Sustainable Campus and Resources Management

Implementation of Green Practices on Campus

In the year under review, through a series of green measures and educational initiatives on campus, as well as participating in public energy conservation campaigns, the University strived to engage more staff and students in supporting green on campus and living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. It included:

• Phasing out the sale of single-use plastic bottled drinks below 1 litre from vending machines; • Promoting a waste-less culture in catering outlets by offering a HK$1 rebate for bringing reusable lunchbox, and a HK$1 rebate for bringing reusable coffee mug at the café outlet; • Launching No Straw initiative in catering outlets by not providing plastic straws unless requested by customers; • Supplying juice packaged with glass bottles only at all café outlets; • Organising the Green Lunch Day on 29 April 2019 to promote reduction of using single-use plastics utensils; • Encouraging to minimise food waste by offering a HK$1 rebate for “less rice” option at one of the catering outlets; • Developing an e-Voting system to support onsite voting/election campaigns of student organisations for reducing paper waste; • Enhancing the policy from E-preferred to E-only to commit to purchasing new or replacement collection materials for general items in the University Library; • Fostering conservation of natural resources and sustainable agriculture by launching organic farm lease to staff and students for planting on the rooftop of Lee Shau Kee Complex and applying coffee grounds as fertiliser, that was collected from on-campus catering outlets; • Organising a field visit to Zero Carbon Building located at Kowloon Bay for raising environmental awareness outside classroom; • Signing up for joining Earth Hour and No Air Con Night organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature and Green Sense respectively; • Launching HSUHK Quarterly Hour to minimise unnecessary energy consumption; • Participating in Energy Saving Charter/4Ts by Environment Bureau and Electrical and Mechanical Services Department to pledge for saving energy practices; • Joining Green Event Pledge by Environmental Protection Department to minimise waste generated during large events; • Participating in Paper Saving Campaign organised by World Green Organisation; and • Joining the CLP’s Peak Demand Management programme to reduce electricity consumption during the highest electricity demand period so as to lower the maximum demand of the overall system.

Achievements for the Year

The University received notable awards in recognition of its outstanding performance in energy conservation and environmental sustainability and made achievements in energy saving, namely:

• Hong Kong Sustainability Award “Certificate of Excellence” (Large Organisation Category) (2018 – 2019) by the Hong Kong Management Association; • Hong Kong Green Organisation Certificate (HKGOC) by the Environmental Campaign Committee and the Environmental Protection Department; • Energywi$e Certificate (Basic Level) by the Environmental Campaign Committee; • Excellent Class IAQ Certification Scheme by Environmental Protection Department; • Certification of Compliance Registration for Code of Practice for Energy Efficiency of Building Services Installation; • Energy saving by more than 78,000 units (HK$0.1 million) was recorded as compared with that of the previous year 2017-18; and • By joining the scheme of CLP Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff, within three months, over 6,000 units was generated (a rebate of HK$24,372) by the solar photovoltaic system installed at the Residential Colleges.

International Experts and Academia Sharing on Bamboo and Green Buildings

With an aim to advocate the significance of applications of sustainable building materials in architecture and construction, the University organised the Forum on Sustainability and Bamboo 2019: Architecture and Building Materials on 1 June 2019. Inviting field experts, academia, industrialists and practitioners from across the globe, the event successfully brought together over 300 participants including students from local universities and secondary schools, field experts and academia from local universities and professional bodies, as well as HSUHK community on this special occasion.