Environmental Efforts

In line with the Government’s environmental goals, the department takes environmental considerations into account, from project inception to management/operation to minimise pollution, conserve resources, protect the natural environment and promote the appreciation of the beauty of our environment.

The LCSD is committed to:

• •Promoting greening and horticulture,
• •Preserving assets of our heritage,
• •Providing aesthetically pleasing open space,
• •Practising waste reduction and energy saving, and

• •Minimising air and noise pollution in organising leisure and cultural activities.

We follow the above environmental policies when planning new facilities and maintaining existing ones. We promote energy-saving building service installations and environmentally-friendly materials. We use high-efficiency lighting systems as much as possible. Wherever feasible, we have minimised the duration of lighting at our venues. In summer, we generally maintain the government recommended office room temperature of 25.5°C. At places such as museums, sports centres and performing arts venues where we cannot strictly maintain this temperature because of essential operational or customer service factors, we work with the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) to keep the temperature as close to 25.5°C as practicable.

Other major environmental efforts over the year included:

• •Upgrading existing landscape areas and planting more trees and shrubs,
• •Running community greening activities, such as the Hong Kong Flower Show, the Community Planting Day, the Green Volunteer Scheme and the Greening School Subsidy Scheme,

• •Organising public education and publicity programmes to promote heritage conservation,
• •Saving water by planting drought-tolerant species in suitable locations, using less water for water features in major parks, and installing water efficient fittings and salt water flushing at various facilities,
• •Conducting energy audits and energy-saving improvement works where practicable, in collaboration with the EMSD and the Architectural Services Department,
• •Adjusting lighting operating hours at our venues where reasonable, and installing occupancy sensors to control lighting at a number of leisure venues and in our Sha Tin headquarters,
• •Taking part in the Earth Hour 2012 lights-out campaign, organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature in March 2012,
• •Switching off lights on external walls and in outdoor areas of our venues, unless they are needed for operational and safety/security reasons,
• •Encouraging colleagues to support Hong Kong No Air Con Night organised by Green Sense and to turn off air-conditioners at home for 12 hours in September 2012,
• •Planning to gradually replace conventional retired departmental vehicles with environmentally-friendly vehicles,
• •Installing photovoltaic systems at the Hong Kong Science Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence and the Hong Kong Museum of Art,
• •Widely promoting good environmental practices and publicising green tips on conserving energy and reducing waste in offices and at events and meetings,
• •Promoting greater use of green products and recycled paper,
• •Engaging contractors to recycle magazines, newspapers, waste paper and printer cartridges,
• •Encouraging waste reduction as well as recycling of waste paper, metals and plastics through poster promotions and by placing more waste separation bins at our venues,
• •Recycling paper and unserviceable library materials, and reducing paper by giving users the option of receiving overdue and reservation notices by e-mail,
• •Recycling exhibition materials at museums and the Hong Kong Film Archive, and placing collection boxes for used guide maps and pamphlets discarded by patrons,
• •Publicising programmes and collecting feedback electronically at performing arts venues and programming offices,
• •Cutting down on printed material by tightly monitoring distribution, and by recycling unused flyers and programme guides,
• •Reducing the use of plastic shopping bags, and
• •Conducting an annual performance review to monitor the adoption of green measures and waste reduction practices by individual sections/offices.

In January 2013, the department issued its 12th Environmental Report, describing our green management practices and activities in greater detail.