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Thursday, September 01, 2022, 14:06
HK can bank on GBA proximity to catch up on green building
By Oswald Chan
Thursday, September 01, 2022, 14:06 By Oswald Chan

HONG KONG – With the onslaught of climate change, the world has to endure more extreme weather. Carbon emission is the major reason contributing to global warming and the associated catastrophic consequences. Hence the race for achieving carbon neutrality has never been as urgent as it is now.

Buildings are the largest source of carbon emissions in Hong Kong. In 2019, about 66 percent of the emissions were attributed to electricity generation, with buildings accounting for about 90 percent of the city’s total electricity consumption, according to the Climate Action Plan 2050 published by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

We know that green buildings contain environmentally-friendly features to cut carbon emissions by optimizing energy usage. But by promoting green buildings, Hong Kong can also develop a new business value chain and foster the demand for various new kinds of technology expertise.

The value chain will involve upstream segments, such as project owners and financiers, environmental consultants, technology vendors, as well as material providers. The downstream sectors will include tenants, occupiers, property management companies and service contractors.

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Experts from Hong Kong Green Building Council, Urban Land Institute, KPMG China and Jones Lang LaSalle say that retro-commissioning, energy audit, green building certification compliance and technology collaboration will be the main areas of cementing a business value chain in Hong Kong.

The new business value chain spells implications for future talent requirements. Environmental and mechanical engineering expertise, such as thermal dynamics and fluid engineering, digital capability in computer science, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) knowledge, are deemed to be the new skillsets for a green building professional of the future.

In promoting green building, Hong Kong can rely on the niche of its position in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Shenzhen is very strong in applying new technologies in the operation and management of buildings. But Hong Kong got the real-estate expertise in building investment and management. Hong Kong has many technology startups, but lacks the scale of technology companies Shenzhen has. That would be the great opportunity for both cities to work together.

In addition, energy audits can be conducted in many new buildings across the Bay Area. The region also has more space to produce modules and conduct quality tests on them, as required in modular integrated construction industry.

Experts from Urban Land Institute caution that Hong Kong has been fairly late in green building technology while other cities are already ahead, particularly places like Singapore and European cities. As a laboratory of a compact high-density city, Hong Kong ought to be a market leader in green building technology. 

The SAR will spend HK$240 billion in the next two decades in various initiatives to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This provides the backdrop of accelerating green building technology investment in the future. 

Hong Kong is late in the game of green building technology. But with its proximity to the Bay Area and the anticipated procurement of green investment by the government, Hong Kong may catch up in this game.

Oswald Chan is a veteran business journalist and joined China Daily as a senior business news reporter in 2010. He covers various issues pertinent to the development of Hong Kong economy. He can be reached at oswald@chinadailyhk.com .

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