2018 Grand Opening of The Mills, a Leading Heritage & Innovation Landmark

ACT-Shop Programme: Retro-commissioning Helps Save Energy and Money!
HK G-PASS Certification - An Impetus to Green Building Product Development
“My Green Space” Green Building Competition for Schools 2018
Diverse Types of Platinum Green Buildings

2018 Grand Opening of The Mills, a Leading Heritage & Innovation Landmark

The Mills Revitalisation

The Mills is a landmark revitalisation project by Nan Fung Group, comprising of a business incubator, experiential retail and non-profit cultural institution.

Urban Rooftop Greenery

Urban farm, extensive landscape and solar collectors are placed on rooftops for community enjoyment and reducing carbon emission.

Announced back in Nan Fung Group’s 60th Anniversary, The Mills is a landmark revitalisation project anchored in the industrial district of Tsuen Wan, once a manufacturing hub for Hong Kong’s textile industry. The Mills preserves the textile industry’s heritage and injects vibrancy into the neighbourhood, transforming three buildings into a single coherent complex – a business incubator (The Mills Fabrica), experiential retail (The Mills Shopfloor) and non-profit cultural institution (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile; CHAT). The project conserved 70% of the building’s 50-plus years of history, enhanced its sustainability performance, and integrated new internal lanes exhibiting public art and heritage, with accessible rooftops and greenery to support ongoing community engagement activities through a variation of open spaces.

Upcycling Bench

Old timber doors are transformed into seating benches for heritage preservation and reducing raw material use.

Achieving LEED Gold rating earlier this year for this project highlights how we overcame the challenges faced with refurbishment of existing buildings and heritage preservation. Great effort and extensive on-site trials and fine-tuning were performed to comply with different requirements, enabling us to improve overall structural strength and offer more flexibility in spatial arrangement. We transformed old timber doors into seating benches and old window frames into signage. To further reduce the environmental impact, more than 80% of construction waste was recycled in a dedicated material recovery chamber, which also contains a glass bottle crusher.

A high-performance curtain wall is used for daylight enhancement and minimising air-conditioning. Efficient lighting automation and solar hot water systems were also deployed. Urban farm, extensive landscape and solar collectors are placed on rooftops for community enjoyment and reducing carbon emission. A mobile-based BMS system is also adopted to support real-time monitoring and optimisation by the property manager and its tenants.

Sustainability and Healthy Living

The Mills exemplifies Nan Fung's integration of its four core values “Quality, Value, Innovation and Service” into our business activities, embracing new ideas and technologies, building smarter and proactively implementing sustainable initiatives in our projects. We also extend our objectives to incorporate user experience and health, with our residential project Lohas Park, Package 10 adopting the WELL Building standard – the world’s first building standard focused exclusively on human health and wellness – and achieving Hong Kong’s first WELL Gold pre-certification in a residential development.

ACT-Shop Programme: Retro-commissioning Helps Save Energy and Money!

Mr Wong Kam-sing, Secretary for the Environment teams up with Ir Cary Chan, Executive Director of the Council for the shooting of the promotion video on retro-commissioning in existing buildings.

Harbour City, one of the participating buildings of the ACT-Shop Programme, works out the real solutions to save energy based on data analysis.

Do you know how “health checkup” on existing buildings can improve their energy efficiency and help combat climate change? Recently, the Council teamed up with the Environment Bureau and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department for the shooting of the promotion video on retro-commissioning, showing how existing buildings overcome their “midlife crisis”.

The Council has invited Harbour City and the Sun Hung Kai Centre, two of the participating buildings of the ACT-Shop Programme, to join the shooting and share their impressive achievements in energy saving. Mr Wong Kam-sing, Secretary for the Environment and Ir Cary Chan, Executive Director of the Council visited these two iconic buildings in Hong Kong to explore how retro-commissioning helps identify the improvement potential for existing buildings to reduce electricity consumption and hence to save money.

The Sun Hung Kai Centre, one of the participating buildings of the ACT-Shop Programme, re-invests the money saved by energy saving in their building improvement projects, which make the building safer and more eco-friendly.

To align with Government’s initiatives in energy saving plan, the Council launched the ACT-Shop programme in 2016. The main aim of the Programme is to encourage existing building practitioners to implement a knowledge-based energy management and retro-commissioning practices, and to assist building owners to enhance the energy performance of their existing buildings. To date, 24 buildings have joined the programme. The ACT-Shop programme has already launched the fourth batch of pilot projects and would organise training programmes to build up the in-house competence of the participating companies.

Please click HERE to view the video which is now available on various channels.

HK G-PASS Certification - An Impetus to Green Building Product Development

The CPD event – “Case Sharing of HK G-PASS Platinum Green Products” was very well attended by professionals in the building and construction industry.

Since its launch in 2015, HKGBC Green Product Accreditation and Standards (HK G-PASS) has been developing the standards for measuring the green impact of building products. The certification scheme assesses the environmental performance of a product through a life cycle consideration, including aspects of general requirements, human toxicity, resource consumption and ecosystem impacts. Over the years, numerous green products have been successfully certified under HK G-PASS as an environmentally friendly product choice for green building initiatives. Certified green products may contribute to credits achievement in BEAM Plus, the green building assessment scheme, e.g. in MWA 2 under BEAM Plus Existing Buildings (EB) V2.0 Materials and Waste Aspects.

Dr Paul Sat, Head of Research and Public Education of the Council, introduces HK G-PASS and its linkage to BEAM Plus Assessments.

Representative of CaSO (HK) Engineering Company Limited introduces how their green product can contribute to the building projects in green aspects.

To further promote the adoption of green building products, two of the prominent certified HK G-PASS Platinum Rating holders were invited to share their journeys and experiences in attaining such a renowned standard in green certification in a CPD event – “Case Sharing of HK G-PASS Platinum Green Products” held on 3 August. Representative of CaSO (HK) Engineering Company Limited introduced how desulfurised gypsum could be recycled into AUGREEN block wall system which exceeds customers’ expectations. Representatives of Nippon Paint (HK) Co Ltd featured paints which are eco-friendly to a high standard and cause minimal environmental impacts.

Representatives of Nippon Paint (HK) Co Ltd share that green is always the key of its products, from the production process to finished goods.

Ir Cary Chan, Executive Director of the Council is invited to introduce HK G-PASS and share its significance in promoting green building products in the video. (Click the image to view the video)

Another HK G-PASS Platinum Holder, Trane Hong Kong, also produced a video to share the superior performance in energy efficiency and sustainability of their certified chillers, and their adoption in various types of buildings.

Please visit the HK G-PASS website now for the newly certified green products!

“My Green Space” Green Building Competition for Schools 2018

The registration for “My Green Space” Green Building Competition for Schools 2018 will start in September. (Click the poster to enlarge)

One of the Council’s flagship events, “My Green Space” Green Building Competition for Schools 2018 is going to be launched soon! The theme of this year’s Competition is “My Green Existing Buildings”. The Competition aims to encourage students to express their ideas on green building knowledge and nurture students’ critical and creative thinking. It is also intended to educate the younger generation with green building knowledge and nourish them to be the pioneers to spread the ideas to their families and peers.

Registration for the Competition will start in September. Students from local universities, tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools in the academic year 2018/19 are all welcomed to join. Students can select any existing buildings located in Hong Kong or other neighbouring areas as a basis to design their ideal green existing buildings.

There will be Champions, 1st Runners-up, 2nd Runners-up and Merit Awards for the outstanding entries in each division. Awardees will receive cash prizes and certificates for appreciation.

For more details of the competition, please visit the Competition website.

Diverse Types of Platinum Green Buildings

The infrastructural facilities of Happy Valley Underground Stormwater Storage Scheme has achieved Final Platinum rating under BEAM Plus New Buildings.

All types of buildings can go green! As part of the Happy Valley Underground Stormwater Storage Scheme, the pumping station and the fan room have achieved Final Platinum rating under BEAM Plus New Buildings. To have such infrastructural facilities blended into the sport pitches and greenery in harmony, the roof of the pumping station is paved with greenery, which also provides a comfortable recreational space for the public.

Also, Alassio in the Mid-levels has attained the same Final Platinum rating. Adjacent to the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum, monitoring works have been conducted during construction of this residential project in order to minimise the impact on the historical building.

By reducing energy consumption, Two Grand Plaza has achieved Excellent grade under Energy Use aspect of BEAM Plus Existing Buildings V2.0 Selective Scheme.

Both Alassio and its neighbour Arezzo have achieved Final Platinum rating under BEAM Plus New Buildings.

Apart from new buildings, existing buildings can turn green regardless of their ages! Built in the 1970s, Two Grand Plaza in Mong Kok has achieved Excellent grade under Energy Use aspect of BEAM Plus Existing Buildings V2.0 Selective Scheme. With a series of enhancement initiatives by the property management team, energy consumption of the building is lowered by 22%. Thanks to energy audit, opportunities of reducing energy consumption can be identified and energy saving solutions can be devised. Besides, Devon House in Taikoo Place has achieved Final Platinum rating under BEAM Plus Existing Buildings V2.0 Comprehensive Scheme.

Find out more projects with exemplary environmental performance now at BEAM Plus Online Exhibition!

[END]