10th Anniversary Booklet - The Professional Green Building Council

Congratulations to the Professional Green Building Council for its10th Anniversary. The Hong Kong Institute of Planners formallybecame an institute member of the PGBC in 2005 and we, asrepresentatives of the HKIP are proud to be part of this big familyof green professionals. PGBC has provided the place for us tomeet with professionals from different disciplines with the samevision to create a green, environment friendly and zero carbonbuilt environment. We have had the opportunities to participatein the Green Building Council, the green building awards, greenbuilding conferences, and the Eco-village proposal at TseungKwan O, to list a few. There were invaluable opportunities toshare experiences with fellow green pioneers and to learnabout the latest development in the field of green building andgreen planning.Over recent years, we have seen the ‘green building’ conceptgradually encompassing a more macro view of the ‘green builtenvironment’ concept. As planners, we are concerned about thewider environment within which green buildings are situated.How should the streets in new development areas or the masterplan be laid out to facilitate penetration of prevailing winds; howshould the building height profile of cities be designed to allowvisual and air permeability; how to increase green coverage of adistrict and where should green open spaces be located to reducethe heat island effects. All these questions, which seemed so basicnow, were not talked about a few years back. The Governmentendorsed the Sustainable Design Guidelines and the Urban DesignGuidelines Chapter on Air Ventilation and carried out feasibilitystudies for air ventilation assessments. The Government’sadoption of green planning approaches, with emphasis onmoderating development intensity and balancing the quality ofliving in planning for new development area such as Kai Tak andsome other new development areas were encouraging. These allshowed that the Government was committed to seeing a greenerenvironment for the future generation.We have seen the latest efforts to release more housing land thathad involved proposals to convert green and breathing spaces inthe city for development or having the pendulum of moderatingdevelopment intensities swinging in the opposite direction.Hopefully, it will be done in a manner that does not compromisethe green pathways established by the predecessors. We trustPGBC would continue to act and safeguard our green goals for thebetterment of our future generations.1Alvin CHAN, Johanna CHENG, Betty HO, Kenneth TO, Serena TONG, Rebecca WONGHKIP RepresentativesContribution from the professions is essential to achievingsustainability. Sustainability is, at its core, an ethical issue.Professionals are entrusted by the public to safe guard theinterest of the society. As third parties, the professions can playa major role, mediating and working with the community, themarket and the government , to set the agenda, and build theconsensus for a sustainable future. The specialist know-how ofthe professions is invaluable in the process. The ProfessionalGreen Building Council has shown the way of how the buildingprofessions can become the lynchpin of sustainable developmentin Hong Kong.Congratulations to the Professional Green Building Council onyour anniversary! I am sure that the Council will have a greatfuture and will make major contribution to the building of asustainable Hong Kong in the coming years.Chris LAWHKIA Representative,Environment and Sustainable Development Committee53