And the winner is …
The HKGBC honours it best, brightest and greenest
| Text : Elizabeth Kerr | Photo : HKGBC |
In honour of its own one-year anniversary, the Hong Kong Green Building Council handed out awards for achievement in eco-friendly and sustainable building in the SAR and around Asia-Pacific on November 3rd, and for all intents and purposes it was something of a roadmap for future development — if everyone gets on the sustainable bandwagon that is.
Hong Kong has 40,000 buildings and is projected to have around 50,000 by 2030 and the majority of them need to be green according to Gilbert Lennox-King of Energenz Consulting, starting with reducing or managing energy consumption. Regardless of the six Grand Awards and 18 Merit Awards handed out that night, “The short answer is that developers are not doing anything,” he states bluntly in response to the question of whether or not developers are in fact riding that bandwagon. New commercial buildings can be persuaded to go green from the ground up, but “Identifying opportunities to reduce energy consumption in a residential block is very difficult because it’s designed wrong,” he says. “There are no incentives for developers … They have to change the building codes so that developers take responsibility for these crappy buildings.” Fighting words.
Secretary for development Carrie Lam was on hand to represent the government, and agreed with Lennox-King in telling those gathered that, “Every year we’re only adding a few hundred [new buildings]. That’s why we should all be looking at the possibilities and the potential for bringing in green elements and energy efficiency in existing buildings.” However Lam disagrees with Lennox-King and claims a lot has happened since the founding of the HKGBC and the last policy address included the announcement of a number of measures to promote green building. She didn’t address the policy initiatives at the awards ceremony, but was getting ready to the next day at the Green Building Conference.
Winners in categories encompassing new buildings in Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific, existing buildings, and research and planning ran the gamut from schools, to shopping centres, public housing, office towers and prisons (the admittedly quite stunning redevelopment of the Lo Wu Correctional Institution) and indicate that in some sectors, sustainability is key. As David Clarke, director of MAP Architects, sees it, “We hear a lot talk these days about eco-projects and I want to make the point that we, as planners and architects as a profession, have a responsibility globally to do everything in an eco- or environmentally sensitive manner. It’s now a fact of life; I don’t think it’s an option. It’s not a value add.”
Referencing the revitalisation and conversion projects the government has undertaken lately, Lam pointed to the HKGBC and the buildings department drafting a set of guidelines for developers that would look, “More favourably upon applications that may not comply strictly with all the building code requirements but are commendable for their green elements and energy efficiency.” She then went on to mention how a wholesale shift in lifestyle was needed and that the awards recognising outstanding facility management speaks to that.
Critics can scream about how not enough is being done to reduce Hong Kong’s carbon footprint (and they do), and even if the HKGBC has little legislative sway, it must be said that it’s at least a start. But as one of the night’s winners (of the Grand Award for the Maosi Ecological demonstration school and the MoHURD village re-construction site in Ma’anqiao) stated succinctly, commendations are all fine and dandy, but it was high time to stop the chatter and just “Get on with it.”
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