TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme B: Creating a livable, healthy and environmentally viable cities“IDENTIFYING SUSTAINABILITY PRIORITIES ANDENGAGING STAKEHOLDERS” - THE HONG KONGHOUSING AUTHORITY’S EXPERIENCEADA Y S FUNG 11 Housing Department, HKSAR Government, Hong Kong, ChinaABSTRACT: The Hong Kong Housing Authority provides affordable and sustainable publichousing for those in needs. In order to achieve our vision for sustainable housing, we integrateenvironmental, aesthetic and customer concerns in all of our designs. This approach is an integralpart of our Strategy for Sustainable Construction. The HA has been working towards the broadersustainability of Hong Kong by providing housing for about 29% and 17% of the population insubsidised rental flats and flats for sale, respectively. A key mission is to provide affordable qualityhousing and healthy living environments and so improve the quality of life for a considerable portionof the community. Sustainable housing will prolong building life cycles, engage our community andbuild efficiently through an environmentally aware approach. To achieve our vision we try tobalance the environmental, social and economic needs, and formulate housing policies accordingly.Identifying Sustainability PrioritiesAs a government agency, we have adopted the view of the HKSAR government on sustainabledevelopment which states ‘full integration of the needs for economic and social development withthat to conserve the environment’ and have taken this into consideration in identifying our priorities:Environmental PrioritiesIn line with the Green Management Practice of the HKSAR Government and the Clean Air Charter,we are committed to reducing energy and paper consumption. We have committed to utilizing betterconstruction methods to decrease our environmental impact and footprint. As part of the 'GreenDelight in Estates' programme, environmental ambassadors have been trained to help raiseenvironmental awareness in the estates.Social PrioritiesWe aim to make our estates better places to live, so that our tenants enjoy a quality environmentwhich focuses on safety and health. We are prioritizing the needs of potential customers byproviding public housing to those who need it most.Economic PrioritiesCost-efficiency is vital to us and we try to achieve this through a variety of measures, including thelisting of some of our assets and implementing management measures to sustain the useful life of ourexisting buildings. We also continue to ensure the best use of existing resources by reducing flatvacancies and enforcing better tenancy controls to avoid the abuse of public housing.Engaging StakeholdersIn order to meet our vision for sustainable housing, we try to balance the economic, social andenvironmental needs and formulate our operational policies accordingly. We know that clearcommunications play an essential role in our activities, ensuring that our stakeholders are fullyinformed of what we do, while also giving them an understanding of, and ability to respond to ourinitiatives to help ensure their success. Next we need to engage our stakeholders on all fronts, ourstaff, our business partners and contractors, as well as tenants.With the active support of management, policies on sustainability are systematically implementedthroughout the Housing Authority and communicated to staff, service providers, suppliers andcontractors alike. Addressing sustainability concerns is embedded in our planning, design, tenderingand contracting procedures and our guidelines for our staff and external stakeholders.Implementation of our policies and processes are regularly checked and monitored. We also provide288