Environmental Efforts

In line with the Government’s environmental goals, the department takes environmental considerations into account from project inception to management and operation, with the aim of minimising pollution, conserving resources, protecting the natural environment and promoting the appreciation of the beauty of our environment.

LCSD is committed to:

• Promoting greening and horticulture;
• Preserving assets of our heritage;
• Providing aesthetically pleasing open spaces;
• Practising waste reduction and energy saving; and
• Minimising air and noise pollution when organising leisure and cultural activities.

The planting of flowering species of trees is a good way of beautifying the urban environment.

We follow the above environmental policies when planning new facilities and maintaining existing ones. We adopt energy-saving building service installations and environmentally-friendly materials. We use high-efficiency lighting systems as far as possible. Wherever feasible, we have minimised the duration of artificial lighting at our venues. In summer, we generally maintain the Government’s 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 due to essential operational or customer service considerations, we work with the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) to keep the temperature as close to 25.5°C as practicable.

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;

Pupils in an exhibition on green school projects held under the Greening School Subsidy Scheme.

• Organising public lectures, exhibitions and publicity programmes to raise public awareness about environmental issues and 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 at our Sha Tin headquarters;
• Taking part in the Earth Hour 2014 lights-out campaign in March 2014, organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature;
• Switching off lights on external walls and in outdoor areas of our venues, unless they are needed for operational and safety/security reasons;
• Gradually replacing more conventional departmental vehicles with environmentally-friendly vehicles;
• Installing photovoltaic lighting 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 circulating green tips on saving paper, conserving energy and reducing waste in offices and at events and meetings;
• Promoting greater use of green products such as food waste compost and animal waste compost, and recycling yard waste as soil conditioner for planted areas;
• Reducing yard waste by planting more flowering perennial/woody shrubs instead of seasonal annuals as part of our greening projects;
• Engaging contractors to recycle magazines, newspapers, waste paper and printer cartridges;
• Encouraging waste reduction as well as the recycling of waste paper, metals and plastics through poster promotions, and by installing 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 email;
• Recycling exhibition materials at museums and the Hong Kong Film Archive, and placing collection boxes for used guide maps and pamphlets;
• Publicising programmes and collecting feedback electronically at performing arts venues and programming offices;
• Cutting down on printed material by tightly monitoring its distribution, and by recycling unused flyers and programme guides;
• Reducing the distribution of reusable shopping bags when organising events and activities; and
• Conducting an annual performance review to monitor the adoption of green measures and waste reduction practices by individual sections/offices.

In January 2015, the department issued its 14th Environmental Report, which describes our green management practices and activities in greater detail.