it is difficult to have an accurate comparable assessment of the change in electricity consumption of the policy bureaux and departments concerned after they move into the CGC.
(d) We have been promoting energy conservation in government buildings. In this year's Budget, the Government proposes to allocate an additional $130 million to carry out works to enhance energy efficiency of government buildings and public facilities. The Government will also allocate about $450 million to take the lead in the next two years to install energy efficient lighting systems, retrofit plumbing with water saving devices and incorporate energy efficient features in air-conditioning, elevator and escalator systems in government buildings. We plan to adopt a comprehensive target-based environmental performance framework for government buildings. Targets on various aspects of environmental performance (including targets for energy conservation) will be set to promote environmental performance of the Government.
Ends/Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:40
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