The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
 
     Dedicated to promoting a sustainable built environment for public housing developments, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) has recently received the highest honour in the Green Building Leadership category under the Green Building Awards 2016.
 
     "The HA has been sparing no effort in advocating green building policy and promoting green initiatives with an aim to facilitating sustainable and healthy living in the community. While adopting functional and cost-effective approaches in the planning, design, construction and management of public housing projects, the HA also promotes healthy living and green building works with stakeholders," an HA spokesman said.
 
     "We have implemented various groundbreaking design strategies and principles for public housing developments such as carbon emission estimation and microclimate studies. New public housing projects are planned with a green ratio of at least 20 per cent. Moreover, sustainability features such as recycled materials, energy saving measures and water saving initiatives are also incorporated in the construction stage," he added.
 
     Green Building Leadership is a brand new category of the Green Building Awards to recognise pioneering organisations in contributing to a sustainable built environment.
 
     Apart from the Grand Award in the Category of Green Building Leadership, the HA's project Hung Fuk Estate Public Rental Housing Development at Hung Shui Kiu Area 13 also won the Grand Award in the New Buildings Category (Completed Projects - Residential Building), while "Concrete Innovation - Application Research for Carbon Footprint Reduction" and "Research and Development of 2nd Generation Acoustic Balcony" were both awarded the Merit Award in the Research & Planning Category.
 
     The Green Building Award is a prestigious award recognised by the industry and has been held biennially since 2006. It is co-organised by the Hong Kong Green Building Council and the Professional Green Building Council with the objective of acknowledging building-related projects and organisations with outstanding performance and contributions in sustainability.

Ends/Monday, January 30, 2017
Issued at HKT 15:00

NNNN