Green Supply Chain Management

We invite our working partners, such as our consultants and contractors, to tender for public works contracts. Our consultants include architects, landscape architects, buildings services engineers, structural engineers, building surveyors and quantity surveyors. Our contractors assist us in 31 categories of services including building, land piling, electrical and mechanical work etc.

The activities of our working partners have a high impact on the environment and our stakeholders. For every stage of a building's life-cycle - from the building's conception, design, construction, and maintenance to demolition, we strive to minimise the inconvenience caused to the affected neighbourhoods. Our responsibility stems from the fact that we have a controlling influence over their operations, because we hold our partners accountable through the tendering process and in monitoring and evaluating their performance to meet our high standard.

Sustainability in Government Tenders

We encourage our project teams and consultants' designers to exploit the unique opportunity for each project to develop sustainable designs. We vet the blueprints against a list of environmental design features incorporated in our tender conditions, which play a part in influencing the tender outcome. Our environmental design checklist looks at:

• Sustainable planning - Optimal use of natural resources (e.g. potential access to solar energy, seasonal sunpath, prevailing wind and rainfall); reduce land take impact; restore existing buildings;
• Ecological impact - preservation of existing key features, cultural heritage, local wildlife, trees and landscape; restoration of degraded habitat; erosion control measures; use of native species in landscaping design;
• Enhancement of the physical environment - landscaping to improve micro-climate e.g. roof/terrace/sky gardens, choice of ground surfaces;
• Energy conservation - integration of architectural design to enhance energy efficiency; building orientation; building envelope design (e.g. sunshades, glazing); overall thermal transfer value; renewable energy; energy efficient equipment; educational facilities to promote awareness of occupants (e.g. energy consumption display panel);
• Visual impact - compatibility with cultural and heritage values; compatibility with surrounding;
• Noise impact - noise attenuation through building envelop design, noise barriers, noise mitigation measures etc.
• Natural ventilation, good indoor air quality - specify materials/products with low volatile organic compound emission; air treatment and filtration;
• Illumination and visual access - maximise use of daylight, minimise light pollution, visual privacy from exterior.
• Water conservation - use of grey water; water saving fittings;
• Waste water discharge - special treatment before discharge; surface runoff reduction;
• Design waste management - space allocation for waste disposal, sorting and storage;
• Construction waste management - use of prefabrication system; re-usable formwork (e.g. metal, fibreglass); incorporate waste management considerations in design and construction stages;
• Material use & specification - materials with low embodied energy; use of timber from sustainable source; use of local materials; ease of materials for recovery/disassembly;
• Functionality - adaptability to changing tenant requirement; and
• Operations and maintenance - metering and monitoring of performance.

Submitting the lowest bid is not always a surefire way to win a contract. Once we take the externalities into account, such as the environmental pollution costs not reflected in financial transactions, the balance often tips in favour of more expensive designs, with greater potential for sustainable features. In assessing consultants' technical proposals, eco-design and innovative features take up about 5% of weighting.

Sustainable Procurement

We follow the General Specification for Building (2003 Edition), which laid down a comprehensive list of procurement conditions. The conditions are mandatory, unless with approval from the architect. They also have a determining impact on the tender outcome. The 2003 edition was rewritten and updated with sustainability as the key objective. The main provisions are:

• Restriction of use of hardwood;
• Use of timber from certified sustainable forests;
• Use of low VOC paint;
• Use of recycled aggregate in concrete; and
• Use of environmentally friendly carpet.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Supply Chain

An important aspect of our supply chain management is monitoring and evaluation of our contractors and consultants who are subject to quarterly review once the tender is awarded.

Environmental pollution control is one of the determining criteria in the review, covering water, noise, air and waste pollution as well as compliance with the trip ticket system to control construction and demolition waste. A trip ticket system requires contractors to obtain a permit before they could dump construction and demolition waste in designated landfills, and encourages waste sorting and recycling.

In the event of unsatisfactory performance, the consultants and contractors' performance reports will be taken into account affecting their chances of winning future contracts. Suppliers with serious non-compliance (i.e. two consecutive poor reviews) will be temporarily suspended from bidding future projects. Our contractor performance reports show that a majority of our contractors (over 90%) performed satisfactorily in 2004.

The level of environmental convictions of contractors on our Departmentˇ¦s construction sites is consistently lower than that of the Hong Kong average. This is due to our efforts to raise the environmental standard of the supply chain in the tendering process, and our training to raise the contractors' environmental awareness.

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Green Contractor Award

The purpose of the award scheme is to encourage contractors to achieve a higher standard of environmental performance on construction sites. The award assessment goes beyond legislative and license requirements and looks at contractor endeavours in mitigating water, noise, air pollution; handling of chemical and dangerous goods, construction and demolition waste; as well as adoption of green management initiatives such as energy saving and recycling measures.

For 2004, we are happy to present the winners. They were:

Gold Award	Gammon Construction Limited Project: Fire Station with Ambulance Depot and Police Post at Penny's Bay, Lantau
		Fire Station before handover (Gold Award).
		A view of the external area of the building - the site was kept clean at all times
Silver Award	Paul Y.- ITC General Contractors Limited Project: Two 36-Classroom Primary Schools at Eastern Harbour Crossing Site, Yau Tong	A model of the two Yau Tong schools (Silver Award)
		Perimeter screen was provided higher than working level for better dust screening
Bronze Awards	Shui On Construction Company Limited Project: Castle Peak Hospital Redevelopment Phase II Stage 2 at Tsing Chung Koon Road, Tuen Mun	Completed hospital project (Bronze Award)
		Matrix scaffolding was used to reduce the use of bamboo
	Hip Hing Construction Company Limited Project: Design and Construction of New Territories South Regional Police Headquarters and Operational Base at Tsuen Wan	Completed Tsuen Wan Police Headquarters building (Bronze Award)
		Building under construction and the environment protected