Vote for Your Favourite BEAM Plus Slogan
Top-rated BEAM Plus Projects Creating a Sustainable Community for All
Act Now to Maintain Your BEAM Practitioner Qualification
Start Green Procurement and Embrace Healthy Living with HK G-PASS
ACT-Shop Active Training: Comprehensive Guidance on Retro-commissioning
Teams Gear Up for Smart City Project Programme
Vote for Your Favourite BEAM Plus Slogan
The submission period of the BEAM Plus Slogan Competition was ended last month with an overwhelming response of over 2,100 entries. Our judging panel, consists of Secretary for the Environment Mr Wong Kam-sing, Chairman of the Environmental Campaign Committee Mr Lam Chiu-ying, renowned architect and urban planner Prof. Bernard V. Lim, former news anchor Mr Ng Ka-him, and Chairman of the HKGBC Mr Cheung Hau-wai, has already picked 12 winning entries. The “Best Slogan Award” winners of both Student Category and Public Category could take home a cash prize of HK$10,000, while five more merit awards have been selected from each category as well.
You will have a chance to get a HKGBC travel kit with a creative supporting reason for your choice of BEAM Plus slogan.
It’s time for you to join us and pick your favourite slogan from the Best-12! The winner of this “Online Most Popular Award” could take home an extra HK$3,000, while you may get a HKGBC travel kit with a good supporting reason. The winning entries of “Best Slogan Award” and “Online Most Popular Award” will have a chance to be adopted in our Council’s future promotional materials. All the awards will be announced in March.
Have your say on your choice of slogan now (Chinese only) by 7 March and help BEAM Plus to achieve a more widespread recognition among the public!
Top-rated BEAM Plus Projects Creating a Sustainable Community for All
Goldin Financial Global Centre has achieved Platinum rating in its Final Assessment, a jump from its previous Provisional Gold rating.
The positive impact of green building does not only rely on the carbon reduction from energy saving – the outstanding performance in many other aspects is also vital in providing a healthy and pleasant environment for its own occupants as well as benefiting the surrounding community and the planet.
Take the latest two projects achieving Final Platinum in BEAM Plus New Buildings as example, Goldin Financial Global Centre in Kowloon Bay has adopted rainwater harvesting and installed water saving devices for water conservation, while the residential project Homantin Hillside recycled 60% of the demolition waste. Both projects have taken considerable effort to ensure good air ventilation in the surrounding areas and mitigate the urban heat island effect. By having extensive greenery over the site, they have both created a pleasant outdoor environment for pedestrians and the community, which also helps bolster the urban biodiversity. As Hong Kong is getting hotter in summer time, especially in the city core, such urban greenery plays an increasingly critical role in cooling the urban core, assisting stormwater management and promoting positive health effects for all.
Urban greenery brings additional social benefits too. The headquarters of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, Wong Fung Ling Memorial Building, has recently achieved Excellent grade under Site Aspects of BEAM Plus Existing Buildings V2.0 Selective Scheme. There is an organic farming programme available for staff to join, which would bring them together and promote sustainable and healthy lifestyle.
After achieving Excellent grade under Management aspect, EcoPark now contributes to the local environment protection through its design, management as well as daily business operation.
As Hong Kong is facing an imminent waste crisis, the whole community needs to take action to reuse, reduce and recycle waste. The EcoPark in Tuen Mun is the first designated facility in Hong Kong for recycling industry. In addition to tackling waste, the EcoPark is the latest project achieving Excellent grade under Management aspect of BEAM Plus Existing Buildings, demonstrating its commitment in green management practices, including appropriate plans and procedures for building maintenance as well as green cleaning. Such implementation can help ensuring the building is being operated in a sustainable manner.
To find out more Platinum and Excellent projects, please check out BEAM Plus Online Exhibition.
Tung Wah Group of Hospitals’ Wong Fung Ling Memorial Building is the first building of local charity groups to achieve the highest rating under BEAM Plus Existing Buildings V2.0.
The 60% recycling rate for demolition waste of Homantin Hillside is an outstanding achievement in waste reduction.
Act Now to Maintain Your BEAM Practitioner Qualification
With the new CPD policy came into effect on 1 January 2018, practitioners with BEAM Professional (BEAM Pro) or BEAM Affiliate qualification are required to settle the Annual Qualification Renewal Fee and fulfil CPD hour requirements every year.
BEAM Pro and BEAM Affiliate can follow the steps below to login their Individual Accounts for fee payment and CPD record submission:
| Settle the Annual Qualification Renewal Fee on or before 31 March 2018 | Submit CPD records to fulfil annual requirements on or before 31 December 2018 |
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”Individual Account Login” at the top right cornerShould there be any enquiry, you are welcome to contact HKGBC Secretariat for assistance.
Start Green Procurement and Embrace Healthy Living with HK G-PASS
As public and private organisations are pushing for more and more existing buildings to go green, green procurement has become a vital part among a series of green management practices. The Government’s Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2030+ published last year has also promoted the use of low carbon construction materials and encouraged the procurement of green products that would help to save energy under the voluntary 4T (Target, Timeline, Transparency, and Together) framework. The Council’s HKGBC Green Product Accreditation and Standards (HK G-PASS) is also cited in the Government’s blueprint as a scheme to certify environmentally-friendly building materials, products and building services components.
HK G-PASS assesses the environmental performance of a total of 25 product categories through a life cycle consideration, providing a comprehensive assessment with the score attained become a credible indicator of green building product. Apart from some general requirements such as the materials specification, carbon emission and resource consumption, human toxicity potential and ecosystem impact are also among the evaluation criteria. For example, points are allocated in the Paint & Coating category in accordance to ISO and European Commission high standards for the level of volatile organic compounds and environmentally hazardous substances. This is to ensure the certified products under HK G-PASS are truly sustainable and could reduce the impact on the environment and surroundings.
A considerable increase in the number of HK G-PASS applications has been recorded since its launch in 2015, particularly in the categories of Paint & Coating, Adhesive & Sealant and Chiller, showing a strong demand of such green products in the market, while there are still a number of applications being assessed.
Visit the HK G-PASS website now for the newly labelled green building products!
ACT-Shop Active Training: Comprehensive Guidance on Retro-commissioning
HKGBC Executive Director Ir Cary Chan Wing-hong shares his experience on knowledge-based energy management to Active Training participants.
To encourage the implementation of knowledge-based energy management and retro-commissioning practices in the building industry, the Council has launched the ACT-Shop programme in 2016. Apart from assisting participating organisations to carry out retro-commissioning in their own properties, the programme also focuses on building up practitioners’ in-house competence and inducing behavioural change with regular seminars and talks on related topics.
Recently, the Council organises an “Active Training” workshop on retro-commissioning for HVAC System in commercial buildings with overwhelming response from both public and private sectors. This three-module Active Training workshop guides the participants though the general concept of retro-commissioning procedures from planning the entire exercise to implementation of energy saving opportunities (ESOs) with case sharing on notable projects. By participating in ACT-Shop and the Active Training, industry practitioners could identify improvement potentials and ways for implementing the ESOs, and adopt data analysis for energy saving decision-making.
The first two modules of the workshop were held on 12 and 26 February respectively, and the last one will take place on 9 March.
Teams Gear Up for Smart City Project Programme
Participants learn more about the implementation of latest green building technology after visiting the “Platinum Campus” of Hang Seng Management College.
Dr Benny Chow Ka-ming, HKGBC Director cum Chairman of Industry Standards and Practices Committee shares the latest key design features of a green and smart school.
About 50 teachers and students joined a talk presented by Dr Benny Chow Ka-ming, HKGBC Director cum Chairman of Industry Standards and Practices Committee, on the topic “The Latest International Perspectives on the Key Design Features of Green/Smart School and its Positive Impact on Students’ Learning Environment” on 5 February. After the talk, the participants visited a number of BEAM Plus Platinum-rated building at the Hang Seng Management College (HSMC). With the first-hand experience on how the latest green building technology is implemented in the campus, the participants were also impressed by the commitment and dedication of HSMC towards campus sustainability.
This event was designated to the participants of the Smart City Project Programme 2017/18 organised by the Education Bureau, and the Council is one of the Supporting Organisations. The programme aims at helping students to integrate and apply their acquired knowledge from the school curriculum and different workshops by suggesting innovative ways to realise smart city ideas in the development of their home, school, community and city environment. Teams will prepare “Smart City” projects for an exhibition.
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