FIVE POINTS OF NEW SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

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1 FIVE POINTS OF NEW SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE WONG KAM SING Professional Green Building Council, 19/F One Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong China Ronald Lu & Partners, 33/F Wu Chung House, 213 Queen s Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong China Tel: , Fax: , kswong@rlphk.com The Professional Green Building Council (PGBC) in Hong Kong has promoted a number of initiatives with a view to accelerating the market transformation towards a quality and sustainable built environment. Among various initiatives, this paper highlights the five points of new sustainable architecture: green building labeling, green building awards, zero carbon charter, urban climate and greenery, and green building council. This paper recollects what PGBC has been focusing on for the past five to six years. While sharing the common worldview with respect to green building challenge, PGBC reckons the importance of critically addressing the local and regional sustainability problems at the same time. The author wishes that the relevant experience of PGBC in Hong Kong might inspire other cities in moving towards a more sustainable common future. 1. The Professional Green Building Council The Professional Green Building Council (PGBC) was established in late 2002 in Hong Kong. The primary objective of PGBC is to unite the effort of building professionals, in particular architects, engineers, landscape architects, surveyors and town planners, for accelerating the building industry and market in transforming towards the development of a quality and sustainable built environment. In the past seven years, PGBC launched a wide spectrum of green building initiatives with specific relevance to the environmental challenges of compact cities in Asia. They included a series of exchange programme between Hong Kong-mainland cities in the form of conference cum site visit. The Joint Hong Kong and Tianjin Conference for Sustainable Building 2009 represents the latest exchange event that builds on the success of past joint efforts in other mainland cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou. 2. Five Points This paper attempts to summarize what PGBC has been focusing on so far since its establishment in Hong Kong. In essence, the key initiatives of PGBC can be distilled into five points of new sustainable architecture, namely: green building labelling, green building awards, zero carbon charter, urban climate and urban greenery, and green building council. 2.1 Green Building Labelling First of all, green building labelling, or assessment / rating system, is recognized as the worldwide trend in the field of green building movement. It provides a systematic platform for holistically assessing the key aspects of building environmental performance. The most common scope of assessment embraces the following five areas: energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction, resources conservation and waste management, water conservation, indoor environmental quality, and sustainable site planning. An objective and scientific rating system on the comprehensive environmental performance of buildings can become an effective tool to support government policy as well as building regulation. A wellestablished framework integrating the principles of green building labelling can properly guide the daily practice of the construction industry and keep both the investors and the general public properly informed so that decisions on property investment can be made more wisely by taking into account the comprehensive environmental implications. The ultimate goal is foster an accelerated supply and demand of greener buildings in the mainstream market. In 2004, PGBC organized the symposium on green building labeling (Figure 1). The initiative aimed at enhancing the building environmental assessment method in Hong Kong so that wider adoption could be promoted. In particular, the key is to address the unique challenge of Asian cities in terms of culture, density, and climatology. Localization of the green building rating system is critically in need. 1

2 2 Figure 1. PGBC Symposium on Green Building Labelling in For instance, the two rating systems BEAM (Building Environmental Assessment Method) and CEPAS (Comprehensive Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme for Buildings) were subject to heated debate in Hong Kong. After long deliberation, the way forward is for BEAM to evolve and integrate the merits of CEPAS. The key is to have a single rating system in Hong Kong that can deeply reflect the local environmental needs. The latest version of BEAM is tentatively scheduled for launching in late Another recent milestone in this connection is the technical circular Green Government Buildings jointly issued by the Development Bureau and the Environment Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government in April This internal circular sets out a comprehensive target-based green performance framework for both new and existing government buildings with a view to promoting green buildings in Hong Kong. Among various requirements, it is the first time in the government framework to require all new government buildings with construction floor area of more than certain size (10,000s.m. in this case) to obtain the second highest grade or above under an internationally or locally recognized building environmental assessment system. Such a breakthrough adopted by the government sets a good demonstration as it is a significant first step to accelerate the transformation of the mainstream market in Hong Kong. Internationally, besides the rating systems like LEED and Green Stars, attention should be paid to the development and application of CASBEE in Japan and Green Mark in Singapore since these two systems in Asia have quickly caught up in integrating themselves with the mainstream practice of the building industry. In Japan s major cities as well as in Singapore, the key is that in addition to the wide adoption of the rating system by the respective government on their own government projects, all the major private-sector developments have been also required to carry out similar building environmental performance assessment. All the assessment results are then publicly disclosed on the internet so that the market can be well informed. Such market transparency aims to promote positive competition with a view to fostering the supply of higher performance buildings by the developers and professionals as well as the demand for better products by the public through more informed decisions. Furthermore, the Singapore government has recently set out an ambitious vision to target at achieving 80% of the total building stock with Green Mark certification by 2030 through their series of Green Building Master Plan. Overall, green building labelling is the foundation stone paving the way forward towards a quality and sustainable built environment. 2.2 Green Building Awards While green building labelling can exercise various valuable functions in transforming the market, it is not without constraints and requires periodic revision to maintain its relevance in tandem with societal and technological changes. In view of the above consideration, PGBC has initiated the Green Building Awards (GBA) since 2006 (Figure 2). The objective of GBA is to promote more creative and greener building projects through a comprehensive award scheme that honours innovative ideas and alternative thinking on top of the established building environmental performance assessment method. The underlying aim is to recognize and stimulate the best practice as well as to facilitate and advance knowledge transfer in the field of green buildings. GBA is devised to comprehensively embrace the key stages of a building lifecycle, including planning and research, new construction, existing building, as

3 3 well as alterations & additions and rehabilitation projects. Figure 3. MTR Sunny Bay Station. Figure 2. PGBC s first green building awards in For example, in GBA2006, the grand awards in the category of new construction are MTR Sunny Bay Station (Figure 3) and Hong Kong Wetland Park (Figure 4), both of which express the breakthrough in striking for significantly higher building environmental performance that echoes the notion of Factor 4. The grand award in the category of newly renovated project is the New Headquarters of Electrical & Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), which has turned the former air cargo terminal left behind after the removal of Kai Tak Airport into an energy efficient building integrated with extensive renewable energy and green feature demonstrations (Figure 5). Figure 4. Hong Kong Wetland Park.

4 4 Figure 7. Beijing 2008 Olympic Games National Aquatics Centre. Figure 5. New Headquarters of EMSD. In response to the widening interest and support, GBA2008 (Figure 6) further expanded the scope of eligible entries to accept all those projects involving Hong Kong professionals regardless of location and country. For instance, awarded projects in mainland China in 2008 include Beijing 2008 Olympic Games National Aquatics Centre (Water Cube) under the category of new construction (Figure 7) and Beijing Changxing Eco-city under the category of research and planning studies (Figure 8). Figure 8. Beijing Changxing Eco-city. The results of these two GBAs have been published and uploaded on the PGBC website, which is in turn widely referenced as the resources centre with representative and extensive green building case studies. Exemplary showcases and benchmarks constitute the springboard for even better demonstrations. The next GBA is tentatively in Building upon the established framework, the award scheme would likely further strengthen the basic request for comprehensive building environmental performance assessment and in particular highlight the priorities on low carbon lifestyle and high livability. 2.3 Zero Carbon Charter Figure 6. PGBC s second green building awards in Facing the crisis of global climate change, energy conservation and greenhouse gases reduction constitute the top priority issue nowadays.

5 5 In 2007, PGBC initiated the Zero Carbon Charter targeting on the building professionals and related stakeholders (Figure 9). The Charter promotes a comprehensive approach to integrate the concept of low / zero carbon living into town planning and urban landscape, building, systems and renewable energy technologies, appliances and demand side management (DSM). Figure 9. PGBC Zero Carbon Charter. A collaborative effort among all the key stakeholders, including architects, engineers, landscape architects, surveyors and town planners, is critically in need in order to march towards the notable target of carbon reduction. Figure 10 shows the details of the Charter. In the extremely dense urban context of Hong Kong, low carbon architecture means not only addressing the problem of global warming through higher energy efficiency but also mitigating the local impact of urban heat island effect as well as the problem of urban air quality. Figure 10. Five aspects of the PGBC Zero Carbon Charter Urban Climate & Urban Greenery While Hong Kong s compact urban form contributes to the cost-efficiency of mass transit systems, wall-effect development, urban canyon, urban heat island and the like that significantly threaten urban livability has led to alarming outcry in society, especially in the context of humid sub-tropical climate. In both 2006 and 2009, PGBC therefore organized the symposium on Urban Climate + Urban Greenery (Figure 11).

6 6 enhance the environmental quality and sustainability of the hyper-dense urban form in Hong Kong. 2.5 Green Building Council Besides the technical aspects including research, assessment, award and charter, there is a real need for a stronger and all-embracing institutional setup for all the key stakeholders to collaboratively promote the market transformation possibly through the formulation of Green Building Master Plan to systematically and holistically map out effective chain of actions and timetable towards the blueprint of building a greener city. In the light of this vision, PGBC has been in the process of joining with the Construction Industry Council (CIC), BEAM Society and Business Environment Council (BEC) to establish the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC). Through the joint effort in the past two years, HKGBC will be formally inaugurated in November HKGBC will become the focus of driving force in the promotion of green buildings in Hong Kong. It will unite the effort of all concerned parties, including but not limited to building professionals, academia, business sector, non-government organizations and green groups as well as the general public. The establishment of HKGBC represents a new page of green building movement in Hong Kong! 3. Way Forward Figure 11. PGBC Symposium on UC+UG in 2006 and In these two symposia, experts and key stakeholders from both Hong Kong and overseas actively participated in the knowledge sharing and discussion about the critical issues of urban climate as well as the multiple benefits of urban greenery. Urban Climatic Map (UCMap), Air Ventilation Assessment (AVA), Building Permeability / Separation, as well as Green Coverage and Skyrise Greening are the emerging initiatives and researches that collectively aim to After the outbreak of SARS in 2003, PGBC worked on the above five key aspects in the past 5-6 years with a view to exercising its role and responsibilities with respect to green buildings in Hong Kong. Specifically, PGBC has focused on the particular environmental challenges and needs in the urban context of Hong Kong. Nonetheless, PGBC is keen to share the experience and efforts with other cities in mainland China and beyond. In the 2008 World Sustainable Building Conference (SB08) held in Melbourne, Australia, PGBC led the Hong Kong delegation and served as the representative to present a report on the state of green buildings in Hong Kong. The theme of the Hong Kong report to SB08 was coined as in search of a compact livable city: lighter footprint and higher livability. The Hong Kong report 2008 was honoured as the Joint Winner of Best Regional Policy Review (Figure 12).

7 7 The honour further encourages PGBC to carry on sharing our efforts with others. Overall, PGBC is continuously supported by the five professional institutes in Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Architects, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, Hong Kong Institute of Planners, and Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors. Through sharing the five points as reported in this paper, PGBC together with the five professional sectors wishes Hong Kong and mainland cities could build a more sustainable future. PGBC would sustain its good effort in the future. Presenter s background Professor K S Wong Chairman, Professional Green Building Council Director + Director of Sustainable Design, Ronald Lu & Partners Professor K S Wong, an architect, chairs the Professional Green Building Council (PGBC). He is a founding council member of PGBC as well as the founding chairman of the Committee on Environment & Sustainable Development, the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA). Besides PGBC, he is Vice- President of HKIA, Executive Committee Member of BEAM Society, and founding committee member of the forthcoming Hong Kong Green Building Council. He also teaches in various local universities on an adjunct basis. With more than 20-year experience in architecture, he is now Director + Director of Sustainable Design in Ronald Lu & Partners, integrating the principles of sustainable design in master planning, new construction, urban regeneration as well as research projects. He has received various awards on architecture, planning and research, including honours from HKIA, HKIP, PGBC, ARCASIA, RIBA, 2008 World Sustainable Building Conference, etc. Figure 12. SB08 Best Regional Policy Review Award for Hong Kong. Acknowledgments * * * * * All figures of this paper are extracted from the website of PGBC. As the chairman of PGBC in the term of , the author would like to acknowledge the contribution of all PGBC Council and Board Members, in particular the leadership of past chairmen: Professor Patrick S S Lau (HKIA), Mr Kenneth Chan (HKIS) and Ir Reuben Chu (HKIE).