HONG KONG – If you have happened to be at the Hong Kong port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, have you noticed that the passenger clearance building concourse is lit by bright natural sunlight, not bulbs? The roof, a delicate composition of shadowing ceiling and skylights, allows natural light to enter the building while reducing heat gain. Coupled with daylight sensors, they significantly reduce the power consumption of daytime lighting of the building.

The design and other green facilities have earned the building the highest Final Platinum certification for “high-performance green” from the Hong Kong Green Building Council, a public body dedicated to promoting sustainable building developments in the special administrative region.  

“Green building” refers to buildings that are designed, constructed and operated in ways that save more energy and reduce emission. The promotion of such buildings topped the city’s environment protection agenda as people found buildings account for about 90 percent of the city's electricity usage. Electricity generation meanwhile is responsible for two-thirds of Hong Kong’s carbon emissions.

Greener buildings play a role like real trees. If it could help save 1 kWh each day, that would reduce 250 kg of carbon emissions a year – equivalent to 1,000 trees in work to absorb the primary greenhouse gas.

To achieve the goal, Hong Kong requires real estate developers to control the Overall Thermal Transfer Value of the building envelope to limit solar heat gain in the Buildings Regulation (Energy Efficiency) Regulation. This means that the foundation, roof, walls, doors and windows must be somehow insulated to retard the heat gain or loss inside the building – so that the indoor environment keeps it cool without the need to crank up the air-conditioners.

During an interview last December, Hong Kong architect Leung Shun-ting told me while such regulation has posed challenges and even limits to designs, she thought it’s worth complying with to reduce carbon emission. Hong Kong should have more minimum requirements in place to ensure energy efficiency of the buildings or more incentives, she suggested.

According to a 2017 report for the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors-funded Research Project, the biggest problem here is the cost. Green building projects averagely cost about one-third higher than conventional building projects. The extra costs are generated by additional fees of site acquisition, design, maintenance and operation.

Shenzhen has been aware of a similar issue. In a drafted regulation released in February, Shenzhen’s legislature noted that “the lack of intrinsic dynamic to develop green buildings has limited the city’s high-quality development”.

With this in mind, the draft regulation proposed to mobilize multiple instruments and policies in addition to the conventional subsidies, so that stakeholders at all stages of construction, renovation, acquisition and operation can benefit from their green buildings.


For example, it is proposed that green buildings that meet certain criteria could launch pre-sale after completing more than a third of the main structure. Typically, commercial housing can only be pre-sold after having installed the final piece, usually the roof, of the structure.

On the consumer's side, buyers can apply for more loans from the Housing Provident Fund for green building purchases, the draft suggested.

With more energy-efficient buildings, Hong Kong will be one step closer to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 as committed in last year’s Policy Address. While the city accounts for only 0.4 percent of the country’s total carbon emissions, its contribution still counts for China’s ambitious efforts of carbon reduction.

Chen Zimo joined China Daily Hong Kong in 2018 as a reporter and covers politics and society. She holds a master degree in journalism and is interested in environmental protection and youth development in Hong Kong and mainland. She can be reached at mollychen@chinadailyhk.com .