Hong Kong
Greater Bay Area

Building Energy Efficiency: The Key to a Green City

20/10/2020

The Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions are among the most densely populated and built up places in the world. Macao currently leads the global ranking with around 55,000 people per square mile, while Hong Kong comes in fourth place, behind Monaco and Singapore. The high urban density is reflected in the cities’ energy footprint. In Hong Kong, buildings are responsible for as much as 90% of the total electricity consumption as well as about 60% of the total carbon dioxide emissions each year.

In order for Hong Kong and Macao to achieve their respective climate goals, improving building sustainability standards will be essential in the years ahead. This becomes especially evident when considering that renewable energies only play a minor role in the cities’ climate policies, due to the inherent shortage of space for new facilities and infrastructure. Hence, implementing energy-saving measures in the building sector is becoming an ever more important maxim. The urgent need for action generates a wealth of potential business opportunities for specialised German enterprises – Hong Kong’s 42,000 buildings could keep providers of energy-efficient retrofitting solutions busy for decades to come.

Climate Action Starts in the Building Sector

Over the past several years, building energy efficiency has become a high-priority topic for Hong Kong and Macao policymakers. In 2016, China formally signed and ratified the Paris Agreement, which also applies to the two SARs. In 2017, the Hong Kong Environment Bureau responded with the Climate Action Plan 2030+, setting a carbon intensity reduction target of 65-70% by 2030 compared to the 2005 level. This new goal built on the EB’s previous target of 40% less energy intensity by 2025, as defined in the 2015 Energy Saving Plan for Hong Kong’s Built Environment. The Macao Environmental Protection Bureau likewise aims to cut energy consumption in relation to the territory’s GDP by a substantial margin, increase the utilisation rate of clean energy and make Macao a green, low-carbon city.

These goals might seem rather ambitious, given that the market for energy-efficient building technologies in both SARs is still considered to be in the early development stage. Therefore, German technology and service providers with rich experience and know-how – particularly in the areas of façade engineering, isolation, air-conditioning technologies, as well as related consulting services – are regarded by local market actors in the public and private sectors as attractive co-operation partners in this endeavour. Demand is extensive and acute, since a significant number of residential and commercial buildings in the two cities date back 30 years or more and will require energy-related modernisation measures in order to comply with increasingly stringent statutory requirements.

While Hong Kong and Macao share similar energy efficiency ambitions, the two cities differ from each other with regards to their market structure and relevant actors. In Hong Kong, public institutions such as the Housing Authority, as well as planning and engineering firms have been driving efforts to implement energy-saving measures in the building sector. Meanwhile, in Macao, hotel and casino operators in particular are increasingly looking to adopt innovative and sustainable building designs. For instance, The Parisian Macao, opened in 2016, incorporates several sustainability measures such as electricity-saving LED lighting, low-flow water installations, as well as high-performance exterior window glazing to isolate against solar heat. In 2019, the luxury complex was recognised with a Silver rating under the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system.

What Makes a Building ‘Green’?

The Hong Kong Government defines green buildings as “designed, built, renovated, operated, and reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner to meet certain objectives.” The latter generally include protecting the occupants’ health and well-being, using energy and water more efficiently, reducing waste, as well as minimising the overall environmental footprint. Since 2011, the Housing Authority has been applying a Carbon Emission Estimation (CEE) method for new public housing developments to assess a building’s greenhouse gas emissions throughout its entire life cycle – including construction, occupation and demolition – and set a benchmark to mitigate the impact on the environment, for instance by comparing alternative building designs and materials.

In 1998, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) first launched the voluntary Energy Efficiency Registration Scheme for Buildings as an incentive for building owners to adopt the EMSD’s Code of Practice for Energy Efficiency of Building Services Installation (Building Energy Code, BEC). In 2012, the Buildings Energy Efficiency Ordinance came into effect, making compliance with the BEC a statutory requirement. The Ordinance requires developers of new buildings to implement four main types of building service installations in compliance with the BEC standards, namely (1) air-conditioning, (2) lighting, (3) electrical, as well as (4) lift and escalator installations. Likewise, owners or occupants of existing buildings should ensure that any retrofitting measures implemented in these four categories are BEC-compliant. In addition, the Ordinance stipulates that central service installations in commercial buildings, such as shopping malls, shall be subject to an energy audit under the Energy Audit Code (EAC) once every ten years.

Buildings that manage to outperform statutory requirements as laid out by the Ordinance may be recognised and certified for their sustainability features by the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) based on the Building Environmental Assessment Method (BEAM). The BEAM system is developed and operated by BEAM Society Limited, one of the four founding institutions of the HKGBC along with the Construction Industry Council (CIC), Business Environment Council (BEC) and Professional Green Building Council (PGBC). BEAM incorporates a variety of sustainability criteria, including the planning, design, fitting out, operation and maintenance of both new and existing buildings. BEAM standards have already been applied in other cities aside from Hong Kong, such as Macau, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

The development and recognition of green buildings has gained considerable momentum over the last decade: Between 2010 and 2019, more than 1,600 buildings and development projects in Hong Kong were BEAM-certified, bringing the total number of certifications since 1996 to over 3,000. Prominent existing buildings with a Platinum rating include Hysan Place in Causeway Bay (2013), the Standard Chartered Building in Central (2016), Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong (2017), Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay (2018), as well as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Port at Chek Lap Kok (2019, provisional). Platinum ratings were also given to the ongoing West Kowloon Cultural District (2016) and Kai Tak Sports Park (2020) developments, respectively.

Endless Opportunities on the Horizon

The examples mentioned above resemble only a small fraction of the enormous energy-saving potential that is yet to be realised in Hong Kong’s building sector. Airtight building envelopes are regarded as one of the most effective retrofitting measures to cut the energy intensity of heating and cooling systems and reduce reliance on external energy sources. According to HKGBC, this measure alone could lower the energy consumption of buildings by up to 20%. However, implementing this and other measures territory-wide will require technical expertise and long-term commitment. Considering the vast number of existing buildings in Hong Kong and Macao that require comprehensive retrofitting to ensure regulatory compliance, as well as the ever-increasing demand for additional residential and office space, city planners and developers have their work cut out for them for the foreseeable future.

From 10 to 13 November 2020, AHK Hong Kong will be organising a digital delegation on building energy efficiency with the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The five-day programme will give German providers of sustainable building technology a platform to get acquainted with market opportunities as well as legal requirements in Hong Kong and Macao, present their product and service solutions and connect with local counterparts to explore potential synergies. Sustainable technologies ‘Made in Germany’ could play an important role in raising energy-efficiency standards in the building sector and establishing Hong Kong and Macao as future-oriented green cities.


This article is partially based on a recent market study on Energy-Efficient Buildings in Hong Kong and Macao, conducted by German Industry and Commerce Ltd. (AHK Hong Kong) under the German Energy Solutions Initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Find the full study in German language here.

Related News

Top Theme
Top
05/06/2023
Hong Kong

A Green Future For Hong Kong

Top Theme
Top
17/12/2021
Hong Kong
Germany

Green Light for Climate Neutrality

Top Theme
Top
23/09/2021
Hong Kong

Why ESG is Key for Business