The Khaleej Times is covering the blaze of the 49 story Abbco Tower in Sharjah, UAE, it comprises 36 levels of residential accommodation and 20 levels of parking, the Khaleej Times newspaper reports. Here is the link:

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/sharjah/massive-blaze-guts-sharjah-high-rise-tower

On that webpage, video recorded during the night of fire shows burning debris showered on the streets below, a recognizable pattern of destruction.

Once again, the impossible has occurred, the fire was not contained within one fire compartment, the whole tower was gutted in less than 3 hours.

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http://www.kelcroft.com.hk/20190709-news-fire-safety.htm

Government’s across the planet have amazing hindsight, AFTER a major disaster has occurred, after lives have been lost, then months of wrangling ensure to update the building codes or governing regulations, that price is too high in my view.

Well, it seems I have to wait, I have to wait for the news media to report a disastrous number of unnecessary deaths before Governmental hindsight kicks into action.

In the United Kingdom, you might have heard about the Grenfell Tower fire disaster, more than 70 people tragically died, and they had better fire doors than the door in photo recorded in April 2020.

How does this happen is a developed economy, it is a result of Hong Kong’s laissez-faire mantra, passing every possible responsibility to anyone except government, individuals, or private companies, with little, if any oversight.

For building fire safety that means the owner (or hired corporation) is wholly responsible for compliance with the regulations covering fire safety, since nobody checks residential buildings, there is no incentive to comply.

Org Chart

Passive fire safety measures (materials and fire escape routes) are governed by the HKSAR Development Bureau, and its subordinate Building Department (BD), essentially they cover the construction code and regulations, and they conduct site checks before allowing a new building to open.

Active fire safety measures (fire alarms, hose reels, sprinklers, etc) are governed by the HKSAR Security Bureau, and its subordinate Fire Services Department (FSD), essentially they cover code and regulations for the active systems, they conduct site checks before opening a new building, reporting the result to BD.

Why Residential Sprinklers

Fire sprinklers buy time, precious time. In the absence of any immediate occupants to raise the fire alarm, modern sprinklers when activated by fire automatically sound the fire alarm, but more importantly, they immediately put water on the fire.

That immediate water slows the progress allowing time for people to escape, it helps control the smoke and while the water is full, keeps putting water on the fire while the fire bridge are travelling to the site. Often a fire sprinkler system can prevent a fire from becoming a disaster while waiting for the firefighters to tackle the blaze.

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An outbreak of Legionnaires Disease is occurring in Hong Kong …. READ MORE

If the Government had tightly regulated waste, more businesses would have embraced that model, and I am willing to bet that the Plastic Sea films and videos wouldn’t exist today. Alas its too late now.

Then The Body Shop dropped the whole eco-friendly model, it changed to selling products in single-use plastic containers, the same as every other store.

So what is the point, you’re thinking, it seems that the refillable container concept is making a comeback. We even have an ecostore in Hong Kong with refill station!

I also read that a new type of store opened in Birmingham (UK), the Cleankilo, it is taking the concept farther than cosmetics, it is an entire supermarket, with a range of products following the refillable concept, it is worth visiting their website https://www.thecleankilo.co.uk/

I have said it a million times, and it bears repeating Prevention is better than the cure.

Preventing companies from creating plastic waste, and preventing consumers (that’s you and me) from dumping plastic waste avoids bits of plastic in the ocean and in fish and chips supper will be plastic-free too.

It is far cheaper to prevent pollution than paying the environmental and social costs for cleaning up afterward.

Using single-use plastic water bottles, on the stage, visually demonstrates Hong Kong’s Chinese Universities’ environmental policy or lack thereof.

Yes, that’s right, they are willing to fund Capital investment in Hong Kong buildings, each fund is capped, depending on the exact project details.

http://www.kelcroft.com.hk/clp-energy-power-fund.htm

These funds can be used to replace or upgrade the existing lifts, escalators, water pumps, air conditioning, and lighting in the common areas of residential and commercial buildings.

It is a no brainer, a part of the capital cost is provided as a rebate to the building owner/management after the work is completed, then tenants enjoy a capital cost savings and lower energy bills going forward.

The scheme documentation is somewhat obtuse (HEC smart power fund) and (CLP Eco building fund) require the building owner/management to hire Registered Energy Assessor (REA) to submit the energy saving calculations for “committee” review, but there is no obvious energy-saving target, would 2% PA energy-saving qualify or do they require 10% energy saving? its unclear. In addition, the HEC website also offers opportunities to obtain a loan too!

http://www.kelcroft.com.hk/hke-energy-power-fund.htm

Greening Existing Buildings

Improving the energy efficiency of the existing building stock is a priority, excluding government buildings, there are approx. 42,000 buildings in Hong Kong that desperately need energy efficiency improvement.

These funds subsidise part of the capital cost (CapEx) and simultaneously lowering the long term energy bills and lower operating expenses (OPex) for tenant/owner of the building.

These funds do not subsidise the whole capital cost, only a part of it, but that’s better than no subsidy.

sponsored by :
http://www.kelcroft.com.hk/hke-energy-power-fund.htm

the latest version of the EMSD building energy code BEC 2018 came into effect in May 2019 with margin improvements over the 2015 version, here is a summary comparison http://www.kelcroft.com.hk/energy-rea-bec-2015vs2018.htm

Yes, it does have tougher criteria but at the end of the day it’s still just a list of technical requirements, if you own the best chiller in the world, but operate it badly, it will still comply with the building energy code. read my latest energy audit PPT

sponsored by KCE

The above photo shows a Hong Kong shopping mall on 7 July 2019 with a large plastic bottle recycling vending machine on the right and smaller containers for collection and recycling on the left.

But compare that with Shanghai, China, where a compulsory separation of waste law commenced on 1 July 2019, essentially requiring residents to separate all domestic waste, with fines for non-compliance [SCMP report]. At least initially it’s apparent that this new regulation will be rigidly enforced, and that could be just enough for behavior change and changing habits.

Although it does mean, that once again, Hong Kong finds itself lagging behind.

sponsored by sustainable design consultant

In Hong Kong, the conservative water authority (WSD) started issuing bulletin after bulletin, but ultimately missing the point I fear. After completion, WSD will never willingly step inside the estate, as they often remind us, their responsibility ends at the site boundary. And inside the boundary, yes the works must comply with the regulations, but its down to the developer. So back to Public Housing, the flat is handed over to the new tenant, with what can only be described as bog-standard fittings, and a visit to the local hardware store is in order, to buy new taps and fittings, and without any import restrictions, every type and model is on display whether certified or not.

With years of experience behind us, have we learnt from the past, not really, the difference is that even your kids know it. Young adults globally have been vocal expressing alarm unhappy with the administrator’s response to climate change. And recent warnings that we have 10-12 years left has not shaken the establishment.

Certainly, some countries are moving forward, but remember the hole in the ozone layer, it needed everyone to be involved, and fully committed, but here are, mid-2019, and there is still no plan. In the United Kingdom authorities are under pressure to recognize the issue and declare a state of emergency, but really that does not help, in a world where China and USA are not on-board. The people, it seems are seriously concerned about sustainability, but not their politicians. Therefore businesses react to the loudest consumers, with often token efforts. the Plastic tonnage in your oceans will not be impacted because a few plastic straws were taken off the counter, look at the scale of plastic pollution and it becomes apparent. Government inaction has also sparked communities to act, with city mayors trying to coordinate their efforts to tackle to climate change, and has that delivered deep carbon emission cuts required? Probably not.

In Hong Kong, the carbon emissions from buildings continue to increase, the latest EMSD data (latest data is 2016) reported building carbon emissions are still increasing, that was caused by us, you and me, using more energy, not the Government. Equally, it’s unsurprising, every year the number of buildings increases, using more energy.

Do nothing and wait is one strategy, waiting for the authorities to finally bite the bullet, create a plan, and implement it might be the ideal, but by then maybe too little too late.

sponsored by commissioning consultant

The Energy audit results provide a data set showing energy use for hong kong buildings, and the flaws in the system.

The data contains a mix of different building types, including commerial buildings, car park buildings, and combinations, which skews the results, and hiding the real EUI. 

sponsored by E&M consultant

Above: water tanks need to be kept clean

In Hong Kong, within the site or lot boundary, the responsibility for the water service, water piping and water tanks falls on the developer (who may no longer exist), the Incorporated Owners Corporate (who may not exist) or Building Owner, Yet on 3-12-2018 (Monday) the body of a female was found in the water tank of a residential Mandarin Court building, Ho Man TIn RTHK reports.

Who has access to your water tanks?

sponsored by water management consultant

World Meteorological Office is reporting that the last four years are among hottest on record, not good news, but it gets worse, its reported that Carbon Dioxide levels have increased for the first time in the last four years.

Given the whole planet needs to co-operate, it seems the climate change framework is failing, it’s failing to deliver the necessary management, with some climate scientists now saying the target, to limit the impact to 2 degrees, is already surpassed. One of the core problems is that we are only human, and very easily distracted. News from the UK seems obsessed with Brexit, so UK and EU will be tied up for years working out that, we have tension between Ukraine and Russia, we have oceans full of plastic, We have the  USA backing away from climate science, we have the UN environmental head resigned after he spent USD 500,000 on air travel & hotels, etc. etc.

In the meantime, carbon emissions are still rising, the UN’s emission gap report shows some countries, for example, China seems to be have planned carbon reductions on target, whilst other countries like the UK are falling short.

We have the skill and technologies to lower energy consumption and thereby lower emissions, and at the same time we have Governments targeting growth as the key metric, and as GDP rises so do emissions.

Sources

• http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1430850-20181129.htm
• https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46374141
• https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46347453
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/20/un-environment-chief-erik-solheim-resigns-flying-revelations
• https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2018

sponsored by built environment consultant

So to get around this problem, Hong Kong Public Housing flats are provided with a very basic type of water tap, to gain the necessary government approvals. Then when the tenants take over the property, and many new tenants immediately pay for replacing taps and fixtures with more stylish models.

This wasteful practice is not limited to public housing projects. Some Interiors designers will choose exotic water fixtures, including taps, showers, washbasins, and toilets that have not undergone the WSD approved the process, therefore brand new “temporary” taps and basic white basins are installed until receipt of WSD approval.

Then after WSD approval, the new washbasins are ripped out, replaced with exotic basins and taps specified. Its no secret, the industry is well-aware, yet this incredibly wasteful practice persists.

sponsored by hong kong energy consultant

Recycling glass is a no-brainer, it’s not quite reversible, broken glass, known as culet is used for making glass, and paving blocks. HK government is trying to apply a levy to encourage recycling but the detail, as RTHK reports, is still under debate in LEGCO RTHK LINK

Bottles including milk and beer bottles were collected, cleaned, and re-used, 300 ml beer bottles in Europe are designed to be re-used 50 times, not 5 times as the HK government states.

Reuse is the sustainable solution, therefore should be incentivized, a solution in the UK for aggregate – to encourage the use of recycled aggregate is purely financial, the recycled aggregate is cheaper. Financial tools are simple, with a proven track record in Hong Kong, simply tip the balance in favour of recycled materials.

Of course, industry lobbyists scream it will never work! But look at the UK sugar tax, almost overnight products appeared with significantly less sugar.

In Hong Kong the insignifcant and marginal extra charge to pay for plastic shopping bags changed the whole concept and demand within a week when supermarket reported the reduced use of plastic bags for shopping.

sponsored by sustainable design consultant

Lead (Pb) 10 times higher than WHO standard has been identified in the water supply of a unit in the brand new Kwai Tsui public housing estate in Kwai Fong. Two other units were found slightly over the WHO limit. So it seems a repeat of the 2015 lead in water scandal is on the cards.

MTR Express rail station may open with leaky roof RTHK LINK

The leaking roof of the MTR express rail building can’t be fixed before it opens, so take your umbrella.

Hong Kong’s Highways Department admits there were water leakage problems with building at mega bridge but says they have been fixed SCMP LINK

Apparently, the vital electrical switchgear is located in the basement of the new Passenger Clearance Building (PCB) on the HongKong/Zhuhai/Macau bridge project. If the artificial island floods, or a water pipe breaks, water will inevitably fill the electrical equipment in the basement. #resilence 

Lawmakers urge govt to explain arts hub payments RTHK LINK

Apparently, the Ming Pao newspaper reported that the Hong Kong Government, aka the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, is directly paying 14 sub-contractors working at the West Kowloon M+ visual culture museum. And I hear you say, wait a minute, isn’t that exactly the job the Management Contractor to paid to do. Indeed.

Lead in Drinking Water Update:

• 19-7-2018 – WSD is dispatching Water trucks to the news Kwai Tsui public housing estate in Kwai Fong on Thursday 19-7-2018, due to concerns over the reports of possible lead content. The key point it’s another new estate, only opened in April 2018 [RTHK]

sponsored by BEAM green building consultant

An online survey by SCMP tells the whole story, we don’t believe you, we don’t believe those flashy slogans corporations are selling. It’s part of the endless assault, trying to persuade us that corporations, particularly large corporations are great and green.

82% (so far) believe corporate sustainability is just a slogan, that’s a shocking indictment of Hong Kong’s corporates in the sustainability stakes. But why? Perhaps there is a simple answer, the Hong Kong public are not so gullible, they do not believe the hype, or those glossy awards, from the trenches we see the real world every day.

We see and believe, and all the hype, is just hype.

#redefiningHK #sustainability #dontbelieveyou

sponsored by green building consultant

• A bottled drinking water study found plastic pieces in nearly all the samples, it gets worse, there is no standard, it was widely reported in the media. So the plastic content in your healthy drinking water has never been checked.
• Water Resistant sunscreen isn’t reports the BBC citing a study by Which? found water-resistant sunscreen wasn’t really water resistant at the seaside, the report explains that manufacturers test for water resistance uses tap water, but tested with seawater gives different results. And you might wonder how is that possible surely it passed Britsh Standard technical committee, it didn’t, its a trade association standard.

Golden Sample

A related testing issue is the so-called Golden Sample. If you make and sell an electrical cabling, compliant with a certain BS standard, the manufacturer submits samples to a testing laboratory to obtain an official test report. And that test report is used to demonstrate to potential buyers that the cabling is compliant with that particular standard.

It is argued that the manufacturer sends their best quality cable for testing, not the typical cabling from the production line.

And typically there is no requirement for expensive periodic re-testing, so that test golden test report might be 10 years old and might not reflect the current production methods or be from the same factory.

Shortcuts

To me, these examples mean that society doth trust too much or perhaps it’s just me.

I guessed those firms producing drinks and skin products had followed a list of rigorous standards, whether ISO or British Standard variety, before a water bottle left the factory or sunscreen hit the shelf. Now that illusion is truly shattered.

I wonder what other products escape testing because no “Standard” exists. As designers become more innovative who will be checking? We should all be more careful.

sponsored by building commissioning consultant

A local study demonstrated that a popular local fish have been found having ingested plastic (RTHK) the study reports 60% of flat head grey mullet had ingested plastic. Granted it was a small study, but that does necessarily mean the results can be ignored.

Even bottled drinking water, often sold on the basis of “safer” water is under scrutiny revealing it is not just fish enjoying plastic diet. A study found plastic in the majority of bottled drinking water (BBC report), to which, the manufacturers responded there is no standard, implying measurement, monitoring, controlling or limiting the quantity of plastic in drinking water is not needed.

It’s a problem, standards are created retrospectively, we can’t create a new Standard for products that do not yet exist, in the case of bottled drinking water nobody, and that really means Govt., has been watching the store.

Abroad, some countries have started, somewhat belatedly, to act, and that will impact the thousands of manufacturers involved in the plastics business. In the UK outright bans are threatened for certain plastic products, an attempt to prevent further damage, but no word how the existing pollution in the environment will be removed from the oceans. 

What is interesting, the key motivator has not been the so called green groups, the reporting in the mainstream media has been instrumental, and highlighted these environmental issues, with shocking photos and videos circulated through social media. Justin Hoffman’s photo below is a good example (link to his website https://www.justin-hofman.com)

View this post on Instagram

It’s a photo that I wish didn’t exist but now that it does I want everyone to see it. What started as an opportunity to photograph a cute little sea horse turned into one of frustration and sadness as the incoming tide brought with it countless pieces of trash and sewage. This sea horse drifts long with the trash day in and day out as it rides the currents that flow along the Indonesian archipelago. This photo serves as an allegory for the current and future state of our oceans. What sort of future are we creating? How can your actions shape our planet?
.
thanks to @eyosexpeditions for getting me there and to @nhm_wpy and @sea_legacy for getting this photo in front of as many eyes as possible. Go to @sea_legacy to see how you can make a difference. . #plastic #seahorse #wpy53 #wildlifephotography #conservation @nhm_wpy @noaadebris #switchthestick

A post shared by Justin Hofman (@justinhofman) on Sep 12, 2017 at 8:28am PDT

Penguin Plastic Island from youtube video

It’s a new era, striking video and images, that have been circulated widely and easily through social media have motivated the public, in turn, pressured politicians into action.

On 18 April 2018, the UK Govt. announced its intention to ban plastic straws, plastic stirrers, and cotton buds using plastic, the latter because of the seahorse image, we might never know. 

Banning single-use plastic is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, and avoids difficult waste management questions, how did that drinking straw or cotton bud leap from the consumer into the ocean. We know there are islands of floating garbage in worlds ocean, has seafill taken over the role of landfill? 

A shocking example must be the 2017 Floating Trash ‘Island’ Spotted in the Caribbean Sea Near Roatan #seafill (there is a video on youtube (https://youtu.be/GSMGKwZBaWM) Caroline Power’s video and images shocked the world showing the floating rubbish stretching for miles in the once pristine Caribbean waters (Telegraph article). Was this island of waste washed from the Caribbean land islands or seafill?

Floating Trash ‘Island’ Spotted in the Caribbean Sea Near Roatan Credit: Caroline Power and Caroline Power Photography #seafill

Of course, it’s on Facebook too, if you can bear it view more images https://www.facebook.com/carolinepowerphotography

Sadly, the fact remains, you have to admit we did it, and the damage is already done, the UK Govt. estimate there are 150 million tonnes of plastic waste already in the world’s oceans, the UK’s ban on microbeads, single-use plastics today may help slow the disaster, but its not a cure.

We have unwitting replaced landfill with seafill 

#seafill #plastic

sponsored by troubleshooting HVAC systems

Hong Kong utilities will be paying you for renewable energy (RE) electricity supplied to the grid, the a new feed-in tariff offers RE system owners HK$5 / kwh for small systems (upto 10 kw) , HK$4 / kwh for medium size systems (upto 200 kw) , and HK$3 / kwh for large installations (upto 1 Mw),

And could be attractive compared to the present electricity tariff , approx HK$ 1 / kwh on Kowloon side, and HK$ 1.3 / kwh on Hong Kong Island.

Under this scheme, ALL the power generated from the RE system must be fed into the grid, it’s not for self-use, that means the owner will have two utility accounts, a traditional account for paying electricity used, and this new RE account for the RE installation and any power generated fed into the grid.

It is a u-turn for CLP, its executive director Mr Chow stated in June 2015 ( read SCMP report ) that it was not worth connecting to the utility grid even with a feed in tariff.

sponsored by energy audit consultant

Here is an interesting image, the infrared image of Hong Kong Island promenade, the sum has been shining all day and the path is absorbing the sun’s energy, the walkway is warmer than its surroundings. At night, that stored energy keeps the area warm, warmer than the air temperature, a good example of the urban heat island effect.

Infra-red is accurate and very sensitive, the image even shows the edges of the manhole covers!

It is not too difficult to avoid this problem (remember white reflective roof post) choose a material with a high solar reflectance index (SRI) say 80 or above, that will reduce the energy absorbed.

sponsored by building energy simulation

The principle is very simple, an old product is the raw materials for the new product, but not necessarily the same product. The steel content from old vehicles has been using this model for decades because steel is expensive, it can be recovered, and processed into new products. Even aircraft, trains are all stripped bare to recover that valuable steel or aluminum to make the next product.

Carpet is another more recent example, with growing sustainability concerns, a famous US carpet manufacturer pointed out its source for “new” raw material is already lying on the floor of your office building, very easy to collect the raw material, process into new carpet saving the enormous cost of shipping and handling virgin raw materials, often created from petroleum.  The challenge, like most demolition materials is separation, keeping the material free from contamination during demolition.

In Hong Kong, Laputa (http://www.laputa-eco.com) use waste glass bottles to replace sand in locally made paving blocks, after using the paving blocks they can be crushed and recycled for other uses, call it nearly circular.

However, the biggest advantage in my view is that its local! Shipping heavy paving blocks from EU or elsewhere has a large and an irreversible carbon cost.

At least we have the option, with some other materials, for example, ceramic tiles a common construction material seems irreversible, manufactured close to the source of clay, fired, and shipped all over the world, including into Hong Kong.

But unlike nature’s recycling system, there is no local industry queuing to recover and process broken tile, it’s pretty much irreversible, it is difficult and time-consuming to separate from the parent wall, so tends to be mixed with construction waste, and discarded to overflowing landfills.

It will take effort, a drywall manufacturer moves processing adjacent to a power station, the byproduct of air cleaning is your source of raw material is a feasible, bankable proposal. If you have spare gypsum, perhaps a sideline fertilizer business could develop too, gypsum is used for organic farming. But these type of investments demand long-term, almost institutional type planning, that could be difficult, where the prevailing politics may influence decisions.

I can see some hope, and designers are learning, deliberately focusing on paper, aluminum, and steel, valuable materials already flowing through the economy, and perhaps that is the key to Sustainability, like nature, abhor the irreversible economy.

sponsored by testing and commissioning consultant

Great news from Beijing, China, mark your diary, on 20 March 2017, RTHK (www.rthk.org.hk) reported that “….the last large coal-fired power plant in Beijing has suspended operations, with the city’s electricity now generated by natural gas” LINK: http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1320043-20170319.htm Meanwhile here in Asia’s World city, burning coal for power generation continues.

Electricity is a necessity for Hong Kong’s high-density living, I don’t imagine anyone would live on the 65th floor of a tower block without a lift, we almost take it for granted. However, the business model has to change. Power generation is not an efficient process, most of the fuel energy is lost during generation, transmission, or inefficient usage.

Electricity charges are relevantly speaking cheap, and where the whole cost + profit can be passed over to the tenant there is little financial incentive to drive energy improvements, and this limits our options to pursue cost and carbon reductions, except for the rare case of owner/occupier where the business could simply and significantly improve the bottom line.

And we have to remember also the context, starting in 2000, Hong Kong relieved the water restriction, permitting the installation of cooling towers for air conditioning. Huge savings were promised, with a reduction in greenhouse gas emission by 950,000 tonnes annually [1]. And so far those promised savings have had little impact, from the chart below, since 2000 since the Territories GHG footprint has increased unabated [2] whereas one would expect accumulated recurrent energy and carbon savings.

This is the key point I raised in the EU position paper on the topic [3] in 2016, those cost savings created by switching over to water cool air conditioning (cooling towers) dramatically lowered the energy costs, shopping centres, as an example, could reduce the air conditioning electricity bill by 50%, but few tenants report dramatically lower bills.

The issue is particularly concerning since pollution, as experienced in Beijing in recent years, damages the economy, yet conversely, from boots on the ground energy auditing, I know that the energy improvement “work” to lower costs could be very simple and low cost but only if, and that is a big if, the owner is prepared to pay experts to undertake the necessary analysis.

If you are sick, try asking your Doctor for a fixed price quotation before seeing the patient, it is same for sick buildings, some buildings have fewer energy defects than others, and who can predict ahead of time how much time (and hence fees) will be needed to conduct a thorough exam.

The daily chart above provides spectacular results! Any piece of electric equipment, particularly large air conditioning chiller, switching off and on all day long as discovered in the above chart (technically called it Hunting). It is a map to significant cost savings, lower electricity consumption means lower transmission losses, and power stations burn less fuel, in turn, providing environmental benefit for Society.

There are other challenges too, Hong Kong is a small territory, and technical equipment, such as control valves, are imported. When a failure does occur, there is no local stock, requiring ordering with long lead times. Given the spares difficulty, you might imagine that equipment maintenance would be a high priority. Unfortunately not, deferred maintenance is a common energy audit finding, systems can be kept operating, inefficiently for many months with faulty equipment in place, whilst awaiting approval of the budget.

I have only touched upon the various issues, and one thing is clear, we need a policy framework to help incentivize energy saving where stakeholders and the whole community benefits.

References:
1.http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr02-03/english/panels/ea/papers/ea0722cb1-2231-3-e.pdf
2.http://www.johnherbert.hk/2016/06/26/ghg-inventory-emissions-rising/
3.http://www.eurocham.com.hk/wpcontent/uploads/2016/04/4_EUBIP_EnvironmentEnergy_2016-04-12_screen1.pdf

sponsored by energy expert consultant

by John Herbert

Green Buildings do make a difference.

It has been argued that the public can’t tell the difference between a building and a green building, from the outside all buildings “look” the same. And advocates have argued the improved productivity is the key metric, although measuring that is a really a subjective challenge.

That’s why a piece in The Guardian caught my eye, it tends to support the idea that better buildings, i.e. green buildings, are better for its occupants, and employers, less sick days being one of the claims.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/16/green-buildings-make-you-work-smarter-and-sleep-sounder-study-reveals

It is commonsense in my view, people are more productivity/happy in a good environment, and for work that means buildings having better features than bog standard buildings built for the minimum code.

The typical minimum code only covers the basics, although that is changing, there are few, if any, environmental requirements. Check the fresh air, for example, I have seen commercial building brochures with fresh air provided (enough for 100 occupants) but the floor plan indicates 150 workstation places, the engineers metric, fresh air per person is not mentioned. We have seen this before, during past energy efficiency drives, fresh air was curtailed to such an extent that sick buildings were created, therefore it is critical that HVAC systems are energy efficient and provide the necessary comfort, including sufficient conditioned fresh air. There are great mini split systems that are energy efficient. In Hong Kong with tropical summers heat, most often a simple central PAU (fresh air unit) is the preferred solution, with simple on/off control.

We have seen this before, during past energy efficiency drives, fresh air was curtailed to such an extent that sick buildings were created, therefore it is critical that HVAC systems are energy efficient and provide the necessary comfort, including sufficient conditioned fresh air. In Hong Kong with tropical summers heat, most often a simple central PAU (fresh air unit) is the preferred solution, with simple on/off control. However, this model needs to deliver 100% of the fresh air requirement, even periods of low occupancy.

Considering larger buildings, a larger diversity is predicted, think about hotels, often the central fresh air system is designed to provide 100% fresh air, irrespective of the number of occupants, and where the hotel occupancy fluctuates, say 50% occupancy, there is 50% too much fresh air conditioned and filtered.

So I agree Green Building systems are certainly a step in the right direction, more studies are needed to define and assess those extra intangible benefits, and hopefully, it will include productivity.

sponsored by infrared

by implication the target is the TOTAL power (lighting and control gear).  So what does that mean? for BEC 2015, it means a store room with total power is less than 70w you are not required to comply with the 9w/sqm LPD or the lighting control requirement.

by John Herbert

sponsored by lighting consultant

my screenshot — waiting for AutoCad to load

Testing Autodesk Autocad 2017

Autocad 2017 follows the now annoying and traditional model, frequent incremental updates to extract the most money from users as possible. This latest version, takes longer to load than I can bear, and adds little functionality over the 2000 version, it should be better but sadly it is not.

Sure there are some minor incremental improvements, but nothing to write home about. In my world which is essentially 2D drafting, useful features are now hidden, requiring time consuming research for the 2017 version.

If you are a CAD user you know that screen real estate is important for productivity, the more you can see on the screen, the more you can do without wasting time zooming, right! But the new 2017 out of the box, wastes that real estate with enormous icons across the top of the screen. those are valuable pixels we need for work! there must be some way to switch to text, but research is needed to fix it, and I don’t have the time to go hunting for solutions. To me it proves that Autodesk is not serious, beginners will find the huge icon useful I guess, but I have been using Autocad for more than 20 years, I have my own shortcuts, to suit my work and I bet other users have the same set up, But every time Autodesk issue a new version I have to track down and edit the .pgp file.

Soon 2018 version will be issued, an architect somewhere will use it, forcing the rest of the design team to follow suit. Perhaps it is time to add an extra clause in the fee agreement to cover the cost for these incessant and largely unnecessary upgrades. Autocad block handling has never caught up to users real needs, perhaps by version 2020 they will catch up and understand some BASIC drafting needs, but don’t hold your breath.

GHG inventory emissions rising

Since 2000 Hong Kong installed approximately 9000 (wet) cooling towers according to EMSD, these provide heat rejection for comfort air conditioning, it follows the HKSAR Government policy to reduce energy consumption by 1,360 million kWh, and resultant greenhouse gas emissions by 950,000 tonnes annually[1].

The HKSAR Government must be disappointed, the latest carbon emission data for 2013 [2] released on 22 June 2016, records a total increased  to 44.4 million tonnes CO²E [3]  the highest recorded since 1990, and from the chart electricity and total GHG emissions have rising steadily since 2000, when the policy to permit cooling towers was initiated, it doesn’t add up.

Electricity generation being the largest, accounting for 68.29% of the total GHG inventory.

and that includes the windfall between 2000-2013, from converting air cooled air conditioning systems to water-based cooling towers.

So are we witnessing city-wide rebound effect? The rebound effect postulates that after energy saving features are installed, users waste energy because they know the energy consumption and costs will be lower. For example, switch from 100w incandescent lamp to 8w LED lamp, the energy consumption, and costs will be significantly reduced, now the user knows the running cost will be “cheap” so the 8w LED lamp is operated 24/7.

It seems Government and industry is still seeking that elusive Silver Bullet to tackle energy and GHG reduction, sadly I must inform you there is no silver bullet, the conversion to water based cooling towers has done little to stem climbing energy consumption (as the chart shows) over the last 20 years consumption has increased, a new multifaceted approach is needed.

The core issue, electricity mainly used in buildings, accounts for nearly 70% of the total GHG inventory, the other sectors, transport, agriculture, waste, etc. are insignificant compared to electricity.

Egregious waste, lighting the walkway during a bright summer day is just one of the issues that must be addressed. People are not stupid, when they see the MTR wasting money they learn by example, and rapidly lose interest in energy saving.

References

1. Territory-wide Implementation Study for Water-cooled Air Conditioning Systems in Hong Kong http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr02-03/english/panels/ea/papers/ea0722cb1-2231-3-e.pdf
2. http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201606/22/P201606220616.htm
3. http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/sites/default/files/epd/english/climate_change/files/HKGHG_Sectors_201606.pdf

A reflective white roof is more effective than lawn for greening existing buildings, here is a link to my article published on LinkedIn https://t.co/H8SyyavhHU

The green roof stemmed from a bright idea to help bring the countryside into the city, at first wild meadows were envisaged, a haven for wildlife, perhaps safe nesting for urban birdlife too.

But somewhere along the way, just having green, suddenly became the symbol and then the overriding goal, spawning rafts of neatly trimmed lawns adding little or no biodiversity value. But instead, demanding high maintenance, requiring careful mowing, fertilizer, and water, almost the inverse of the first principle, I don’t count lawns as a green roof, and neither should you.

Calculations provide the evidence, for an air conditioned buildings, a white, reflective roof with high SRI, will save more energy than a regular lawn, using BD ottv data it’s more than 38% better than a lawn, and it does not need trimming or fertilizer!

Trying to do the “right thing” can seem somewhat overwhelming, sustainability has countless facets, we face too many issues where to start? You can’t change the whole world overnight right! One approach that works, pick ONE thing.

Focus on that single issue, overtime it will become second nature, once the habit is formed, then you can tackle the next topic. For me switching from canned shaving foam means the metal can, and propellent gas impacts are averted. Pick one thing!

Reducing Waste Water

by John A. Herbert

The first time you open the hot tap or your shower you have to wait some time for hot water to arrive, during that waiting time the unwanted cold or tepid water is lost to the drain, obviously this occurs because the water inside the water pipe, between the water heater and tap is cold (the deadleg).

To reduce that waste water, the length of dead leg (green) should be as short as possible, for a 22 mm pipe, every linear metre of pipe contains about 0.32 litres of cold water.

In extreme cases the dead leg could be 10 metres in length, that equates to approx. 3.2 litres of waste water every day, or 1168 litres per year wasted.

Now that might not seem to be huge amount of water, but if you multiply that by 3,000,000 households in Hong Kong, you get the idea.

In Hong Kong apartments the length of hot water dead leg pipe is typically quite short because individual water heaters are mainly used, but not always. Presently there is no legislation in Hong Kong governing the maximum length of the hot water dead leg, whereas overseas in United kingdom for example, it is specified.

BSRIA legionella guide 2015

BSRIA has published a FREE Legionella topic guide in PDF format here is the (LINK) to download from the BSRIA website.

In fact I had the pleasure of meeting BSRIA’s Tom Jones during his recent trip to Hong Kong in October 2015.

Mr John A. Herbert (left) and Tom Jones at Eco Expo Asia Hong Kong 2015

BSRIA has also published a topic guide for building air tightness (LINK) to download from the BSRIA website.

by John A. Herbert

This photo nicely demonstrates the position of two water mains underground exposed by construction, the deepest water main is barely 250 mm below grade. Because it is shallow, close to the surface, that means 1) it can be easily damaged, and 2) cold water is not kept cold, due to warm soil temperatures in summer.

by John A. Herbert

The most sustainable option for our buildings would be to make use of existing building stock, we find (thanks to the Hong Kong audit department) a gift – Hong Kong has schools which have been vacated, some vacated for many years, that have not been returned to Government, idle they serve no purpose, but they are an invaluable resource. the work has been done they have been built, they have infrastructure (water/drainage/power) and often very good links to public transport.

Sustainable Thinking Today

These vacant idle buildings can immediately be opened and put to good use, I can imagine several solutions, that could meet societies needs today:

1. Small Business Incubator, think PMQ++ there countless classrooms available, offer low rent office/workshops (lower density than classrooms). Common rooms to be used as collaboration space, think tank spaces, like the common areas at Google. If the school has metal workshop, craftsmen can create, or teach. Learning from PMQ businesses that merely sell imported products and add no value, would be excluded.
2. The Hong Kong Government has created an Innovation fund, but there is little affordable space to innovate, launch appLAB – a building provide low rent space for firms creating software applications (apps), games, etc. a real innovation laboratory for Hong Kong residents. Firms surely face common problems, whether it is business administration, HR, accounting, finance, etc. collaboration areas help and allow sharing ideas and finding solutions to common problems.
3. Schools are often located far from the CBD, and community space is rare, these building can be used with little alteration for yoga, dance, creating a truly community space for drama, the arts, these are necessary.
4. If a building has been abandoned for so long that it needs repair use it as training ground ground have CITA trainees, giving them real world experience.

These would be short term plans, no long leases, this does not need to be lifetime commitment, these existing buildings can be used today! and contribute to society and sustainability, over the short term, because Government will need time to figure out how to deal the land over the long term. Of course, Government being government they will immediately say No, I can imagine the countless excuses, but they might, just might, say Yes.

LINKS

1. 18 Nov 2015 – SCMP article
2. 27 Oct 2015 – Hong Kong Audit dept report

John A. Herbert (left) and Tom Jones at Eco Expo Asia 2015

by John A. Herbert

Left to Right: Mr Simon Cheung (China Dynamics), Ms Linda Ho (Green Council CEO) and John A. Herbert

Considering Hong Kong’s small area, this E-Bus must be killer app for Hong Kong’s urban pollution problems. I understand that many argue against EV’s because the rational is that EV’s merely move the pollution problem from our lungs to the distant electricity generating stations, and they claim that is a problem?

Repeated studies have shown the pollution at street level is often intolerable with excess PM2.5 PM10 and NOX. (nitrogen oxides). However, these power generating stations already have pollution control measures in place, and are discharged far from the lungs of busy pedestrians presently dodging the fumes in Central.

Burning diesel at street level should be a crime nowadays! Now we know, the diesel combustion (petroleum diesel not bio diesel) process the combustion is incomplete, and creates tiny microscopic soot particles, they are so small they are easily inhaled, hence the grave concern over particulates in the PM2.5-10 range. Hong Kong’s EPD in fact publish the monitoring data:
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/data/air_data.html

Screenshot – EPD Pollution Monitoring Data

And the source of those PM2.5 and PM10 particulates? the overwhelming majority are created by diesel engine discharged at lung (street) level. Furthermore, I understand that the E-Bus creators (designed in Hong Kong!) have useful applications in mind for the ‘used’ batteries, to avoid creating another waste problem dealing with spent batteries. I had a tour, inside it looks like every other Hong Kong bus, in fact you would find it hard to distinguish between the diesel  version, except for the tailpipe.

Another sustainability perspective to consider, beside being conceived and designed in Hong Kong, it is manufactured close to home, avoiding the related emissions caused from importing buses from Europe which I understand is the usual practice.

Let us hope it is on the road, here in Hong Kong, sooner rather than later. One of Hong Kong’s key selling points must be the fantastic low cost, public transport system, but can it be improved? Of course, there is always room for improvement, as Paul Zimmerman points out, there are water taxi’s and ferries that would improve connectivity across the harbour, however the Hong Kong public transport system is one that many cities envy.

Hong Kong’s E-Bus was also featured by RTHK 

credit: RTHK

short link: bit.ly/hongkong-ebus

by John A. Herbert

#pollution #hongkong #harbour

by John A. Herbert

Presently the DeGrussa Copper-Gold Mine, located 900km north-east of Perth in Western Australia, uses diesel for power generation, and the company reports outstanding energy and environmental savings will be achieved using the solar farm to generate power, Carbon dioxide emissions are estimated to be reduced by 12,000 tonnes a year.

The project will comprise 34,080 solar panels covering 20 hectares , combined with 6MW of short-term battery storage to provide peak power for the mining operation by being integrated with existing base-load 19MW diesel-fired power station.

1. www.sandfire.com.au
2. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/sandfire-resources-to-build-40m-solar-plant-at-wa-copper-mine/story-e6frg9df-1227442418507
3. http://www.mining-technology.com/news/newssandfire-resources-build-solar-plant-support-degrussa-copper-mine-operation-australia-4623549

Where the people feel their work environment is too hot, too cold, too dry or too wet, productivity drops, and in Hong Kong it is a real issue since most buildings have no winter heating.

A recent survey, by a software company, supports the notion that your workers are dissatisfaction with environmental conditions, and that in turn impacts the productivity of your business.

More detailed than other studies, this survey covers different genders, and different seasons. One finding is stands out immediately the report states 10% of staff are totally dissatisfied.

Whilst this will not be surprising to Building Services engineers who are taught that engineering systems can only satisfy 80% of the occupants in room, It is time to challenge those empirical tests, when we have better options, underfloor distribution, and smart phone computers in our pockets.

However, visit any modern building and you will still find the room sensors in odd positions, often outside the occupied zone, this strategy only provides the general/average room condition (often near the ceiling) not the conditions where the people are working.

Hotel function rooms have sensors located 6m above the occupants, so the HVAC system is working hard to main the conditions for the ceiling zone not the people zone. Also lighting fittings, hand dryers, etc. which act as localized heaters, installed beneath sensors influencing the room conditions.

by John. A. Herbert

Tree root escapes!

Planning escape route

The root of this tree, hemmed in by concrete, has escaped!

The report suggests the link with pollution discharged from Coal fired power plants the predominant means for power generation, although the number of vehicles on the roads is also growing rapidly that in turn creates increased roadside pollution.

Improving energy efficiency reduces energy consumption, energy costs, and will save lives! It is a no brainer, yet many firms will not consider improving energy efficiency.

Links:

1. http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1205026-20150814.htm
2. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/14/air-pollution-in-china-is-killing-4000-people-every-day-a-new-study-finds
3. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-13/china-air-pollution-kills-4-000-people-a-day-researchers

In the past I highlighted Hong Kong’s building water quality issues (here) but my office building is not listed above, I am certain that WSD will revise the criteria after this incident. So far Lead (Pb) contamination of the residents water has been detected in the following sites:

1. Kai Ching Estate, Kowloon City
2. Kwai Luen Estate, Kwai Chung
3. Shui Chuen O Estate, Sha Tin

updated: 17 July 2015

Late yesterday (16 July 2015) WSD published a circular letter no. 1/2015 (Chinese only) online, dated 13 July 2015, it now requires Flats (subject to interpretation) to provide a declaration letter for No Lead in solder, and additional water quality testing parameters in the laboratory report, including:

Lead (Pb)  ≤10 μg/l
Cadmium (Cd)  ≤3 μg/l
Chromium (Cr)  ≤50 μg/l
Nickel (Ni)  ≤70 μg/l

Needless to add that these new requirements only apply to new water meter applications. However, the estimated to be 50,000 renovation projects per year, are not required to conduct any type of water quality test!

For Hong Kong buildings opened before 1995, the standard material for water piping was GI (Galvanised Iron) piping with mechanical screw type GI fittings. GI piping comprises a steel tube (iron) dipped in Zinc to provide a corrosion resistant coating. However, overtime the Zinc coating inside the pipe deteriorates, exposing the underlying steel pipework giving rise to corrosion and poor water quality.

RTHK has been reporting the discovery of LEAD in the water service in the new Kai Ching estate, this has sparked a city wide alert and residents in other housing estates are petitioning government to test their water supplies. In the news, Housing Authority (HA) neatly passed the ownership of the problem to the Contractor, but obviously their quality management is under scrutiny.

In this Housing Authority (HA) estate the bathrooms were prefabricated, including the plumbing works, in China, and the completed pre-fab units shipped and installed within the building, and connected to the core plumbing system installed by the local plumbing contractor.

RTHK reported (link) that water in several residences contained up to 2.3 times the safe amount of Lead recommended by the World Health Organisation (10 µg/l). The Government struggling to handle the case said that all the plumbing systems may be replaced.

Also CHP are investigating a case of Legionnaires Disease (#Legionella) from the same Kai Ching estate (link) with legionella levels of 0.3-300 cfu/ml reported.

Update: SCMP (http://www.scmp.com) it covered the story too (link) unlinkable, the content in case you can’t access it:

Update: 14 July 2015

RTHK has reported that the Government said on Tuesday 14 July 2015 that lead content has been found in water samples taken from five units at from the Kwai Luen Estate at Kwai Chung. (link).

Update: 15 July 2015

The incident has now been promoted to scandal in the local media, the Hong Kong Standard reports that Transport and Housing chief issued apology for mis-stating the number of pre-fab units installed in the Kai Ching Estate (link) it seems now that most of the bathrooms were pre-fabricated.

Also in the Hong Kong Standard (link) reports today (15-7-2015) that:

Lead contamination has been detected in the water supply at two more public housing estates – Kai Luen Estate in Kwai Shing Circuit and Shui Chuen O Estate in Sha Tin. Test samples showed lead levels exceeding WHO recommendations.

We have two issues to consider (1) The quality of materials (and solder) used in the pre-fab units manufactured in China, and the inter-connection to the plumbing system installed by the local plumber, and (2) For Lead contamination in other HA projects, without pre-cast fabrication, past renovation works could be the culprit. Note: In Hong Kong renovation works are governed by WSD, but never inspected.

updated 15th July 2015

WSD published circular letter 2015/1 (Link) on 15th July 2015 on WSD website, but dated 13 July 2015 in Chinese with clarification No Lead (Pb) permitted, and additional water quality testing parameters. Subsequently the English version replaced it, see photo below:

Updated: 16 July 2015

SCMP reported on the frontpage that the Government vows to carry out Lead (Pb) testing of the water in ten (10) more public housing estates.

Updated: 17 July 2015

RTHK ( link ) reported that the Government testing of the piping joint at Kai Ching Housing Estate Hong Kong had 50% Lead (Pb) content  (by mass or volume was not reported) in the solder.

Kai Ching soldering material has 50% lead

 

Two samples of solder used in water pipes at a public housing estate in Kowloon City have been found to contain 50 percent lead. That was revealed by the Housing Director Stanley Ying following a Housing Authority’s meeting to discuss the water contamination scare. The Housing Secretary, Anthony Cheung, said the government will hold the chief contractor of Kai Ching estate accountable for the latest discovery. Professor Cheung has also announced the set-up of a 10-member committee to thoroughly review the work of the authority.

updated: 17 July 2015

The Hong Kong Standard reported on 17 July 2015 that the plumbing contractor at the centre of the Lead (Pb) scandal also recently completed a hospital project in Hong Kong (link).

However, in the report the plumber stated he was not responsible for the material, indeed this is common practice for large projects, the Main Contractor will purchase all materials (thereby avoiding the admin, handling, and profit earned by the sub-contractors) and then engaging sub-contractor(s) to provide the labour only.

Same material likely used in hospital

Amy Nip

Friday, July 17, 2015

 

The plumber singled out by officials in connection with the lead-contaminated water at two estates says the same materials have been used elsewhere including St Paul’s Hospital. Lam Tak-sum, the self-claimed employee of Ho Biu Kee Construction Engineering responsible for plumbing works at Kai Ching and Kwai Luen estates, said he is “90 percent sure” the same materials have been used on other projects. St Paul’s Hospital confirmed Ho Biu Kee was responsible for installing pipes in Block B, which is under construction. Pipes and soldering samples will be collected for checks, a spokesman said, and the builder will test water samples for lead. Hospital services are not affected.

Hong Kong Plumbing and Sanitary Ware Trade Association head Wong Kwok-keung said they have been unable to reach Ho Biu Kee bosses. According to the company registry, Ho Man-piu is the biggest shareholder of the firm. His registered address is in Jiangmen city, Guangdong.

 

As a licensed plumber, Lam said his primary responsibility is to guide the company through procedures set by the government on water works. He filled in all the forms and provided certificates to the authorities. Water samples from the estates were tested and he was given certificates by the authorities to prove work was in accordance with regulations. “I have done what I should. It [the presence of lead in pipe soldering] indicated there may be loopholes in the existing procedures, or that there is a problem with the supplier,” he said. “I am not responsible for the purchase of materials.” He felt wronged to be named by government officials. “The court has yet to rule I am guilty, but they have already made the ruling,” he said. Ho Biu Kee management refused to assist him, he said.

updated: 21 July 2015

The Government has reported excessive lead (Pb) found in one sample from the seven additional estates undergoing testing, and that now Housing estates completed after 2011 will now be included in the testing plan, RTHK reports (link):

The government has expanded its water testing for lead contamination to cover all public housing estates built after 2011. Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung said it will involve a total of 26,000 units from 12 estates. Checks at some public estates earlier this month had shown excessive lead in some drinking water, leading to hundreds of people having blood tests over fears they have been poisoned.

 

Meanwhile, authorities have finished testing samples from seven estates completed in 2013 or afterwards. It found one of the 370 samples contained an excessive amount of lead. The sample comes from a unit from Wing Cheong Estate in Shum Shui Po.

Updated: 21 July 2015

In the Hong Kong Standard (below) the report provides more detail, the sample from Wing Cheong Estate in Shum Shui Po was a Housing Authority area, with 14 microgram/litre reported.

Interestingly, from the health perspective this scandal has revealed that Asia’s World City has limited a very capacity to conduct blood tests, only 300 per week, so thousands of worried residents may have to wait many weeks.

update: 22 July 2015

RTHK reports today (22 July 2015) that the Hong Kong government has released information about the Kai Ching estate residents, forty (40) people, including 27 children, have been identified with excessive levels of Lead (Pb) in their blood (link).

Forty residents of the Kai Ching Estate in Kowloon City have been found to have excessive amounts of lead in their blood.

 

The Health Secretary, Ko Wing-man, said 27 of them are children, and they will be taken to child assessment centres to gauge the impact on their health. The rest of them are lactating mothers.

 

They were among scores of people tested after lead was found to have contaminated some of the estate’s water supplies. Dr Ko stressed the lead levels were not very high, but said the Hospital Authority will adopt a range of follow-up actions.

 

These include expanding blood tests to include children who were under the age of six when they moved into either Kai Ching Estate, Phase 2 of Kwai Chung’s Kwai Luen Estate, or Wing Cheong Estate in Sham Shui Po. Dr Ko said the Hospital Authority will also increase the number of blood taking sessions and will consider buying more blood testing equipment or sending samples to laboratories abroad.

Whether this was caused by water piping, the fittings, the solder, the pre-fab work in China, the faucets, the culprit, is still unclear. Perhap residents should offer (just offer) Kai Ching water to the Government officials, Erin Brockovich style.

Updated: 29 July 2015

Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate is the next Hong Kong housing project to be identified with Lead (Pb) solder [link]. Earlier RTHK reported that Lead (Pb) was stopped in 2005.

Lead found in water pipes of one more estate

 

Lead has been found in the soldering material binding joints in water pipes at Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, officials said. This brings the total number of public housing estates involved in the tainted tap water scare to four.

Latest tests also show that 23 residents from Kai Ching Estate have higher-than-normal levels of blood in their blood. They include 17 children, four breastfeeding mothers, a pregnant woman and a teenager. That’s in addition to the 40 residents that were earlier found to have the same problem.

 

The issue of lead-contaminated water emerged in June, after the Democratic Party showed that tap water samples from Kai Ching Estate in Kai Tak contained amounts of lead that exceeded World Health Organisation standards.

Samples from Kwai Luen Estate in Kwai Chung and Wing Cheong Estate in Sham Shui Po have also been tested and found to contain excessive levels of the heavy metal.

The government has continued investigating to see if more public estates are affected by the problem, and has arranged free blood tests for residents from the affected estates.

Updated: 3 August 2015

RTHK (link) the Lead (Pb) saga rumbles on, it now covers seven housing estates with excessive Lead (Pb) including:

1. Kai Ching Estate, Kowloon City
2. Kwai Luen Estate, Kwai Chung
3. Wing Cheong Estate, Sham Shui Po
4. Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate
5. Tung Wui Estate, Wong Tai Sin
6. Hung Hom Estate, Phase Two
7. Shek Kip Mei Estate, Phase Two

Lead-tainted water found in three more [Hong Kong Housing] estates

 

The government has found that tap-water samples from three more public housing estates contain excessive levels of lead, taking the total number of affected estates to seven.

Twenty-five out of 183 tap water samples from Tung Wui Estate in Wong Tai Sin, Hung Hom Estate Phase Two, and Phase Two of Shek Kip Mei Estate contained excessive lead. The government also said the heavy metal was also found in some soldering material in the plumbing systems of the affected estates.

 

The Housing Secretary, Anthony Cheung, said contingency measures will be put in place to make sure residents have access to safe drinking water. He also said blood tests will also be conducted for high-risk individuals, such as children or pregnant women, who live in the affected estates.

Construction of the three estates was completed between 2011 and 2012. Cheung said the government is still awaiting results on tests for five more estates completed within the same period. He said the authorities will also collect water samples from all public estates built between 2005 and 2010, and hope to finish the testing process within two months.

Updated: 4 August 2015

RTHK website [link] reports the Apple Daily newspaper report – Lead (Pb) contamination 14 milligram/litre was discovered in a private residence ‘The Caldecott’ located in Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong in the management area, and now testing of the resident units will be carried out.

A luxury residential estate in Cheung Sha Wan, the Caldecott, has reportedly found excessive levels of lead in its tap water.

 

According to newspaper Apple Daily, the management company of the estate issued a notice last Thursday, saying a water sample collected from the kitchen of a function room last month was found to contain 19 milligrams of lead per litre — almost double the safety standard of 10 milligrams per litre set by the World Health Organisation.

The management company said that the owners’ corporation is planning to conduct water tests for all of its 44 units, the report said.

updated: 5 August 2015

Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection (CHP) announced that a male living at the Wing Cheong Estate, Sham Shui Po has contracted Legionella (link) — the same estate where excessive Lead (Pb) was discovered. This is the second instance where excessive Lead (Pb) and Legionnaires’s Disease have been uncovered in the same estate.

CHP investigates two sporadic cases of Legionnaires’ disease

 

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health is today (August 4) investigating two sporadic cases of Legionnaires’ disease (LD) affecting two men aged 56 and 65.

 

The first patient is aged 56 with underlying illnesses. He presented with fever, cough, chills and rigors since July 27. He was admitted to United Christian Hospital (UCH) on August 3 for management. The clinical diagnosis is pneumonia and he is in stable condition. His urine sample tested positive for Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen upon laboratory testing by UCH. Initial enquiries revealed that the patient had no recent travel history. He lives in Tsui Ping (South) Estate in Kwun Tong. His home contacts remain asymptomatic. Investigations are proceeding.

 

The second patient is aged 65 with underlying illnesses. He presented with fever, cough, shortness of breath and chest pain since August 1. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Caritas Medical Centre today. His clinical diagnosis is pneumonia with septic shock and he is in critical condition. His urine sample tested positive for Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen upon laboratory testing by Princess Margaret Hospital. Initial enquiries revealed that the patient had no recent travel history. He lives in Wing Cheong Estate in Sham Shui Po. Investigations are proceeding. “We are working with relevant department for epidemiological investigations into the possible source of infection of the individual patient. Relevant water samples and environment swabs will be collected from potential sources for laboratory testing. We have provided health advice on LD to the patient and his family,” a spokesman for the CHP said. “As Legionella bacteria can be widely found in the environment, investigations are ongoing,” the spokesman remarked.

 

These are the 27th and the 28th LD cases reported to the CHP this year. In 2014 and 2013, 41 and 28 cases were recorded respectively. The public may visit the CHP’s LD page (www.chp.gov.hk/en/content/9/24/2117.html) for more information and corresponding preventive advice.

Ends/Tuesday, August 4, 2015

updated: 10 August 2015

Adding to the watergate scandal in Hong Kong, the water quality scare widens with Nickel (Ni) reported by SCMP on 8 August 2015. (link). Interesting that in these cases the Housing Department had conducted a renovation, were the materials used, and fittings WSD approved?

Nickel found in Hong Kong housing estate’s tap water

Four water samples taken from flats in phases one and two of Wah Fu Estate in Pok Fu Lam contained the heavy metal nickel, a skin irritant, at well above the World Health Organisation standard, the Democratic Party said yesterday. 

 

Although the 20 samples taken were all clear of lead and cadmium, the heavy metals found in water samples from several local estates, the party said four had a nickel content above the WHO guidelines of 70 micrograms per litre of water. In the worst case, it was more than three times that level. The party said it suspected the contamination at the four flats developed after refurbishment by the Housing Department, and it was now demanding answers from the department.

 

Nickel may contaminate water through leaching from metals that were in contact with that water, or its presence in groundwater, according to a World Health Organisation report. It said nickel doses in people who developed symptoms ranged from 7 to 35 milligrams per kg of body weight, causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, and shortness of breath. The most common effect of excessive nickel in the body is allergic contact dermatitis, a skin irritation, according to the WHO.  It was not the first time nickel was detected in tap water samples. The party had previously detected excessive nickel in other public housing estates, including Tai Po’s Kwong Fuk Estate.

 

But the Kwong Fuk result was disputed by Tai Po district councillor Peggy Wong Pik-kiu, from the government-friendly Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, who criticised its rival for not retesting the water. She said she had visited the home in question with a plumber and found the filter installed at the water tap was to blame, as it was too dirty and may have affected the testing.

 

So far, tainted water has been discovered at a total of seven public housing estates in a health scare that has gripped the city all summer. Officials have yet to locate the source of the lead contamination.

 

SCMP report

Updated: 14 August 2015

The so called Hong Kong watergate scandal continues to snare more people with RTHK reporting that the Hong Kong Government has reported that two more Hong Kong housing estates (link) also have Lead (Pb) contamination.

Two more housing estates found with lead-water

 

The government has confirmed that two more public housing estates in Kowloon have higher-than-acceptable levels of lead in their water supplies, bringing the total number of affected estates to ten.

 

Nineteen out of 135 tap water samples from phase two and four of Un Chau Estate in Cheung Sha Wan, and 13 out of 90 samples from Choi Fook Estate in Kowloon Bay were found to contain more lead than the World Health Organisation’s safety standard. One sample from Un Chau Estate had 14 times the WHO’s safety margin. However, Dr Regina Ching from the Centre for Health Protection said although the administration is concerned about the high levels of lead found, the actual health impact to residents depends on how much water they have consumed.

 

The government said follow-up measures will be adopted to make sure residents in the affected estates have access to safe drinking water. Meanwhile, the latest batch of government blood tests on affected residents have found slightly-higher-than-normal lead levels in ten children aged under six. The youngest victim is a one-year-old toddler.

updated: 22 August 2015

First Hong Kong public housing, now schools, RTHK reported (link) 21 August 2015, that a school had arranged water quality testing itself, and found Lead (Pb) contamination above the recommended WHO limit. Schools should have been a high priority because Lead (pb) can cause greater damage to infants and children.

Lead found in school’s tap water

 

A primary school in Sham Shiu Po has been found to have an excessive level of lead in its tap water. The SKH St. Thomas’ Primary School said it found the lead after conducting its own tests on water taken from one of its classrooms.

 

The sample was found to contain 43.2 milligrams of lead per litre of water which is three more than the World Health Organization’s safety standard. The school said it has informed the Education Bureau of the result. It also said it will implement mitigating measures, such as installing filters.

 

A spokesman for the bureau said it will maintain close contact with the school. He added the bureau was working with the Centre for Health Protection to compile safety guidelines on drinking water for schools.

 

The Professional Teachers’ Union said it has written to the Secretary for Education, Eddie Ng, criticising his bureau for not doing anything to ensure that tap water in schools was safe. The president of the union, Fung Wai-wah, said the government should conduct territory-wide water tests at all schools. He said priority should be given to schools in public housing estates which were at “high risk” because excessive lead has been found in the tap water at some of them.

 

When reporters later asked Ng whether the government would test tap water in schools, he did not give a direct answer. He only said special task forces have already been set up to deal with the lead contamination crisis

updated: 25 August 2015

Further guidance (http://www.wsd.gov.hk/filemanager/article/en/upload/355/cir0415.pdf) published by WSD today (25 August 2015) the letter states that all copper pipe soldering work requires the permission of WSD under Waterworks ordinance 14 and 15.

updated: 27 August 2015

Thanks to Charles and Cleantuesday.asia  for the link to this piece.

updated: 27 August 2015

Another Hong Kong School has come clean and published Water quality findings, St Francis of Assisi’s Caritas School was reported on 25 August in the unlinkable South China Morning Post with very high levels of Lead (pb), here is their report below.

The report also mentions that low levels, within accepted limits for Lead (Pb), were discovered in five (5) samples fitted with distillers (…no idea what that means either)

Emergency measures at Hong Kong primary school after water fountain recorded 21 times safe limit of lead

 

The lead-in-water scare has spread to another primary school where a sample was found to contain levels of the heavy metal more than 21 times over the safety limit. St Francis of Assisi’s Caritas School on Wai Chi Street, Shek Kip Mei, confirmed that a sample taken from a water fountain in the playground contained 220 micrograms of lead per litre, more than 21 times the World Health Organisation’s safety level of 10 mg/l.

 

Another two samples taken from a canteen contained 25 and 26 mg/l. School head Yiu Fan said she was surprised by the test results and noted that the water fountain was equipped with a filter, which was inspected in May. Two water samples from the general office and a staff room were satisfactory. The school has reported the findings to the Education Bureau and will adopt emergency measures. An inter-departmental meeting on the contamination scare on campuses has been scheduled by the government for today. On August 21, one of six samples taken from St Thomas’ Primary School on Pratas Street, Sham Shui Po, contained 43.2 mg/l of lead, more than four times the WHO’s safety level. The contaminated sample had been collected earlier this month from a tap for washing hands in a first-floor classroom at the campus, which was completed in 2011. Five other samples – in which lead levels were found to be lower than 5mcg/l and within safety limits – were collected from drinking machines located in the staff room, the school office’s pantry, the school hall, the sports ground and the covered playground. The machines were installed with distillers.

updated: 27 August 2015 17:37

RTHK reports today (27 August 2015) that another housing estate has Lead (Pb) contamination Ching Ho Estate in Sheung Shui had ten (10) water samples exceeding WHO standard for Lead (Pb) content.

Another public housing estate has been found to have lead-contaminated drinking water. Ten samples taken from Ching Ho Estate in Sheung Shui contained more than 10 micrograms of lead per litre – above the level considered safe by the World Health Organization.  Four more children were also found with excessive lead levels in their blood. Meanwhile, the Education Bureau has advised schools built in 2005 or after to install filters on their taps as soon as possible. That was despite calls for the government to test the tap water at all public schools in Hong Kong.

Housing Estates with water quality having an excessive Lead (Pb) content in Hong Kong include:

1. Kai Ching Estate, Kowloon City
2. Kwai Luen Estate, Kwai Chung
3. Wing Cheong Estate, Sham Shui Po
4. Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate
5. Tung Wui Estate, Wong Tai Sin
6. Hung Hom Estate, Phase Two
7. Shek Kip Mei Estate, Phase Two
8. ???
9. Un Chau Estate, Cheung Sha Wan
10. Choi Fook Estate, Kowloon Bay
11. Ching Ho Estate, Sheung Shui

Noteworthy also that Education Bureau has advised schools constructed after 2005 to install water filters, although no testing has been conducted. It seems that Government is resigned to discovering Lead (Pb) if tested so has recommended filters. It’s critical for parents since children are highest risk group for Lead (Pb) poisoning due to its impact on development.

RTHK reports that the seventeen kindergartens operated by the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese has decided to install water filters for drinking and cooking purposes:

Diocese to install filters in kindergartens
The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong says it will install water filters at all of its 17 kindergartens after excessive lead was found at two primary schools. The group hopes the installation will be completed by September 1. A member of the Central Management Committee for Diocesan Schools, Liu Mo-yin, said filters will be installed in areas of the schools from where water is used for drinking or cooking purposes. If the installation cannot be completed on schedule, they will consider using bottled water until the filters were installed. Liu said the Diocese will wait for the outcome of a government inter-departmental meeting before deciding what to do at its subsidised primary and secondary schools. As for the three private primary schools it runs, Liu said the Diocese will leave it to the schools to decide their course of action.

Updated: 28 August 2015

Lead (Pb) found in two more schools, and heavy metal found at the government-aided Heep Woh Primary School in Cheung Sha Wan RTHK reports (link) today.

Two more schools have found excessive lead in their drinking water after they conducted tests on their own. The government-aided Heep Woh Primary School in Cheung Sha Wan found the heavy metal in the tap water used by staff members, but not in the drinking fountains for students.

The Diocesan Boys’ School in Mong Kok, a directly-subsidised secondary school, found lead in tap water samples taken from two of its buildings. Both schools said they would install filters or replace the old ones.

The discoveries came a day after the government said it would install filters for all aided and subsidised schools built in or after 2005.

BEC Chairman Mr John Chai presents carbon certificate to John A. Herbert at enviroseries conference on 18 May 2015.

BEAM PLUS projects are showcased in a roving exhibition at different locations around Hong Kong.

Less commonly known is that waste heat can be used in the tropics to drive air conditioning, necessary in large parts of Asia. Low grade heat energy is often dumped into rivers or the sea, instead it can be used to change the concentration of liquid salt, e.g. lithium bromide, creating cold water for comfort cooling.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/01/leftover-industrial-heat-to-warm-swedens-chilly-northern-city

A 60 year male patient attending Hong Kong Baptist Hospital (HKBH) contracted a nosocomial infection, the potentially fatal Legionnaires Disease (LD). After the patient was diagnosed, EMSD sampled from both his home and the hospital. His home was negative, but the hospital water supply tested positive, four samples with Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 (Lp1) with 0.3 to 2.3 colony-forming units per millilitre (cfu/ml) reported. {1}.

Remember the infectious dose for LD is still unknown, but could be as little as 1 cfu based on a case where Legionella was contracted 6 km away from the source.

The HKBH fresh (potable) water tank was reported negative for Lp1. Since the fresh water tank in an ‘occupied’ hospital would typically have a high turnover, a negative result would be expected because there is little risk of stagnant water. Therefore, in this case the root cause must be within the water distribution piping.

Interestedly, three environment swabs, collected from HKBH, also tested positive for Lp1, but as usual no details were reported. We can only speculate these could be swabs from surfaces in and around the shower and toilets areas.

Approximately month after first exposure, around 4 April 2015, it is reported that the EMSD visited the site today, presumably the date of the government press release 5 May 2015 {1} , recommending I quote ‘….disinfection of the relevant water system.’ amongst other measures. The number of patients who may have been exposed to the risk of contracting Legionella during that month is unknown, and attempting to disinfect the water system in a working hospital full of patients will be a challenge. In the report there is no mention of any earlier risk assessment.

This case is particularly troubling because Legionnaires Disease (LD) was contracted in the hospital environment, and it seems from the report that approx. one month lapsed between infection and disinfection.

[1] http://www.chp.gov.hk/en/view_content/39502.html

The administration of New York City, USA has provided environmental leadership banning single use Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) also known as Styrofoam, including loose fill   ‘peanuts’ used for packing, beginning on 1 July 2015, but a concession, a six month grace period, will be granted so the law and fines will be effective from 1 January 2016.

It will save about 30,000 tonnes, normally sent to landfill, which is a staggering saving. Here is the link: http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/016-15/de-blasio-administration-bans-single-use-styrofoam-products-new-york-city-beginning-july-1-2015

Will Hong Kong follow the NYC lead?

Here is a typical construction site, we have had no rain but it is clearly flooded.

Considering the water quality delivered to the tap, it is no wonder that Hong Kong people prefer bottled water, and boil water everyday.

Whilst the quality of our drinking water provided by our water utility (WSD) may reach world class standards, what comes out of the tap is a different matter. Improved plumbing systems, piping, tanks, coupled with mandatory maintenance are required to rebuild the confidence to use the potable water provided, learn more here. In my office the water (see photo above) is very poor indeed, would you drink it? And boiling all that water demands a lot energy, we are looking at approx. 9.28 MW everyday just to boil water.

Typically one main water storage water tank is provided in high rise buildings with thousands of residents. The building owner or operator may opt for a voluntary scheme, operated by WSD, known as the Quality Water Recognition Scheme for Buildings (QWRSB). Of course, that requires interrupting the occupants water service to conduct the necessary maintenance and tank cleansing work.

BEAM Plus Interiors, known locally as BI is the local rating tool for non-domestic, occupied spaces, specifically designed for office and retail premises, hotel rooms and function rooms, restaurants, and educational facilities. The tool has best practice criteria, and upto 100 points can be awarded for compliance.

Points & Awards

BI is a points based system, achieving the specific goals set out in the BI Manual earns more points, it is that easy. Earn 75 points to achieve the top award Platinum!

Free Manual

The BI manual is FREE, visit the BSL website to download your own copy today!

Categories

The BEAM BI manual is sub-divided into different sections known as categories for convenience,  grouping credits with a common theme together, the categories include:

1. Green Building Attributes (GBA)
2. Management (MAN)
3. Materials Aspects (MA)
4. Energy Use (EU)
5. Water Use (WU)
6. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
7. Innovations (IV)

Consensus

Built on local consensus, indeed a lot has changed since the first BI draft, thanks to the contributions of the local community. The draft BI was examined and scrutinised  by 100+ Hong Kong building Professionals from the local institutions, through two workshops, and then followed with a three month long PUBLIC consultation period (April 2013-July 2013). Indeed the process is really one of built-in continuous refinement, the BI manual has a page designed to submit your comments.

Conditions

For projects upto 999 sqm (internal floor area) Applicants should fulfil the following three conditions which are simultaneously met:

(a) the building owner is a charitable organisation/Non-government organisations/Non-profit organisations; (b) the building owner does not receive other sources of fund to cover the expense of that assessment fee; and (c) the building is not built for generating commercial income;

Meanwhile, applicants should demonstrate the following criteria:

1. Help deliver and project a symbolic image and word of mouth of BI.

2. Demonstrate their strong commitment in pursuing green.

3. Have good and established reputation in the market.

4. Go in line with BSL’s mission and vision.

5. Wish to pursue green but suffering and limited to a stringent budget.

6. The project is of high profile capable of attracting the attention of the public

visit www.beamsociety.org.hk for more information

In the event of any dispute, the decision of BSL is final. Don’t delay, contact the BEAM office directly to obtain the application form, apply for BI Fee waiver!

Hong Kong’s garden waste collected and neatly bagged into black plastic bags, what a waste!

We need to spend more time, and money, not less, to properly designing our buildings and landscaping areas. Of course this idea is not limited to green walls, continuous honing and refining is required for buildings too. Here is an example, the BMS (Building Management System) often touted as the saviour for building managers, set and forget.

Yet after the BMS installation in a Hong Kong commercial building, the energy consumption and energy bills actually increased! Yes, it demonstrates that the system was not commissioned correctly, and after the BMS provided the solution, nobody was minding the store, nobody monitored the energy consumption. Often People assume that because the computer is handling it, it must be ok. However, in reality the data shows the operating cost and carbon emissions increased. I don’t need to visit this building to know there are problems, the data shows the problem.

Under BEAM new building, as the building developer you choose the BEAM project boundary, normally it is automatic, the project boundary will be the lot (site) boundary under your control. However, where the new building is located on a larger site, for example on an existing campus, extreme care is required, because the project boundary is fixed and cannot be changed in the future. The building developer needs to plan and designate a realistic project boundary, again, based on the area under 100% control of that project. Randomly shaped project boundaries that don’t follow the lot boundary, or follow the natural terrain, and natural site features, might be problematic. Plan ahead.

It was beautiful weather today, it was hot, so hot in fact that the Hong Kong Observatory promulgated the Very Hot Weather warning, a glorious day indeed for drying your laundry in the sunshine, alas not in Hong Kong. Building and estate managers, for reasons unknown, actively prohibit carbon free laundry drying, stainless prohibition signs litter the site, proclaiming no drying. Perhaps they deem it to be ugly? but enterprising hongkongers hang their duvets, sheets, and bedding just outside the estate officers influence and control. This walkway (photo below) is a good example, just beyond the estate boundary, it doubles as a carbon free clothes drying area, beating the often lousy provisions provided at home and without burning fossil fuel. Is it time for a change of policy?

It is said, you’ll never find an architect visiting their finished project, but sustainable living, demands more time and energy devoted for more thoughtful design not less. Carbon free clothes drying isnt going to spark the revolution, but its a small step in the right direction.

The third edition of Hong Kong’s only Green Building Magazine was just published, click on image to visit HKGBC site, and read the latest green building news.

At the same time the opportunity to use rainwater from the highway directly above is loss because it is piped and needlessly dumped into the common sewer system (Hong Kong has a single sewer and storm water sewerage system), there is a better way!

This is a short TED inspiring talk, planners across Asia need to grasp and embrace before every square metre is covered by a bland concrete desert, compare your typical Hong Kong sitting out area (aka park) which is more like a prison yard surrounded by high fencing, with the new park in Manhattan, NY where the railing is wide enough for your work/lunch space, or the New York hi-line project, and you’ll get the picture.

Spring has arrived, the humidity is increasing and air conditioning and their power consumption start in earnest.

Air conditioning systems rely upon converting electrical energy at the central chiller to chilled water, yet these veins, the chilled pipes are often hidden from view, deep inside the building behind locked plant room doors. The chilled water piping should deliver cold water from the chiller at approximately 7 deg. C to the AHU’s.

However, the photo above is a big problem, the chilled water piping is insulated, covered with vapour barrier, and finished with aluminium cladding. However, condensation is clearly visual and that equates to lost energy. If it not repaired the water wicks along the piping and thermal insulation, causing more condensation, increasingly wasting more energy.

To rectify the wet and damaged thermal insulation needs to be cut back and removed, piping cleaned and insulation replaced, and wrapped with a new vapour barrier, and re-clad. the new vapour barrier is key!! to prevent moist air contacting any surface, including the insulation, having a lower dew point temperature.

Trees can provide excellent solar shading, they are master eco-climate controllers. The natural shading is clearly seen on the exterior wall in the above photo, lowered the direct solar gain, but not diffuse solar gain. Plan ahead. Creating a beneficial micro-climate for a building, particularly near the entrance and or air intakes helping lower the building ventilation cooling load. It is that smart and that simple.

energy efficiency matters, seven million died needlessly in 2012 a result of air pollution (BBC/WHO) and considering the smog in China this year, that figure will surely increase. That figure for me is staggering,particularly when we know that energy efficiency is the fastest, most benign strategy to reduce your fuel use, lower energy costs and prevent pollution. Many of the solutions need only your effort, not huge amounts of capital. Smart organisations have designated person to deal with energy matters every day, sadly many don’t.

Turning off the exterior lighting during the day is another obvious win, the outside lighting in this hotel was operating 24 hours per day, even during a sunny day, during the green building conference!

Another case, electricity must be too cheap, in the photo above, this company leaves the shop front lighting on day and night although the shop is closed, the lights continue to burn. As you know, every watt counts because 100 units of fuel are burnt to give 10 units of work, those huge losses result from generation, heat rejection, continuous conversion (no storage), spinning reserves, kilometres of transmission losses, and transformer losses.

Operating the air conditioning installation efficiently saves money and prevents pollution!  I have identified and corrected countless systems operating poorly at part load, hunting, and cycling causing extra expenses! Also, the central chiller plant was found operating 24/7 even the building was unoccupied at night and weekends, there are countless success stories.

Science 101 – warm air rises so air conditioning controllers pinned to the underside of the suspended ceiling do not experience the same actual condition as the people in the occupied zone! Little wonder the occupants wear jackets and feel too cold.

In the photo above, we have heaters (lighting fittings) fitted underneath the air conditioning return air sensors, this causes the control system to over cool the the space. To lower costs and improve comfort only condition the ‘occupied zone’, the suspended ceiling zone can be 30 deg C when the occupants are comfortable with 23 deg C. There is no point to condition the whole space (control the whole space) when we only occupy the zone nearest the floor. Put the sensors in the occupied area, we don’t need to keep the ceiling cool, we need to keep the occupants comfortable.

You have a choice!

Handling food waste is a global problem, but is all food waste equal?  There is waste from dining generated in homes, restaurants, and Dai Pai Dong’s, and there is food waste from markets, wet markets, and supermarkets, the latter being merely past its sell by date. HKSAR Government intends to create four food waste to energy plants, but no mention of their location and tragically RTHK’s report confirms our fears, about 3,000 tonnes are dumped into landfill every day! That is 1,095,000 tonnes per year.

However, collection, handling, shipping it across the territory, and bulk storage in central facilities is the worst possible solution in my view. To tackle local problems we need local education and local solutions, shipping it “way” will only perpetuate the most common reaction NIBMY.

Eco-District or community scale solutions demonstrate locally there is no distant landfill to handle the waste, you use it, you see it, you handle the waste. Therefore encouraging participation in the solutions, today’s over emphasis towards Green/Smart cities overlooks an important aspect, the human scale. The biggest challenge for eco-districts will be success, where the WTE (waste to energy) plant and equipment is designed for the worst case scenario, and the neighbours begin to understand that their waste creates a local waste problem, over time the total volume of waste will shrink, leaving oversized equipment in its wake. We need District, not City scale solutions.

Green Building or clean technologies? What is the solution? Well in reality it is not that easy, I have seen Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) intended to provide fan speed control and save energy, locked at one speed, I have seen the building’s central chiller plant operated when one room demands cooling, I have seen room temperature sensors located above lighting fittings (lights are heaters) therefore the air conditioning system continuously calls for more cooling. etc.

So if I have learned one thing, it’s not the latest new idea or the wizbang technology itself that matters, what really matters is how we use the equipment and operate the facilities.

But before we all become operator angels, we will need to optimise and improve design, and not just buildings, but their context, we need more design not less, and we have to be prepared to pay for it. The challenges we face require scaled solutions, beyond a single building, and communities provide sufficient scale to enable working solutions (see also Every Community a Powerhouse).

And these solutions should be local. In my diagram above, waste can be managed AND reused. For example, water a separate stack would collect greywater for reuse primarily within the community, for example irrigation or process water for local industry.

Its more important than ever before that Eco-districts cover all aspects of our daily life including work! In the USA vast cities developed where work and home are very separate, with little public transportation, the urban sprawl created the un-walkable distance, increasing the demand for a private car, and in reality more than one car.

Creating distal residential areas in remote isolation is a recipe for disaster, we need closer communities, communities where certain resources can be shared or call them eco-districts, which are places we can work, play, and live.

We must optimise the use of resources, rainwater can be captured from several buildings are used communally for industrial use, irrigation, or your local energy generation. We have become accustomed to throwing things away, out of sight – out of mind, but there is no away, a far better solution is to handle all waste locally, and yes we should encourage more recycling, but we must be practical, and the local reminder (that there is no away) should be visible in your backyard, and it should be used locally whether for power generation, compost, or biogas (fuel for cooking) when possible locally.

We invest in expensive and energy-hungry air conditioning systems for offices that are typically used 9-7, then we repeat the investment and resource use, providing air conditioning for homes, with a little planning forethought, and load profile analysis, one AC system could serve both the office (during the day) and our homes (outside office hours), this natural synergy would save considerable cost and resource use.

The technology exists, but that is the easy part, we need solutions at scale, we need Government, stakeholders, communities to embrace change, and start managing and operating the entire planet.

The building structure, columns and floor slabs cant be seen with the naked eyes, but are clearly visible as purple colour in this infra-red image. the columns and floor slabs are cooler than the infill sections of the walls and the windows. The red/white hot spot is off the scale, it is caused by a electric sign, hotter than the building structure. Overall I think it nicely demonstrates that buildings which we perceive to be uniform in appearance actually have different paths for energy leakage, we call it thermal bridging.

Here is a TED talk, it is an interesting primer for environment and sustainability issues (and I doubt the speaker Leyla Acaroglu will thank me for that). But I do wonder is sustainability finally heading towards the main stream?

There is no doubt that the analysis is incredibly complex, and the possibly the most significant factor, us, the end users, cant be easily modelled, or predicted, Just consider the factors for the paper vs plastic, how to account for the damage cause to ecosystems from the tonnes of plastic waste waste floating in the oceans, out of sight – out of mind. Look at http://projectkaisei.org which illustrates the vast cities of plastic that was dumped on to the ecosystem.

The Electric kettle is interesting too, since families here often boil the potable water before using it for drinking water, and that stems from water rationing in 70’s and 80’s coupled with the corroded steel pipes used for distribution prior to 1994, and the complete absence of maintenance for the central water storage tank, it is no wonder your parents had the boil the water. Assuming we 3,000,000 households boiling a standard 1.7 litre kettle, that’s 5,100,000 litres of water boiled (at least once) per day, the energy consumption alone is an huge environmental burden.

But don’t be fooled into thinking I am reminiscing about the past, my office is located in a pre- 1994 building, the water pipes have corroded, and water is usually brown in colour.

The second issue of Hong Kong’s only Green Building Magazine was published, Jan 2014, click image or online to read the latest news.

In 2014, what features will a Green Building have? The same as 2013? Should every building labelled ‘green’ have one or more “green” features?  Shouldn’t certain requirements be mandatory for certification? Perhaps labelled buildings should use rainwater harvesting or greywater? Maybe it should have water cooled type chillers instead of energy hungry air cooled type chillers.

PHOTO ABOVE: EXTERNAL LIGHTING OPERATING DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS

Or is it sufficient to merely illustrate that the certified building is so how better (however you wish to define better) than its minimum code peers?

Energy and Water conservation provide savings that are transparent, quantifiable, and we could, using published emission factors, assign a Carbon value, but other Environmental Impact criterion remain subjective and dimensionless.

Green building labelling and certification will certainly continue to gain prominence in 2014, Hong Kong has growing body of  2,000 BEAM Professionals and that’s a positive sign. Yet one benchmark that creates a nagging doubt for me is that Hong Kong’s total energy consumption continues to rise, that disparity provides fuel for Green Building critics.

It was thought by some commentators to be a passing fad, but the Green Building movement has past the grass-roots stage, overall it has shown stronger growth here in Hong Kong over the last year than previous years, and is set for positive double digit growth for next decade or so.

Here is clip from BEAM PLUS Interiors launch ceremony in 2013, with John A. Herbert.

This is best practice in Hong Kong, a diesel truck hauls water for irrigation of the streetscape. In this case, filmed at Murray road by the AIA building in Central, the truck sits with its engine idling, but not all of the water actually reaches the plants, water is pouring out from the truck bed on to the road surface.

Another variation, the diesel truck cruises the streets at a low speed, with a helper hosing down the plants (Wang Hoi Road, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong).

If you are really unlucky, one watering truck route meanders along blocking the only lane from Kowloon west leading into the Central/Hunghom tunnel.

The energy code also requires air conditioning chillers to meet certain catalogue performance targets, however the nominal capacity is tested at steady state standard ARI conditions, unlike real life which suffers hourly variations.

Hong Kong’s Nett Zero Energy building, known locally as the Zero Carbon Building or ZCB has a display which clearly shows (recorded 17 October 2013)  the energy consumption (277,597 kwh) exceeds the energy generated (183,470 kwh). therefore the ZCB has only provided 66% of the total energy demand, and we must assume that no energy exported to the grid.

ABOVE: Watering the lawn at Hong Kong’s ZCB is a low technology affair (17 Oct. 2013)

Setting design performance goal is admirable, but that is only one aspect of building performance, and don’t expect design parameters alone to create high performance, low carbon buildings.

ABOVE: ZCB, noon, buildings shadows the PV panels.

Actual data, for example the BEEO Cap 610 demands that every commercial building post EMSD form EE5, that provides facts, and for the first time allows comparison between performance of similar building types.

The ubiquitous green coloured rubbish bins in Hong Kong, some are sporting a new label, written in a child’s hand, the message is simple, are you going to ignore it?

HELP !

Our world will be come full of trash unless we do something about it,

please recycle

more !

There is about 40 Million sqm of office space in Hong Kong, with renovation and fitting out projects representing the bulk of active projects each and every day. Because of their number and repetitive nature these projects have a significant impact on the environment and our quality of life. Responding to market demand and recognising those who choose to do this work in an environmentally friendly fashion and offer users a healthier workspace, a new green building rating tool was created locally by BEAM Society Limited: BEAM Plus Interiors. The new addition to the suite of BEAM green rating tools covers fitting out works for commercial premises, offices, hotels, and retail spaces. This two (2) hour training course is specially designed solely for BEAM Professionals. It will introduce the new framework, grading, credits and features of the new rating tool. Coworking space Singapore is a unique meeting venue. Undertaking this training course is a prerequisite for all BEAM Professionals to submit Interiors projects for assessment and certification using the BEAM Plus Interiors rating tool.

Speaker: Mr John A. Herbert REA, FCIPHE, MASHARE, BEAM Pro
John has worked across Asia for 20 years, he is an authority on sustainable building development, GB rating tools, and energy efficiency. He is the Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Building at Kelcroft E&M Limited, and he was one of the first BEAM Professionals in Hong Kong. John led the team developing BEAM Plus Interiors in 2013, is chairman of the BEAM Technical Review Panel, and a member of the BEAM Technical Review Committee.

Annual Energy Costs Before, and then After new BMS installation

There is a school of thought, in the race for low carbon, lower energy consumption, etc. that installing a new BMS (building management system) will magically solve all your energy problems.  A quick review of the above chart gives the hard evidence, it failed, and it is difficult to believe that more building owners don’t demand evidence from vendors, after installation, to support those glossy brochures.

In my experience, vendors sell sell sell, install, and move on to the next project, but where is the Measurement and Verification (M&V)? What is M&V? It is the name given to process,  that will essentially prove or disprove that those promised energy savings were achieved.

Generally, little post installation checking is conducted to try and validate the promised savings were achieved, whereas in reality the results are poor. In the above example, the peak month energy consumption actually increased by approx. HKD 90,000, hardly the savings often touted in the brochures.

Central Chiller Plant Hunting – poor operation hurts energy consumption

Fortunately, whilst conducting energy audits I have access to the raw data, and plot charts like the above, and find a new BMS alone not the best choice for energy management.

Whether you choose a BMS, variable speed drives, or other means, you should pay the extra to monitor and report the results – trust but verify!  Properly commissioned installations can help monitor operating costs, but that is not the answer to improving energy efficiency.

So what does the future hold, who will be successful? Look at consumer driven societies, especially here in Hong Kong, how will can it reinvent itself in a future world where consumerism and shopping are frowned upon…

Well here it is, after countless pro-bono hours, and a few sleepless nights, BEAM PLUS Interiors (BI) is published!  To the existing BEAM users, the new rating tool will be reassuringly familiar, yes its part of the BEAM suite, and yet its a little different.

Whilst still broadly on based on the existing tool, BEAM Interiors 2008 tool, BEAM NB and EB, this marks a renewed focus on science based sustainability, BEAM has introduced some updated concepts for it’s framework, extra categories  and new credit criteria format.

Ok, I admit it, I did chair the BI steering committee, so I am hoping you’ll find the the new manual exciting, the new credit criteria refreshingly clear, with fewer opportunities for confusion.  But if you find a glitch, do drop a line to BSL and let us know your thoughts, it designed for continuous development. I am sure critics will already be comparing it to LEED, but this tool is a local, Hong Kong rating tool, designed in Hong Kong, for Hong Kong projects, only time will tell if the other tools can catch up! The Official launch, and project registration will commence around September 2013, so that gives you time to familiarise yourself with the new tool and the latest credit requirements.

download the BEAM Interiors manual from the BEAM Society web site or click (PDF) here

update: Presentation about new BEAM interiors 2013 http://www.slideshare.net/johnherbert/beam-interiors-2013

Artist’s Impression of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City by Keppel

Having just read the LSEcities survey [link] interestingly enough it included the category eco-districts and buildings {section B2}.  I take that as further recognition, solutions for  climate change not only require efforts in our buildings, but also through the local infrastructure development.  Hong Kong is blessed, approx. 43% of the population live 500 metres from the rail network, and more than 50% of the jobs are located less than 500 metres from those stations.

However, it’s not immediately obvious from those glowing stats that there is a glaring omission, the jobs are not always located near the sites of the new towns.  The new town of Tin Shui Wai is probably the most graphic example, this planned new town was built alone out, in the northern part of the New Territory. It became infamous and labelled “City of Sadness” because this new district was poorly planned, and lack any significant commercial activity, with very few local businesses, high local employment and despair reigned.

Although Hong Kong has efficient transport system, for Tin Shui Wai residents the long commute also cut deep into their pay packets.  The publicity surrounding the “City of Sadness” caused the Hong Kong government to act and actively encouraged business to create jobs in that region, too little too late in my view.

I argue again and again that employment and housing should co-exist, then the whole community can thrive.  From the engineering and infrastructure perspective too it makes sense, employment and homes are opposites of the same coin. Yet the benefits for integrated planning and design for the next green community or eco-district are overlooked in the rush to rapidly develop new housing.

I rented a bike, and rode along the main track which runs along side the Love river into the heart of Kaohshing. And it was cheap, 20 NT dollars per hour, and when you’re done, you can drop your bike to any rental stand.

 In the town, some streets have separate lane markings provided at the junctions, just for cyclists.

I have seen similar arrangement in Guangzhou, public rentals encourage cycling without the need to worry about ownership, storage, etc.

Here is the link to the organisers website:  kaohsiung Public bike website

It’s an opportunity I doont want to miss, because I want to help the players in the building materials industry, its vendors, suppliers or perhaps that entire supply chain, to understand what Green Building professionals actually need!

And one area specifically we do need more information – affordable smarter materials! We want businesses to have clean environmental records, we want Zero Landfill policies, and so much more…….

Time: 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
Date: 27 October 2012
Venue: Seminar Room, Hall 8, AsiaWorld-Expo

visit the website

see you there!!

Any project manager worth their salt knows, but it seems that the British Government didn’t know monitoring to ensure that progress is actually happening is part of the managers job.  It seems that some folks in Whitehall blindly accepted assurances that security staffers were “already employed and trained”. Sadly days before the games commenced it transpired that the real number of people engaged was far less than reported and the government stepped in.

If you manage a project, whether its the 2012 Olympics, or any project, assurances are simply not good enough. For construction project, visit the site, check site progress, and the materials delivered. If its service contract, dont accept verbal reporting, obtain documentary evidence of progress,  there are plenty of options available look at invoices, timesheets, contracts, applications, payments, to monitor delivery – it’s not rocket science.

CCBF and University of Hong Kong published a paper “Every Building a Powerhouse”  they missed the point and an opportunity.  I am afraid that the academic’s still don’t get it. What is needed is “community” scale,  a cluster of buildings, an estate, development or community these can yield cost effective low carbon solutions.  And it’s not a new concept, think about district heating – its has been tried and tested in Europe and USA for many decades. However, what I propose here is an expanded that concept, to go beyond district heating to use 21st century design ideas and technology, essentially a blueprint for a sustainable green community.

Ask an Engineer

Engineers spend a lot of their time struggling to match demand and supply profiles in a building. However, if we consider the wider picture in a community opportunities arise from diversity, the diversity amongst a number of buildings in a community. Think about an office block and a residential tower, during the day light hours the residents are in work and the building consumes little energy, whilst the office is occupied demanding air conditioning during the day.

Using Community Resources

Hong Kong is sadly lagging behind other first world nations in its handling of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), every year another reminder is sounded the landfill sites are exhausted, yet the policies don’t change, MSW is collected and transported across the territory burning diesel fuel to the near bursting capacity landfill sites.

The typical housing estate or development has opportunities municipal solid waste is only one, the sewerage, energy use, but these are invisible, hidden from people in our communities, and in my encouraging the NIMBY attitude.  We should know by now- throw it away! means get it away from me.  However, no single community or district should be forced to bear a huge portion of the environmental burden for the entire population of Hong Kong.

In areas like Hong Kong and Singapore, where land is scare, dump waste into landfills is simply not sustainable, government agencies are starting to recognise the problems, but the solution is not tackled.

A community based solution means the waste owners need to see the results of their own waste, in the energy sector we often say if it not measured is not managed, and the same is true for waste management. Its going the be difficult to encourage households to reduce or manage municipal waste whilst it remains hidden and silently moved to a distal landfill far from their own backyard. Instead, I propose these valuable waste streams should be used in the community for the community.  Where excess green electricity is generated it should earn a significant premium for the community generator from the utility companies. 

Waste used for local power generation, sewerage for local methane production, rainwater harvesting for local water use. The main advantage for local community based solutions, over the single building is that the supply and demand profiles are diverse, where one building requires more water, another building with lower usage can meet the demand.

On the topic of waste, we need to see the big picture, organic material from the countless garden and sitting out areas is collected by hand and stuffed into ubiquitous black plastic bags for disposal, presumably sent to the landfill. At the same time, tonnes of fresh organic material is imported for building new gardens, there is a very obvious disconnect, the necessary policy to manage environmental resources is missing. Waste food can be rapidly processed into compost also.

Chiller Load Profile – why install two air conditioning systems when one will do

Other past projects, including green buildings have shown that where people can be engaged the value of the investment increases,  making the community a more desirable location will also impact the real estate market significantly increasing property valuations.

We should have progressed further, yet the environment continues to provide “free” resources divorcing us from the true cost of materials, water, and energy.  There are kept  artificially low because nobody sends in a bill for polluted air, not a great incentive for recycling or effective management is it? It’s time for a change.

All new buildings by regulation mustbe provided with two separate water systems, potable and flushing water. The flushing water infrastructure must be designed to handle sea water.  in buildings uPVC is the material of choice for pipework serving all sanitary appliances.  WC cisterns are designed without any metal components exposed to the corrosive seawater.

WSD Distribution Diagram

Underground the pipework distribution utilises cement lined piping for sea water to the service reservoirs and buildings as shown in the above diagram (courtesy of Hong Kong Water Supplies Dept. https://www.whittonplumbing.com/24-hour-emergency-service/).

Having separate potable and sea water infrastructure has another advantage, in the event that one water service is shut-down for maintenance, that doesn’t stop all the water services. Furthermore, since the sea water provides part of the buildings water demand, the potable infrastructure is smaller and lower cost.

One of the major objections against using sea water is a concern that potable water and seawater piping could be cross-connected, in reality that’s an unlikely occurrence because the materials are different, its physically difficult to connect a cement lined pipe to PE piping.

China is starting to embrace sea water as a resource too.

Its obvious really, in coastal areas, why flush our precious potable fresh water down the toilet? The use of sea water is a low-tech solution to lower and conserve potable water usage, and very cost effective.

Update: John Herbert was appointed to the Hong Kong Green Building Council Faculty June 2012 and chairs the Water Aspects technical group.

The BEAM Society in Hong Kong (www.beamsociety.org.hk) is calling tenders for consultants to undertake the updating of the Hong Kong BEAM Interiors green building rating tool, here is the link to download the information:  BEAM Interiors consultancy

~~~ John Herbert

No more excuses!!! Join : “Green Business Networking Speed-Dating” organized by the FCCIHK and its Green business committee.

Its a  speed-Networking-event  for companies in the green industry :

• Unique opportunity to meet a maximum of companies in the green business in a minimum of time
• One-hour meetings organized under a speed-dating format
• 3-minute interviews
• Around 20 companies met during one hour
• Followed by a one-hour networking cocktail.
• Open to all actors in the field

Time efficient networking format, that suits your Hong Kong

Participants:

– Open to members of the French and German Chambers
– Participation of Delegates from the Environment Protection Department
– Diligent Group Ltd., EKKO (HK) Ltd, Suez Environmental

Register online on the French Chamber : Here

Power generating stations were once upon a time, small, and local, often located right on the edge of town.  Now remember at that time the fuel of choice was coal, so as the demand for the new electricity service increased, more coal was burnt in the cities increasing local pollution. Faced with the choice of clean up or move out, the generators moved outside the communities they served to remote locations that allowed larger plants to be constructed, they were out of sight and out of mind.

As the distance between the generator and consumer increased, extra losses in the form of transmission losses occurred, to cover the vast distances the transmission voltage was increased incurring transformer losses at each end of a circuit.

Long Transmission Lines Increases losses

Also have you ever wondered why many power generating stations are located near rivers or coastline? Because the process of using steam to electricity generates vast quantities of waste heat, and with the generators now located at distal sites there are few neighbours to use this high grade waste heat so its dumped into the nearest convenient river, cooling tower or seashore.

Inland generators overcome the problem by building cooling towers (pictured below) using vast quantities of water to dump the waste heat into the atmosphere.

FLICKR http://underclassrising.net/

To be frank the thermal efficiency of a typical coal fired generating station is miserably low approximately 30 -35 percent.

So today, after pushing the generators and pollution away from us, it should not be a surprise to find that less than 10 percent of the energy in fuel ever reaches the consumer or put it another way 90 percent of energy in the fuel is lost forever.

There are viable alternatives for China and elsewhere in Asia. Cogeneration is the engineering term we use, essentially it is a system that will use that waste energy and that means a dramatic efficiency improvement.

The waste heat energy can be used for heating,  process, or air conditioning system – both industrial and residential, according to the feedback from HVAC contractor in El Dorado. It also provides an overall thermal efficiency nearer 85 percent,  nearly 300% improvement over conventional plants.

Absorption chillers are a breed apart, they create chilled water but heat energy through a process of concentrating and dilution of spacial salt compounds. High grade waste heat from any source could be used to power air conditioning without the need for large electrical supplies (some electricity would be still needed for the associated air handling units, pumps and automatic controls). 

Local Cogeneration as the name implies is close to the consumer and demands a cleaner fuel, natural gas is a good choice where available.

One barrier for the wider implementation is the utility companies themselves, having invested billions of dollars to build and operate the plant and equipment, they have unsurprisingly created rules to protect that investment.

What is needed is community based approach, for example use the locally created waste to fire cogeneration plants for that community. Instead of hiding from the problem, make it visible, a showcase,  demonstrate that waste from their office or home will be burnt across the street to provide local community electricity.

For manufacturing plants using high pressure steam, a simple design change can result in large benefits, generate superheated steam to drive an electricity turbine first, that will power your factory, and use the turbine exhaust saturated steam to serve your process, and return the condensate to the boiler – its a simple and elegant solution but often overlooked.

Here is a link to an interesting article about the multiple use for steam generation

Instead of using technology, China has sadly followed the western development model for coal fired plant, plus suffering the torment of wasted energy plus regular power outages. Many businesses in China, particularly in Guangdong have no choice except diesel fuelled engines to overcome frequent blackouts and shortages, whilst simultaneously wasting Gigawatts in wasted heat.

Countries with a strong demand for heating homes and offices, such as Germany and Nordic countries in Europe waste heat from power generators is used in district heating systems delivering heat to the doorstep. Here in Asia, and the tropics where air conditioning, offered by Ambrose Air, Inc., is demanded for comfort, waste heat from power generators, or biomass boilers should be used to power to absorption chillers.

The public and governments are increasingly focused on demand side awareness, and it is noticeable, through more efficient lighting, LED’s fittings, and air conditioning systems but remember that is one part of the story.  In Hong Kong 1/3rd of the power generated is used to drive air conditioning equipment,  so businesses today are paying utility companies to waste fuel resources that can’t be replenished. Don’t you think it is time to get smart? I do.

— John A. Herbert, Kelcroft, Consultant

Hong Kong Trader magazine featuring an interview with John Herbert, Kelcroft

~~~ John Herbert, Consultant

UPDATE (4 Nov 2010):

Parlez-vous français? Also published in French, here is the link:
http://www.lepetitjournal.com/hongkong/a-la-une-hong-kong/88814-ecologie-hong-kong-affirme-son-expertise-environnementale.html

click on an image to enlarge………. the red overlay indicates heavy traffic, green overlay indicates normal traffic, it is real time and that simple.

~~~ John A. Herbert, Kelcroft, BEAM Professional

EUI, or the other commonly used metrics for building efficiency are childs play to professionals, but the general public doesn’t get it. You need to spend your resources educating people what the metric means, but with MPG they get it!  Although the HKSAR hasnt taken up the challenge, opting for another EUI as part of the new building energy efficiency code (cap 611), the idea has taken hold in USA link from the Department of Energy Resources.

The USA State of Massachusetts has published a white paper ( link PDF white paper MPG for buildings).  Thanks for reading, here is my presentation slides on slideshare:

~~~ John Herbert, Kelcroft, BEAM Professional

If you dig deep enough, and long enough hidden within the Hong Kong BEAM website you might just stumble on the new BEAM FAQ page.  It was created by the BEAM Technical Review Committee (TRC) to answer many of the general questions by building owners and consultants about technical issues involved with obtaining BEAM certification – to save your time here is a shortcut:

Hong Kong BEAM Frequently Asked Questions  – BEAM FAQ

It has always been difficult to predict how and when the purely voluntary green building rating systems will become part of the building code requirements, not so for Malaysia, where the local newspaper reports today that all new buildings (new bungalows, semi-detached homes, government buildings) must have rainwater harvesting systems to gain building approval.

In case that over complicated link is broken, here is the report from the The Star (http://thestar.com.my):

Published: Monday June 13, 2011 MYT 4:42:00 PM

New bungalows, semi-detached homes, govt buildings must have rain water systems

By NG CHENG YEE

KUALA LUMPUR: Developers must include rain-harvesting systems in new bungalows, semi-detached homes and government buildings to get their plans approved.

This new regulation would soon be incorporated into the Uniform Building By-Laws to make the green feature mandatory, said Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung.

The National Council for Local Government, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, had approved the new by-law on May 23, he said.

“Such a feature will allow owners of these premises to conserve rain water and use it to water plants, wash cars and for other purposes,” he told a press conference on Green Solution for Property Development Conference 2011: Greener Cities here on Monday.

He said developers who failed to include the feature in these buildings would not be able to get approval for their building plans.

On existing buildings, Chor said owners were encouraged to install such feature on a voluntary basis.

“We hope that when more houses are equipped with such feature, house owners will be able to see the benefit of it and follow suit,” he said.

Water conservation is a serious and often overlooked issue, countries across the region are only just beginning to consider and the fact Malaysia has acted can only be a positive indication.  As I have said before water is the new carbon.  Under the Hong Kong green building rating system BEAM fresh water conservation is encouraged with rainwater harvesting being one of many solutions. One would hope the Malaysian building code will address the issue of load (usage) reduction first and foremost, and no rely on rainwater harvesting to support unsustainable practices.

Sadly many have been poorly designed which is a root cause for future difficulties and wasted energy.  After fixing the system, setting up the right operations is next, to optimise the use of steam and condensate to suit the needs of the processes.

Three sensors neatly located directly above heater (lighting fitting)

Energy efficiency is easy right?  In a seminar about carbon and energy efficiency I noticed the neat location of three air conditioning return air temperature sensors – direct over a heater (aka lighting fitting) .  The truth is, energy efficiency is hard.

~~~ John Herbert, Kelcroft, Consultant.

Here is my top 5 green building challenges that need new solutions and green technology development.  Here is a link to the somewhat dark video on youtube:

http://youtu.be/kIq90BkdU0E

and the presentation in pdf format.

Any other suggestions?

— John Herbert, consultant

BBC World Website (7 April 2011)

Hardly a day goes by without more news from the Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, unlike past disasters, we have had more news, and media coverage that was inconceivable even ten years ago, and the unfolding tragedy in Japan and at the Fukushima Daiichi has impacted countries far from the leaking radiation.

Many countries including Germany, and China, have halted or postponed existing nuclear programmes for “safety checks” as the media report continues to report the countless attempts by the plant operators TEPCO to try and control the leakage from the wreckage. Japan like Hong Kong has few natural resources (coal, oil or gas) and relies heavily on its nuclear energy programme to provide 30% of its energy needs.

The elephant in the room is those pesky commitments to tackle climate change. China announced on the eve of COP16 (and reiterated at the recent NPCC 12th Five year plan [1] ) that it would reduce it’s Carbon Intensity by 40-45%   Hong Kong closely followed suit and also pledged to lowers its CI, but don’t mistake these Carbon Intensity reductions as energy efficiency improvements.

Carbon Intensity (CI) is defined as the quantity of carbon (CO2) emitted per unit of energy.  Therefore to lower your carbon intensity change from burning a high carbon fossil fuel like coal, to nuclear energy (or renewable energy) reduces the intensity, without any energy efficiency improvement, does that sound more like a Business As Usual approach than a real framework or strategy to tackle dwindling resources?

To achieve this impressive figures would be achieved by switching from power generation using fossil fuel to nuclear powered generation.  At Macau MIECF 2011 (31 March 2011) the Hong Kong Government’s EPD representative Mr Joe Fong [2] indicated that Hong Kong would increase the nuclear energy contribution imported from the mainland from 23% in 2009 to 50% by 2020.

Increasing Nuclear to 50% to lower Hong Kong's Carbon Intensity - Joe W.Y. Fong @ MICEF 2011

So, the obvious question needs to be raised,  if these promised CI reduction targets are to be achieved, and increasing nuclear energy production has been sidelined as a solution can will nations meet these ambitious targets? Is it even possible without increasing the contribution from nuclear powered facilities?  Fortunately, the answer to both questions is affirmative,  energy efficiency improvements can deliver real carbon reductions. It’s not sexy, and unlike building more power plants, it requires hard work on the ground, and political commitment but achievable.

Coupled with these unfolding events in Japan, unrest in the Middle East continues to cause jitters in the markets, dramatically increased crude oil prices adding salt to wound.  It seems that only major news reminds us that oil and other nature resources will not last forever.

Energy efficiency improvements are certain not a panacea for every problem a nation faces today, however developed nations have no excuses, I wonder how long it will take before politicians will truly embrace this opportunity.

— John Herbert, Kelcroft, consultant

1. China’s Carbon Intensity to be reduced by 40-45 % by 2020, based on 2005 baseline http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011npc/2011-03/07/content_12125740.htm

2. http://www.macaomiecf.com/miecf2011/brochure/Urban_Planning/Joe_Fong.pdf

If pressure from government, NGO’s, and your competitors is not enough, you can add students to the list pushing for change…. here is the link to report [link] where the local students in USA are standing up to be counted, demanding that the local council change the city planning code to make their city greener.

The student group said  “a change in the city code would at the least put forward a public message of commitment to sustainability, which they called a step in the right direction.” Indeed it would.

— John Herbert, Consultant

Suggest your idea, comment on ideas and then vote for the best suggestions, it an opportunity to drive green sustainable building, have your say: http://greenbuilding.ideascale.com/

There seems to be a growing trend that needs to be corrected.  For sustainable building and rating systems advocates including Hong Kong BEAM and US LEED often encourage more, more, more.   It might be more site greenery, or in the case of LEED more ventilation.  However, I foresee a tragic mistake associating “more” with sustainable.

For site greenery, I am not saying we should ignore soft landscaping, greening the landscape is beneficial, aside from the physiological benefit,  greenery creates a micro-climate zone that can provide sun shading, and help lower the ambient temperature.  Hence, a well designed micro-climate zone will lower the environmental impact and reduce building operating costs.   Additionally replacing those endless lakes of concrete with soft landscaping mitigates the urban heat island effect.

Property designed soft landscaping, and I include green roofs in that sector, have a positive impact, particularly when outdoor air is drawn from these miniature micro-climatic zones. Asphalt shingle roofs is a good solution for your roofing project.

Under LEED rating system extra credit can be achieved, encouraging designers to exceed ASHRAE’s (the ventilation experts) recommended ventilation rate by 30%.  The increased operating cost for moving, filtering, treating the additional air volume is an extravagance that has seemingly been overlooked.

Designers, including the creators of rating tools, should take a comprehensive holistic approach,  simply demanding more soft landscaping needlessly increases the demand for primary resources, like soil and water, and secondary resources including irrigation systems, piping to service the larger requirement.   All I am asking Think! before we demand more.

~~ John Herbert, Kelcroft, Consultant

He makes Building Science more interesting, and honestly more interesting than my pitch. I can’t agree with him on every point,  although he is primarily focused on the US/Canada region,  I have witness the same type of mentality every day in Asia.  Finally, I would like to wish a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year to you.

Enjoy!!

update:

also known as Cap 610 legislation link

— John Herbert, Kelcroft, Consultant

Landfilling is an unsustainable practice period, particularly so in Hong Kong where we have limited land available. Sustainable waste management changes our thinking about throwing  AWAY waste (and there is no AWAY) and embrace the community.

Out of sight out of mind thinking needs to be changed to locally transparent – you create it, it’s yours, it’s your local communities responsibility.  I have long argued for community based responsibility, for a waste management program simular to the program for industrial and residential recycling in Perth. To use waste is as local fuel to be used for a local power plant, produce Town gas, or even fuel.

We shouldn’t build these basic facilities hidden behind concrete walls, but we should be display case transparent, use glass for everyone to see the inner workings, host field trips for the local school children – engage not preach at the local community.

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is the local source of fuel used available locally, and using plasma or gasification plant (NOT INCINERATION) lowers the environmental impact and the noxious discharges. Being smaller than central facilities they could hook in to the local power grid infrastructure powering local homes or alternately creating fuel, power or Town Gas for the local people.

The real advantage is that people learn from the visual cues, upto 75% of learning is acquired visually, having a local visible and transparent facility is the prefect education solution.

— John A. Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft

As manufacturing moved North into China, Hong Kong has been left with a legacy of under utilized factory space and industrial buildings. There is only so much demand for low yield warehouse and storage space, so opportunities to move up the value chain, converting to higher yielding properties such as lofts, commercial, and hotel accommodation is an attractive proposition. Another important factor to remeber, is that the necessary public transportation infrastructure is already in place.

The market has already dictated the direction, re-populating industrial space into more lucrative higher yielding office accommodation, yet, approximately 1.1 million square metres or 6.5% remained vacant (2008 data).

Last year (2009) the Government acknowledged that sustainability outweighed demolition, and removed the first major obstacle for the wholesale renovation and revitalization of industrial building stock, namely the land premium (a charge levied by government to change the land use) could be waived [link].

And now that initiative has been extended, the next hurdle technical issues and this time the concession is tied with BEAM PLUS [www.beamsociety.org.hk] green building certification.

First some background, the regulations for buildings set out the minimum technical requirements including issues such as planning, fire safety, lighting, ventilation and other stipulations. However, the industrial building stock is constrained by decisions from the past .

Therefore the Government has eased certain technical requirements to encourage wholesale conversion of  industrial buildings, on the express condition that the building obtains BEAM Plus Green Building label. PNAP APP 150 Items (ii) and (iv) directly refer to compliance with BEAM Plus as the condition for obtaining the waiver. PNAP APP150 (published September 2010) states:

…. To encourage green building designs and practices, provision of green and/or energy efficient features to revitalised industrial buildings will be a relevant factor in support of the granting of modification of or exemption from certain specific regulations. Examples relating to applications for such modification / exemption are as follows:

(i) If a refuge floor is required to be provided in accordance with the Code of Practice for the Provision of Means of Escape in Case of Fire (MOE Code) for the proposed conversion but there is difficulty or site constraint to comply with the technical requirements of the MOE Code, proposal for the provision of a refuge floor with greenery design and enhanced fire service installations will be favourably considered subject to no adverse comments from the Director of Fire Services. PNAP APP-122 is relevant.

(ii) In the case of conversion to office use, if there are difficulties in providing the required natural lighting and ventilation due to constraints posed by the original design as industrial building, application for modification of Regulations 30 [link] and 31 [link] of the Building (Planning) Regulations will be favourably considered if adequate artificial lighting and mechanical ventilation and energy efficient design that could achieve 40% in the categories of Energy Use (EU) and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) under the BEAM Plus certification with provisional assessment reports conferred by the Hong Kong Green Building Council are incorporated in the proposal. PNAP APP-130 is relevant.

(iii) For individual air-conditioning boxes/platforms attached to the external walls with projection larger than the usually accepted size and/or projection over street, application for modification / exemption will be favourably considered if the proposal is incorporated with the use of energy efficient/environmentally friendly air-conditioning units. PNAP APP-19 is relevant.

(iv) For the provision of curtain walls to existing building facades,exemption from section 31(1) of the Buildings Ordinance to allow the curtain walls to project over streets will be favourably considered if low-energy absorbent type glazing/energy efficient materials with energy efficient design of the curtain walls that could achieve 40% in the categories of EU and IEQ under the BEAM Plus certification with provisional assessment reports conferred by the Hong Kong Green Building Council are incorporated in the proposal. PNAP APP-2 is relevant.

Click here to download Wholesale Conversion of Industrial Buildings PNAP APP150 (PDF FORMAT ENGLISH)

or PNAP APP150 CHINESE

The environmental benefits cannot be under estimated, avoided building demolition, handling construction waste, and ultimately waste disposal are powerful arguments to support re-using the existing building stock if possible.

Will this new incentive help sway the market to encourage investment to upgrade the industrial building stock? I think it’s too earlier to judge, however it must be acknowledged that the Government’s Development Bureau has embraced sustainable building to encourage the reuse and redevelopment of existing buildings structures.

— John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

BEAM (formerly HK-BEAM) consistently failed to market and communicate its key benefits both here and overseas, in the meantime USGBC created and heavily marketed LEED and gained an international renown. Later the HKSAR Government commissioned a new green building rating tool, it would have been a direct competitor to the long standing BEAM (http://www.hk-beam.org.hk) first created in 1996. Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed, no pilot study took place and the tool, including its many certification stages was abandoned.

It is worthwhile to note that Australia, the GBCA (http://www.gbca.org.au) operates a green building rating system “Green Stars” for building design, and a different tool known as NABERS is entirely focused on the actual performance of buildings based on occupation and metered data.

The key issue, over the years stakeholders surveyed have constantly expressed a preference for green building labels to be awarded after the building was complete and operating (more like NABERS than Green Star). This is a key difference from LEED, Green Star, and other schemes, which awarded certificates based on design, and strong relying on the promise of superior environmental performance.Often these predication’s were based on optimist computer modelling.

Over the years, LEED has finally realized that design intent does not always translate to high performance buildings, and in V3 2009 version has called on building owners to share the critical metering data as the first step. Here is the link to a story about a LEED rated Walter Hardwick building [link] it’s one case where the LEED design has not been translated into green living for tenants, and supports the argument for post occupation certification.

The challenge remains for all rating systems in my mind, when project proponents look for the green building label to help and assist the marketing and sale of the property before occupation, offering only the promise of greener living. In the case for a new building, building operators make choices which impact the environmental impact.

Don’t think for second that defunct systems is limited to green buildings, there are countless buildings with fitted with gadgets that offered owners the promise of better building operations, management or lower costs, many have failed and litter our building stock.  The birth of computer controlled buildings, including the now ubiquitous BMS (Building Management Systems) promised the earth with energy and manpower savings, etc. etc.  As I witnessed only last week, many facility managers have reverted to paper-based manual operation and measurement records.

Going back to the issue, if design certification (promised performance) is offered that will assist the project proponent during the pre-sale, sale, and marketing activities, but the fact remains it is not any guarantee that the intended green features will be eventually installed, or operate correctly as the case of Walter Hardwick building [link] proves. But we surely cannot abandon new construction in favour of just certifying building operations, they are inextricably linked, and the use of materials critical for the sustainability and future operating impacts.

Furthermore, once an operating building is certified, how long should that certificate be valid? one, five or ten years? Fr the re-certification under BEAM EB (Existing Buildings) is five years, however the re-certification process is not really defined.

We need to listen to the stakeholders demanding green buildings that actually deliver superior environmental performance, not those which merely make that promise (aka green washing). From the project proponent / building owners perspective, how should we design a rating tool that is able determine how the building the future.

— John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

Click this link to view and download a PDF

Energy management is a science, obtaining more whether it is more work, goods or output, without increasing the fuel consumption. Faced with increasing pressure the Chinese officials in China opted for a lights off campaign, preventing fuel consumption to meet their target – that does not improve the energy efficiency or manage energy and fuel resources effectively it only hides the root cause of the problem.

Perhaps if the guidance, used better terminology to define the goal, surely that must be one of the lessons to be learned, as the capital has now banned the use of power cuts as a means to meet the energy efficiency targets.

The utility sector have been promoting “Smart Grid”, ironic then than China itself has promoted a smarter grid as a solution yet its instrument for change is power cuts.

Power generating utilities across the globe have moving to implement “Smart Grid” systems but will it really benefit the consumers?  The grid is dumb and will not be smarter, however metering data with Automatic Metering Reading (AMR) technology will improve. Since this extra data will be available to the meter owners  namely the utilities, I predict that the grid will not be any smarter tomorrow than it is today. The utilities will have the data, and be able to dramatically influence future management (read cost increases) so in the end the consumer that will need to bear the cost and suffer the consequences.

— John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

The above extract was published and printed in the South China Morning Post newspaper on 21 September 2010.

9. Meet LEED standards. Build, renovate, and operate your facilities according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards…..

LEED is one of many [1] available methodologies that can be used to assess the environmental performance of buildings, it is a rating tool, not a standard.

[1]. Other international green building rating tools include BEAM, BREEAM, Green Star, Green Mark, and Green Globes

— John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

TEDX – The Politics of US oil

Buildings demand a significant use of our finite resources including fuel for energy usage, water consumption, and cause atmospheric and environmental impacts from waste. Our pace of consumption cannot be maintained if some natural resources are to be spared, we need to build smarter, its crucial for our sustainability if tomorrow’s child is to be left with some usable resources.

The Green Building concept aims to reduce the environmental impact of new and existing buildings, yet environmental impact of buildings is often underestimated, a recent survey show people though buildings had little or no impact on the environment! whereas the scary fact is that 63% of Hong Kong’s Carbon footprint results from its buildings.

Some green labelling systems such as BEAM address part of the problem, but its only voluntary system. However building labelling and sustainability requires more science, including the entire life cycle impacts being assessed.

Sadly, the availability of fresh water is a critical, life threatening issue for many regions, yet developed countries, including Hong Kong frequently waste water. The photograph above shows a typical Hong Kong “Irrigation system”, a diesel fuel water tanker truck and manual hose, water efficiency is clearly not important. In this system most the water is lost in the spray, evaporation to atmosphere, or wetting the adjacent paving. Hong Kong is not alone in this regard, it occurs elsewhere, but that is not an excuse. Its a practice that needs to be stopped to avert water security and shortfall nightmares.

Water efficient alternatives exist, sub-soil irrigation avoids the short-comings delivering water into the root systems without evapouration losses, and excess.

— John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

A radio interview and article published by Voice Of America (VOA) regarding green building roof research in Hong Kong: Hong-Kong-Professor-Hopes-to-Cool-City-By-Covering-Roofs-With-Greenery

I was interviewed for an article regarding green factory facilities in China, it’s an extensive subject with few column inches and not limited to China. I listed more than 165 strategic methods for creating a green facilities, far too many to review in one article. Here is the link for the report your reference:

http://rightsite.asia/en/article/green-facilities-becoming-reality-china

Green Facilities Becoming Reality in China

Savings in costs making sustainable China factories economically viable

by Ben Paul on Tue, 2010-08-10 19:57

Green facilities may be good for the planet, but they’re not easy to achieve. Many businesses that need to emphasise near-term cashflow may want to go green but end up settling for cheap and dirty. However, there are a number of options that can help companies be both environmentally sustainable and economically viable – especially for companies that can afford to think long-term. “You’d be surprised at the low-cost or no-cost opportunities I find just walking around in a factory,” John Herbert, founder of environmental consultancy Kelcroft E&M Limited said.

 

Of course, the greatest savings often come from making investments in making investments in design or technology that cuts resource use. However, as Herbert points out, there are important opportunities – both in building design and in outfitting – that can result in long-term savings for manufacturers setting up their plants in China.

RightSite talks with green industry experts about how to make such eco-friendly facilities sustainable for even the most frugal investors.

Potential problems

Given the benefits of eco-friendly buildings, it can be surprising that those elements have not been integrated into every factory. The prospect of delays caused by cost premiums, underdeveloped technology, and conservative ownership, however, may forestall adoption of even the most promising design improvements.

A business-owner might decide against a more eco-friendly facility because of the higher base costs. For firms constructing an environmentally-sustainable factory, the costs are typically 100 percent higher than for a building without such environmental features, according to Bernd Reitmeier, shareholder of the Startup Factory Incubator Project.

 

Even more conservative estimates suggest companies should expect to make a sizable investment.

It depends on how much technology is used,” Yan Zhu, Vice General Manager of Jiaxing CECIC Environmental Protection Technology Co. said. “Compared to normal plants, generally it adds 18 to 19 percent to the construction costs.”

This can cause hesitation whether the building company is building for themselves or intends to lease it. In the case of the Kunshan facility Reitmeier is supervising, rental rates are around 40 RMB/sqm/month – nearly three times more than a typical workshop.

Controlling Conservation Costs

Sustainability will cost more initially, but with the right planning such investments can pay off. For one, saving energy is rarely about buying expensive new equipment, but rather building in savings from the beginning of a project.

Thus, for companies preparing to build a factory, savings can be built into the facility itself. Stefan Rau, Group Executive Director of planning firm Metropolitan Synergies, said decisions as routine as the building’s orientation can have a huge impact on energy usage during the plant’s lifetime.

“Most factories have one air conditioning system and another system for floor ventilation,” Rau said. “But by building with…an aerodynamic design, you can create a system of natural ventilation.”

 

He also pointed to elements like installing skylights to reduce the need for artificial lighting, as well as building insulation layers into walls.

Markus Diem, Director of the Energy Department at MUDI, agrees that a building’s structure is often the most important element in increasing energy savings. With this in mind, he designed a recent project’s building as a closed ‘enveloping’ system to strictly regulate the amount of hot or cold air passing though.

“The most efficient part is the building envelope,” Diem said, “a big part of most buildings’ energy loss is that it literally goes right out the window.”

Green Operations

Energy savings are not just for businesses that can afford to custom-build a factory – there are also plenty of opportunities to outfit an existing production center.

Herbert said that in many plants he visits, the planning has been focused on the manufacturing process itself, without taking into account energy factors.

According to Herbert, a common case is when foreign companies from areas like the U.S. or Japan bring equipment over from their home plants, but find that the voltage is inappropriate for Chinese powers systems. As a result, many simply plug the machinery into transformers.

While this may offer a quick way fix to the problem, Herbert notes that, “right there you lose one to two percent of the energy just going through that.”

Instead, he said companies could invest in purchasing and training their staff on a new, China-made version of the equipment and eliminate the recurring costs.

Another place for savings is in boilers that produce steam. Herbert said in factories that use steam, the condensation can be collected and reused.

“It’s already chemically treated and already hot, so you don’t have to go through those processes again,” Herbert said. “Just through that a business can save two to three hundred thousand [renminbi] a month, and there’s no running cost.”

Selling Sustainable

The benefits of energy-efficient production facilities extend beyond the factory itself: according to Diem, they can also be good for marketing.

“Green is fashionable right now to investors,” Diem said. “When I started this company five years ago it wasn’t so high in demand, but now everybody wants that as part of their building.” Products certified as made in sustainable settings are eligible to use certain advertising on their packaging that Herbert says attracts consumers and boosts the company’s image. “We get calls from companies whose buyers want a carbon label on the products,” Herbert said. “[businesses realize] they need to set a framework and market their product’s greenness.”

 

According to several surveys taken over the last few years, more than 40 percent of consumers in the U.S., UK, and EU said they would pay more for environmentally-friendly products. In line with this potential for growth in consumer goods, Herbert said he has seen an increasing demand among companies to become certified and expects that will only increase in the future.

How to Communicate Sustainability to Investors

Despite initial price concerns, shareholders can be convinced to approve sustainable plants. Herbert’s main suggestion to companies staff looking to pitch such an idea is to think like a customer. What will impress the customer will impress the manager. Customers will pay more for green-produced products…and will avoid buying products that aren’t made in a clean way,” Herbert said.

 

To resolve questions about costs, Reitmeier advises characterizing the project as an investment that will be fully recovered by the time the company’s time there ends.

“Most factories will be leased out for three to five years,” Reitmeier said, “So you have to explain that the payback comes in one to three.”

Rudy Tandjono, Director of Operations for architecture firm iHabitat, suggested a longer-term perspective, saying that even a 10 percent saving over the course of five to ten years of operation in a factory would be worthwhile. Vincent Cheng, Associate Director of consulting firm Arup, adds that features that reduce energy costs like an increased use of natural lighting also improve employee productivity, a notion echoed by Diem. “There’s research out there that shows an energy-efficient building is more comfortable,” Diem said, “so if the people working in such a building are more comfortable, they will also be more efficient.”

A More Sustainable Future

Between savings on utility costs, increased marketing potential, and more efficient employees, the outlook for eco-friendly factories seems bound to increase.

For Rau, an increase in the number of green facilities is not far away. “I think that’s understood on a political level right now,” Rau said, “but it needs to be communicated to independent factory owners that there are lots of opportunities out there for this kind of thing”

———–END

— John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft

Air conditioning systems are a documented source of Legionella [1], the system has all the necessary elements, the capacity to harbour, breed, and distribute Legionella into the air we breathe. Microscopic water droplets contaminated with Legionella can be easily inhaled, risking the potentially fatal Legionnaires disease infection.

Legionella comes from nature, its found at low concentrations in lakes, streams, and groundwater. Also one type thrives in compost and soil.  Legionella escapes conventional water treatment and low concentrations are piped into our buildings, given the right conditions Legionella can proliferate and then your problems begin.

Since the infection dose is small, and the incubation period is 7-10 days, you can see that just one contaminated cooling tower is a risk, and might expose thousands of people, before the first infected person seeks medical attention, that is how an outbreak occurs.

The EMSD Code of Practice for the control of Legionella [link] places the emphasis firmly on the business and owner to identify and assess any risk, and then act to minimise that risk, however many firms lack the expertise and need to contract this work to specialist consultant like Kelcroft [link]

Regular auditing of air conditioning systems lowers the risk of spreading disease than those left unattended. Thankfully, we now have simple tests that can detect the presence of bacteria, and they should be performed in addition to regular maintenance.

Buildings using WCAS (water cooled air conditioning systems) have devices called cooling towers used to reject the waste heat heat to atmosphere, using water, and these type of systems have been identified by government as a specific threat, and mandates that the owner must conduct an independent third party annual audit report and submit to EMSD every year.

Understand Legionella is important, I visited a industrial facility last year and found a heat recovery system with all the elements.  The system pre-heated fresh water, stored the warm water at the prefect temperature for Legionella breeding and growth then pumped the warm water across the factory to distant spray-heads –  a preventable outbreak waiting to happen!

— John A Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

[1] Note also other misting devices have been documented to harbour and spread Legionella, including but not limited to, decorative fountains, machinery coolant, hot water systems, heat recovery systems, showers, misting cabinets, spa baths, and humidifiers.

The HKGBC [link] has announced an invitation for an Expression of Interest:  Tender for Provision of Consultancy Services for the Development of Green Building Labelling Systems in Hong Kong.

The deadline is 16th JULY 2010, for easy reference, here is the link:

http://www.hkgbc.org.hk/eng/news/newsGBLabellingEoI.aspx

From the above webpage, the scope of this consultancy study is wide ranging, stating that the consultant should devise short term and long term roadmaps for the development of green building labelling systems in Hong Kong.

– John A. Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

One of the many issues raised in by the public was the coveted green features deal [BD Joint Practice Note 01],[BD Joint Practice Note PN2] essentially developers would be granted GFA concessions (READ more GFA) for providing gazetted green features. I don’t want to go into hideous detail on this decision, suffice to say that these “green” features included central facilities such as wider corridors, clubhouse, mail delivery room, etc. and also residential flat improvements such as balconies.

The consultation report noted the public views. However, for reasons best known to themselves, the CSD seems to believe its now expert, and includes a number of recommendations, including changes to the GFA concession arrangements.  If the Secretary for Development accepts implements the recommendations, some will impact the Hong Kong Green Building Rating System BEAM.

Green GFA

Don’t think for a moment that every CSD recommendation actually reflects the concept of sustainability, the report states:

The CSD recommends that the Government should reduce the level of GFA concessions for car parks in general and promote underground car parks where technically feasible through provisions of relatively higher level of GFA concession as compared with that for their above-ground counterparts.

Here CSD is promoting basement car-parking, compared to above ground parking, so the Life Cycle cost for basement parking must be superior right?  CSD have overlooked a few critical issues. Considering the construction work needed for top down excavation, and disposal of the created spoil.

Once created the basement car-park will require 24 hour 365 day mechanical ventilation systems and a higher level of illumination than an above-ground counterpart.  Also the actual construction area required to accommodate the same number of vehicles would require a larger footprint because:

1) Floor Area will sacrificed on every level for routing the necessary mechanical ventilation systems to grade level (consider the extra annual operating cost);
2) Floor Area will sacrificed accommodating the routing fire services =smoke control ventilation ducts back to to grade level;
3) basement car parking is inevitably below the water table, therefore requires a drainage system with drainage pumps to convey any waste water back up to grade level (consider the extra annual operating cost);

If you compare basement car parking with above-ground car parking, it doesn’t take a genesis to conclude that the latter is more energy efficient, and has a lower environmental impact.

Cap GFA Concession

The report noted there is no limit on the exempted area under the “green” features BD Joint Practice Note 1 and 2.  However, the CSD recommends limiting or capping the concession. It also suggests one way forward would be to provide a sliding scale for GFA concessions for buildings that achieve higher BEAM awards. The intention to encourage environmental best practice, the report states:

…….the Government may consider the feasibility of prescribing different levels of the overall cap corresponding to the overall environmental performance of the building by reference to certain benchmarks (e.g. BEAM Plus rating), i.e. the higher the rating, the higher the overall cap.

– John A. Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

I took this photograph on the street, a pile of waste sitting outside one of the many skyscrapers in Central (Hong Kong) waiting collection.  These exhausted fluorescent lighting tubes pictured will soon contribute mercury, mercury compounds, and waste glass into Hong Kong’s already burgeoning landfill.

Whilst there is a system in Hong Kong for safe disposal in bulk, it is only available for the largest buildings and or occupiers, and not the SME’s which make up 98% of Hong Kong employers. They have no option except to dispose of defunct lighting tubes through the municipal waste collection system.

It is a sad indictment of the waste management system to note that part of Hong Kong’s green country park in Clearwater bay had to be excised to provide more landfill space, without any plan, or strategy to encourage waste separation at source and maximising recycling. Landfill is simply not sustainable.

– John A. Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

showing the use of resources, the basis for thinking – think sustainability.

A Hong Kong office indoor air quality survey released last week reminds us the office environment has improved little over the years, the findings show 27% of those surveyed report bad indoor office environment.

Background
In the early 80’s the phrase poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) came to forefront. Many reasons were cited as the explanation for the degrading office environment, the most likely culprit being the energy crisis. Dramatically increasing fuel costs encouraged building owners to use frugal quantities of outdoor air impacting the air quality. One result, a whole new range of terminology emerged including tight building, building related illness, sick buildings, and Sick Building syndrome.

The quantity of the Outdoor Air (OA) is obviously important, particularly in the regions with high humidity, causing a significant latent load. However, the source of the air is also critical, drawing Outdoor Air from a polluted source drags particulate matter and chemical pollutants into the office air.

Solutions
If there is one solution, we must recognise that Green Building assessments including BEAM, recognises the importance of the indoor environment and the impact on productivity. BEAM Plus allocates 32 credit points to the indoor quality environment aspect. Furthermore it shows us that energy efficient HVAC solutions are needed to ensure the right quantity of clean Outdoor Air is provided when needed.

– John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft

I was recently interviewed by the leading English language newspaper (www.scmp.com) on the topic of sustainability, and greening business. just in case you missed the article (68OK PDF one page, published 8-03-2010)

– John Herbert,Consultant, Kelcroft
we help lower the cost of doing business in Asia

Later this year (2010) we will see the introduction of the energy efficiency regulations for commercial buildings downunder.  So if you are selling or leasing commercial office space over 2,000 sqm, the building owner(s) are required to disclose it’s energy performance and efficiency. [Source SBE] This mandatory disclosure will require owners to obtain a NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating System) Energy base building star rating.

As I understand it, there will be no grace period following the passage of legislation, therefore building owners need to start considering these requirement before leasing or sale. The Australian NABERS system has accredited NABERS assessors that provide guidance through the NABERS process, to assess current energy performance and explore opportunities for improving energy efficiency.

Compared the BEAM Plus EB (existing buildings) methodology, NABERS it is a concise and focused scheme and was helped by support from the Australian government. Discussions have been on-going for some time here in Hong Kong to launch a similar scheme in Hong Kong, a founding committee was setup however funding was not secured.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

This inaugural issue covers several related topics and features a LEED certified restaurant in Hong Kong.

www.ecobuildmagazine.com

– John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia

After all the talk, and it seems even less planning, HKGBC has been slow to gain any momentum whatsoever since the launch in 20 November 2009.

In fact I submitted my HKGBC membership on the day after the inauguration conference (21 November 2009) so it was a surprise to receive a letter from HKGBC on 3rd February 2010.

Bear in mind that verbal assurances were given that the HKGBC receipts would be issued before the end of December 2009 HKGBC admits that the membership application form had the wrong payee name, returned the cheque, and requests another payment!

– John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia

If you ever needed another lesson for the benefits of a sustainability, the launch of CLP’s brand new charging station for electric vehicles is a neat reminder.

What does a mobile phone, a netbook, and an electric vehicle have in common?  Each manufacturer has a different connection for re-charging your battery.  CLP’s new EV station to be located in Jordan, Hong Kong, will only support three Japanese brands of the various EV manufacturers, and particularly noticeable by its absence Hong Kong’s own EV the MyCar is also overlooked.

My own experience is no different, my laptop, mobile phone, camera, blackberry and MP3 player each have different chargers and connections. As individual consumers it is difficult to demand a standard, but that is exactly what we do need, a common standard. As production volumes increase, it reduces the cost, and future waste and environmental impact. I’ll be happier when I have few chargers not more.

– John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia

Today’s press release by Asian Development Bank [1] boasts supporting finance for China’s the first coal-fired integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant, so far so good, improved efficiency of generating facilities is necessary, and IGCC offers a great improvement if it maintained over the full life cycle. Further reading is worrying, ADB will also extend the funding for expansion, including Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS). However, as I reported here the UN has already removed CCS from it list of approved carbon removal strategies during COP15 in December 2009.

– John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia

The above (extracts from the unlink-able South China Morning Post on 17-12-2009) gives an indication that the authorities will try to stave off water shortages, not by small changes, but dramatically increasing the cost of water.

Energy Efficiency
Energy Efficiency project managers will certainly need to be aware, and weigh the possible risk of increased water charges into the financial model and assessment for future projects.  Also operators of systems with Process or Comfort cooling Air conditioning systems that use cooling towers would be advised to look closely at the system design and operation for opportunities to reduce water, and energy consumption before the new charging regime is implemented.

Replacing blocked and damaged fill in cooling tower

In many jurisdictions a separate charge is levied for discharge of sewerage/waste, and it can be expense. Therefore while we are considering projects that provide water conservation benefits, let’s not forget to include the avoided sewerage charge in our financial model.

Hot Water Systems
It could be an appropriate time to review to the hot water system, to identify any existing energy losses or water wastage. How many tonnes of tepid water are discharge directly into to drain everyday while we wait for the hot water to actually reach the tap or process? too many I’d argue. Reducing the waiting time lowers bother energy and water consumption.

Industrial Process
Many industrial facilities often need to heat one product line, and at the same time cool another, this is particular common in the food and beverage industry. Many of these systems uses a different water system, often oversized for heating and one for cooling. However, if we consider the problem from a greening perspective, we could easily combine these systems, adding very little complexity, using heat transfer to drive all or part of the process, and replacing one thou water systems for cooling. Therefore, a smart green design would reduce water, sewerage and energy charges.

More than just energy saving
One key point that is often undersold in the rush for energy saving projects are those extra additional benefits, some might argue intangible benefit. But they are real and often overlooked. Many businesses are recovering from the financial crisis, with capital scarce for facilities upgrades. Energy efficiency projects not only save energy, minimising the use of a resource creates opportunities for generating spare capacity without upfront investment.

For example after an energy efficiency project, a switchboard that was fully loaded now has spare capacity. That newly created spare capacity could be used for any number of purposes, perhaps expansion, new machinery, etc. without investing in a new power supply.

Right-sized, and regularly maintained equipment that is not forced to strain unnecessarily all day long has extended operating life span, and avoids the inconvenience, and capital expense of early replacement.

– John Herbert, consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia

Energy Seminar 4 Dec 2009 (left to right) - Joe Ng, John Herbert, Lawrence Wong, Dominic Yin, Zhao Ring, Edward Hung

The COP15 summit in Copenhagen has recognised the real risk and costs of pursuing CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) and will exclude it from the UN approved list of carbon reduction strategies [link].

CCS does sound great in principle doesn’t it? A technical solution that the West could sell, and sell into Asia that would solve all our problems.  However, many years after the CCS idea was conceived nobody has yet managed to build and continuously operate a single CCS plant, that says a lot about this technology. Also generation efficiency is reduced by 30% that translates in to a need to build 1/3 additional capacity just to maintain the status quo.

COP15 denial of CCS can only be good news, energy efficiency improvements are certainly more viable options and very cost effective alternative.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia

A classic example of a bad idea, and poor design is found here in Hong Kong. A new development was constructed, comprising concrete tower blocks with accommodation for some 3000 residents, it was named Tin Shui Wai (TSW) , and it was very poorly conceived idea from the start.

TSW has more in common with the now defunct 1960’s era concrete jungles built in the United Kingdom than modern 21st century design. It is a standalone estate, with hardly any local employment opportunities to speak about. It’s remote, so the workforce needs to use the public transport network to commute, on average one hour or more to get work. And if that image of a 60’s housing tenement was not enough, there are very few local amenities, so recreation and entertainment also requires transportation.

Lost Opportunity
The opportunity was lost when this area was designed. Instead of building endless blight the HKSAR government (owner of all land in Hong Kong) could have planned and built a sustainable environment, a self-sustaining city within a city.

We are told we live in a high-tech society, yet the majority still need to commute to work, the paperless office, and virtual commuting is still nearer to science fiction, than science fact.

A sustainable plan should have been comprehensive from the start and included local commercial buildings, shops, amenities, recreation, government buildings, etc. all providing local employment and thus eliminating the need and carbon footprint for transport.

In 2008 with rising unemployment the government finally realised its mistake, and has started to encourage employment, but it was too little too late. It did strong arm the HK Jockey Club and others, to hold job fairs in the TSW district to try absorb the excess unemployment.  However, had the government employed smart thinking at the beginning the social and economic problems could have been easily avoided, and also the related carbon emissions.

Sustainable Development
This is not rocket science, a sustainable planned environment named Masdar City [link] is under development in the Middle East, it follows this very principle putting home and work within reach and averting transportation and carbon headaches.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia.

Here is the full ADB article, I am sure they will change the hyperlink in the future so here is the text:

13 December 2009
Asia Pacific Must Act Now to Tackle the Scourge of Climate Change – ADB

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – The countries of Asia and the Pacific have a strong stake in a successful outcome to the current climate change talks in Copenhagen, senior officials of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Sunday.

Most have already prepared action plans to address both the causes and consequences of climate change.

The People’s Republic of China and India, for example, have announced comprehensive strategies, including renewable energy and energy efficiency ambitions, and have committed to improve land and forestry management, the officials said.

The Asia and Pacific region is expected to suffer significantly from the detrimental effects of climate change such as rising sea levels and extreme weather events. This could seriously undermine the economic potential of the region and damage livelihoods.

ADB’s role is to work with its developing member countries to address climate change through financing and technical support for both adaptation and mitigation, the officials said at ADB Day, a day-long series of discussions organized by ADB and held in the Danish Capital.

Within the climate change agenda, a redirection of the transport sector’s development was highlighted as crucial.

ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda pointed to the urgent need for establishing a low-carbon, climate-resilient transport sector.

Transport is one of the largest and fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 23% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

“No global solution can be found to the climate change challenge without real progress in the transport sector – especially in Asia,” said Mr. Kuroda. “Annual transport-related carbon dioxide emissions in Asia are estimated to double between 2006 and 2030, from 1 billion to 2.3 billion tons.”

Seminar speakers noted that many countries have begun to adopt clean fuel technologies, but the sheer increase in demand for private motor vehicles and other forms of fossil-fuel burning transport are outweighing the gains at this point. The transport sector faces a major challenge to find alternatives to fossil fuels that can both reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which would also help to ensure the energy security of developing Asian countries.

“There is therefore an urgent need for the countries of developing Asia to elevate this need within their national development agendas. This workshop is one in a series of events that are helping to raise awareness on these issues and to promote suitable mechanisms to support the development of a low-carbon, climate resilient transport sector,” said Mr. Kuroda.

High-ranking officials from government, development agencies, and academia took part in ADB Day, including Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rae Kwon Chung, Ambassador for Climate Change from the Republic of Korea, and Tariq Banuri, director of the sustainable development division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

The workshop was held in conjunction with the UN-led negotiations on a new agreement to combat climate change, which have drawn more than 30,000 government leaders, policymakers, private sector and civil society experts and activists to Copenhagen.

Now Australia will likely become the next country to bite the bullet, realising the importance of energy usage in buildings, a mandatory label scheme is planned for mid of 2010. It seems the popular NABERS scheme will form part of the system.

Overseas, in the United Kingdom has a mandatory label scheme is in place for all government buildings, a certain forerunner for the private sector.

Mandatory building labels will create job, employment, and better buildings, REITs, fund managers, and consumers will have a choice, a choice I believe they will exercise. At the recent HKGBC conference, a building fund manager endorsed building labelling for this very reason, and early adopters and users of of the green building labels [refer note 2] would testify.

Notes:
[1] A building with numerous owners or tenants cannot be managed effectively, therefore a property management company is employed to operate and oversee all the building common area operations, for example the central chilled water equipment. For multi-owner buildings, it is common for a committee to drive the scope of the property services provided. However, many of these property management firms are compensated on a percentage fee basis or cost plus basis, therefore if more fuel used, the management charge is also higher.

Also all tenants typically pay a management fee based on Gross Floor Area (GFA) of the leased accommodation, irrespective of the actual energy usage, therefore we have a situation where there is no financial incentive to lower the use of central services such as central air conditioning because they don’t benefit from the saved costs or lower emissions.

[2] BEAM is the local green building label system. Buildings are assessed against various criteria, and can be awarded a green building label to distinguish them from other buildings. Once a valid scheme is established customers and facilities personnel have a choice and often use that label as a key criteria for choosing accommodation – that is exactly what happened in Australia, the voluntary NABERS scheme became a customer requirement.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
lowering the cost of doing business in Asia.

Here is the text for your reference:

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam, at the inauguration of the Hong Kong Green Building Council on November 20:

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It really gives me great pleasure to attend the inauguration of the Hong Kong Green Building Council. I want actually to thank, most sincerely the four founding members of the Hong Kong Green Building Council: the Construction Industry Council, chaired by Mr Keith Kerr; the Business Environment Council, chaired by Mr Stephen Fong; the Hong Kong BEAM Society, under Mr Michael Arnold’s leadership; and of course K S Wong, Chairman of the PGBC. I want especially to thank the inaugural chairman, Andrew.

I think we could not find a better chairman at this point in time to head the Hong Kong Green Building Council, partly because of Andrew’s extensive experience locally and worldwide on green building matters, but more importantly because as you will know at the same time, Dr Chan is the president of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers and he has chosen the theme of sustainability to mark his presidency of the HKIE. So my deepest appreciation goes to Andrew.

To be positioned at this juncture to give a keynote address is very difficult because all the things that the government is doing on promoting green buildings have been said by the Financial Secretary, my boss. And all the things that you need to know as practitioners in promoting green buildings will be said by the professionals later on. So I have very little value to add to this discussion. But I’ve learnt this from my 30 years of public service that not being somebody who is professionally trained and as someone who has no expertise in anything, my greatest merit is I’m ready to learn. I learn from every job that I’ve taken in the government from public finance to social welfare, to housing and lands, arts and sports. So I would tell you that my education as the Secretary for Development, particularly in green buildings, started from a journey to Melbourne last September.

In around summer last year, I was asked to lead a delegation to take part in Sustainable Buildings 08 to be hosted in Melbourne. I think the Green Building Council Australia is here, Romilly is here, thank you very much. At first, I did have a little bit of hesitation. In this term of government, the subject of green buildings or environmental sustainability falls more on the Secretary for Environment, and not me, and somebody used to allege this government these days for trying to pass the buck around, to see where it sits better before taking on the assignment. But I have been educated in that process by a number of distinguished people who are so passionate about green buildings, and they are all here in this room. And I fortunately decided that I should take up this invitation to lead a delegation, also for a private reason because I have never been to Australia, so I thought it’s a good trip, especially when LegCo was in recess in around September.

And this trip turned out to be a very eyes-opening journey, not only in attending the SB08 and learning from the practitioners and leaders all around the world about what they are doing on promoting green buildings, but also through a lot of private luncheons and dinners where I had this privilege of sharing experience and learning from really very distinguished leaders who have driven this green building movement including Rick Fedrizzi, who was the founding chairman of the USGBC and of course Tony Arnel, who now heads the World Green Building Council, himself Victoria’s Building Commissioner. I told myself that we in Hong Kong need a bit of catching up to do, because despite the fact that I was leading a delegation, I was not representing or partnering with the Hong Kong Green Building Council to attend this very important event in Melbourne, whereas I have met counterparts from the India Green Building Council, from of course the Green Building Council Australia, the USGBC, the Singapore GBC and the China Green Building Council. So when we were there, we had some private discussions with friends and colleagues from Hong Kong. And we decided when we came back to Hong Kong, we should really give this subject a big push. And this has been very well received by the four founding members, particularly of course by Mr Keith Kerr from the Construction Industry Council. Without the Council’s support, I’m sure that this way of forming the Hong Kong GBC will be made even more difficult. So that’s the history to my involvement in the setting up of the HKGBC.

Now that it has been born, I feel a very strong sense of duty and I will make sure that it would succeed, not only in Hong Kong, not only in this region, but also in the world scene. So what I am going to say in the next five to ten minutes is a topic I just decided, these notes were jotted early this morning, is what the Hong Kong Green Building Council can do for Hong Kong, and in return what the HKSAR Government, particularly the Development Bureau that I lead, can do for the Hong Kong Green Building Council. And I have these few things to share with you.

There are four As that I expect the Hong Kong Green Building Council to do for Hong Kong, on green buildings of course. First is Advocacy. This is a subject that means a lot of public education, not only amongst the practitioners and the industry, but also amongst the building users, and also within the government. People tend to feel that since this government is executive-led, it doesn’t like to be told by other people. I can assure you that it’s not the case. That’s not the case with me particularly, as I have told you that my own strength is to learn from other people. So the Hong Kong Green Building Council needs to be a very strong advocate and champion for promoting green buildings in Hong Kong, for transforming market practices, as well as for suggesting or even pressurising us for policy changes, where justified. People may think that this will bring the Hong Kong Green Building Council into conflict or tension with government officials; that’s fine, we are quite used to this these days. And I certainly will embrace this sort of tensions because they are healthy, they will ensure that we could reach our common goal more effectively.

So right now we are actually in a very good timing for some very serious advocacy to be done by the Hong Kong Green Building Council. As FS has just announced, the Environment Bureau has rolled out a number of initiatives to promote green buildings in Hong Kong, including legislation, like mandating the compliance of energy efficiency code in buildings and also in incentives where they have set aside $450 million under the Environment and Conservation Fund to support carbon audits, as well as installation of energy efficiency measures in private buildings. But more importantly, Development Bureau is, with the support of the Council for Sustainable Development, undertaking a major review on quality building design, in order to foster a more sustainable building environment. This is a very long title, but in short, people called this inflated building (發水樓) consultation document.

The Council has completed its four-month public consultation, so the ball will be back to me pretty soon with a range of recommendations from the Council for Sustainable Development in the light of public views collected on what to do. I know that the Hong Kong Green Building Council, because of all the works involved in the setting up, might not have the time to focus on this subject yet. So I would expect you and invite you to focus on it in the next few months, so that the Council’s view will be taken fully into account in my final formulation of recommendations. And just to give you a tip, we would have a very good opportunity to make a push in things that the Hong Kong Green Building Council would like to see in Hong Kong. Somebody may not know this figure: of the 12 so-called green features that this government has promoted since 2001 through a joint practice note issued by the Director of Buildings, we estimate that they will need a total of 23% extra GFA to be granted on an exempted basis to buildings. So the GBC does have this leeway of 23% of GFA, if you want me to give it to other things, by all means, please tell me. I hope this will provide a good basis for any effective advocacy to be done.

The second A is of course a very practical one – Assessment. Green building is not a subjective matter. It needs to be assessed, appraised and rated, so that it is done in a very professional, very objective and fair manner for all to see. And it’s only when we have this sort of objective assessment and grading, that we could on that basis formulate whether it’s a policy, whether it’s a voluntary accreditation or it is financial incentive. I’m very pleased to hear Andrew in one of his interviews has already talked about this subject in terms of a BEAM Plus. I just realised that in fact the BEAM was the second to be created worldwide, but in terms of widespread application perhaps it has not been given the due credit that it should with this environment and policy and so on. So in time to come, I hope that the BEAM Plus will be not only on par with the US LEED or the Australian Green Star, but also excels. It will be applied not only in the local context, in the regional context, in Mainland and also hopefully worldwide.

Again, in assessment, we are also in a very timely environment, because some of you will know in this year’s Policy Address, the Chief Executive has mapped out a rather ambitious strategy to retrofit and revitalise over 1,000 existing old industrial buildings in Hong Kong. Age-wise they are not actually very old and they are very versatile for adaptation and reuse. But of course we would like to see enhanced value out of the reuse and conversion of industrial buildings. So if the HKGBC could in due course come up with a template or particular assessment for industrial buildings’ retrofitting, then I think that will do a lot of good to our exercise and to the Hong Kong community.

The third A is Accreditation. We need trainers, we need properly-accredited, qualified and trained professionals to do the rating to apply the tool. And I would much encourage my own professionals in my various departments to take part in any training and accreditation that the HKGBC is going to lay out for us.

Finally is Award. People need some recognition. I would put running an award scheme as one of the priorities of the Hong Kong Green Building Council. Maybe not on day one, but in time to come, we should have a landmark event on the HKGBC award presentation and assuming that I will still be the Secretary for Development, I will happily attend to preside over any award presentation scheme. I was at a MIPIM Asia Award Presentation 2009 a couple of days ago. Sitting there, I realised that among the 24 finalists — the buildings that have been chosen by the panel of jury of eight categories ranging from green buildings to business centres, shopping malls, hotel resorts and futura projects and things like that, Hong Kong has only one entry, and we did not win any award in this particular award presentation. I realised that in past award presentations for Asia regions, Hong Kong did excel in some of the winning awards. But I dare not ask why, because I was sitting in between Aedas and some of the architect firms in Hong Kong. If I tended to ask why, they would immediate say, “Oh, it’s all your fault.” It’s because of your building codes. It’s all because of the way you calculate GFA, you stifle our imagination. I would like to share this fault with developers in Hong Kong. It’s also the developers’ fault, who are so keen and anxious about every square metre in GFA that they need to build and then they sell. But never mind, I think the world is changing, Hong Kong is changing, people are now attaching a lot more importance to quality city environment, spacious living. And I’m sure that with the efforts of HKGBC, people will have a change in mindset. We will see more winning entries both in what schemes to be mounted by HKGBC in due course, and also in any Asia region and worldwide competitions.

Now the next thing for me to say is after all I have said so much about what I expect the HKGBC to do, so what Development Bureau or the HKSAR Government can do for the HKGBC? Not much, I am afraid. This is because I was told by the world leaders in Green Building Councils that any successful Green Building Council should have very little association with the government. They need to be very independent. They don’t want to operate under government’s interference. They don’t want to be just a professional group, as K S will know, the PGBC cannot become a HKGBC because it is just formed by professionals. GBC worldwide has to be industry-based, membership-based, open door policy. So having said that, I try to find something that we could do for HKGBC.

The first thing is we will listen. We will listen and we will champion on behalf of the HKGBC within the HKSAR administration. These days, it will be very naive for you to think that the whole government thinks and sings in one voice. No, we argue. We argue very fiercely within our administration in order to champion for something that we believe is right. Conserving Central will not be able to be announced if it hasn’t gone through that argument. So we will listen and we will champion within the administration, we will argue on behalf of green buildings in Hong Kong, and the Council’s initiatives and good work if we feel that it is justified. And it is in the best interest of Hong Kong.

Second thing that we could do is we will act by example. As FS has mentioned, we have already issued technical circulars requiring new government buildings as well as existing government buildings to be retrofitted to higher standards. So we will set examples once BEAM Plus is available. We will have no hesitation to request our departments to adopt BEAM Plus for the assessment of our government buildings. We will also be able to provide incentives where justified. And this is an area that we need to work hard in the next six months or so. We will not shy away from regulations for mandating certain practices, if we feel again that it is well justified, like the mandatory compliance with the energy efficiency code to be introduced by legislation, by the Secretary for Environment in due course.

The third thing that we could do is we will support and provide funding where necessary. And this funding, I must qualify. In order to have this firewall and this independence, we will not be able to provide any recurrent funding to HKGBC. But where there are good projects that the Council wants to do and you want to do it very independently, so you don’t want to go to the developers for sponsorship, then come to me, come to us, we will try to squeeze money out of very limited budget. That $450 million does not belong to me, it belongs to the Secretary for Environment, but I’m sure Edward Yau will be very sympathetic and I will still be able to find some money within my overall operating expenditure in order to fund good projects of the Hong Kong Green Building Council.

So comparatively speaking, what we can do for the HKGBC is no match of what HKGBC is going to do for Hong Kong. I look to the leaders of the HKGBC Board, and the founding members, and more new members to join this important goal. Like constitutional development, what we need now is to embrace a common goal and find common ground, and move ahead. The last thing Hong Kong wants to see is stand still, doing nothing, and then we will be caught up by cities around the world. Thank you very much.

End

Reference: YTTRUP Consulting Engineers – Structural, Civil & Geotechnical Engineering.

It does seem that, yet again, one key point has perhaps been overlooked. Certainly invest US$420,000 in the project but ensure the outcome is independently checked – trust but verify – what is known in the trade as independent M&V (Measurement and Verification) to ensure that promised savings are delivered.

And just in case I loose it, or the URL changes, here is the entire announcement by ADB:

http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2009/13083-indonesian-clean-energies/

26 November 2009
ADB Conference Promotes Investments in Indonesia’s Energy Efficiency Sector

Investments in energy efficiency solutions in Indonesia offer a potential $4 billion market for commercial banks and the industrial sector, a Jakarta conference co-organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) heard today.

“Indonesia’s energy sector is a vast green field of investment opportunities that awaits the participation of the domestic and international banking as well as industrial sectors,” said Anthony Jude, Director of the Energy and Water Division in ADB’s Southeast Asia Department. “Energy efficiency investments, like low hanging fruits, reap significant returns.”

The $4 billion figure is ADB’s estimate of the potential market size for retrofits and other energy-saving improvements in commercial buildings and industrial facilities. Types of projects range from electrical system retrofits to improving efficiency of air conditioning systems (including chillers), lighting and waste heat recovery.

For example, a commercial bank might co-finance a $420,000 project to upgrade the air conditioning, pumps and lighting systems of a large office building. These upgrades will bring about huge electricity savings – in this scenario some $100,000 a year – therefore paying back the initial investment in just over four years.

The Jakarta conference, “Financing $4 billion Energy Efficiency Solutions in Indonesia,” brought together close to 200 representatives of commercial banks, government, and major industries. The event, which ADB is co-hosting with MKI, the Indonesian Electrical Power Society, and KADIN, the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce, was designed to create mutually beneficial partnerships between commercial banks, equipment suppliers and energy service companies that will in turn promote environmentally sustainable growth.

Agus Purnomo, Head of Secretariat at Indonesia’s National Council on Climate Change, noted the significance of the conference taking place just prior to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks that get underway in Copenhagen on 7 December.

“The energy sector is a key player in Indonesia’s drive to combat climate change,” Mr. Purnomo said in a keynote address. “Therefore we strongly welcome national and international commercial banks, as well as equipment suppliers and energy service companies, as critical partners in facilitating new financing opportunities in energy efficiency and renewable energies.”

Last year, ADB approved nearly $1.7 billion in clean energy investments, exceeding the bank’s target of $1 billion. Under a new Energy Policy passed by its Board of Directors earlier this year, ADB will double its targets for clean energy annually to $2 billion starting 2013.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

water and energy conservation?

Here is a photograph I took yesterday in Jardin House (Central, Hong Kong) this hand basin tap was obviously intended to save energy and water, in reality does neither. You will note that this particular model has the flat faced user sensor located very near the base of the stem, and that its downfall.

When using this tap water droplets adhere to the sensor plate. Therefore after you have finished, the sensor still detects “a user” and the tap continues to discharge water long after the user has left the room. Just because it says energy saving on the box doesn’t make it so.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

I will be speaking at the conference, during the 2.30-4.30pm session on 4th December  2009 http://www.hktdc.com/John-herbert.

If you have spare moment you could also visit our energyLAB booth number 1B09 and say hi.

Related Links:

website: http://innodesigntechexpo.hktdc.com

seminar schedule: conference seminar

speaker link: http://www.hktdc.com/John-herbert

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

The documents are available to download FREE from the www.HK-BEAM.org.hk website, here are the links:

BEAM Plus EB (PDF) or BEAM PLus NB (PDF)

Until 31 March 2010 practitioners have the choice, to have building assessed under the new or old tool, after 31 March, green buildings will be assessed under 2009 BEAM Plus.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

HKGBC has four founding members, they are The BEAM society, Professional Green Building Council (PGBC), Business Environment Council (BEC) and Construction Industry Council (CIC), the latter a quasi-government body also taking the majority voting share, and chairmanship.

Although the HKGBC secretariat has been recently touting for event sponsorship, HKGBC has still not actually produced a web site, or documents of its doctrine, I guess we are expected to believe, blind faith you could call it.

As a member of BEAM executive committee, I can say that the sponsorship deal was issued late. It included free ticket or tickets to attend the event, and although no formal announcement has been made, within the sponsorship burb (provided by Ketchum) an annual HKGBC membership cost of HK$3,800 is revealed.

HKGBC’s role
So what will HKGBC do? what is its role in Hong Kong? Honestly, I think that at this stage nobody knows. I do know that GBC’s are not meant to be “commercial” and starting out with this type of mega-sponsorship deal is not a good start in my view.

Global Carbon
Interesting that this week, the worlds major GBC’s (including BRE-UK, Australia, and USGBC ) announced their call for a common carbon metric initiative [1] [2PDF] and yes details are as sketchy as HKGBC’s new mantra.

UPDATE (23 Nov 2009):

I stumbled upon the original USGBC document, USGBC Common Carbon language Press Release if that’s not available here is local PDF version

— John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

An interesting English language website, which seems to be focused on the China market (http://www.rightsite.asia) has published my Technical Due Diligence article, here is the link

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Following in the footsteps of international success, India has now joined the list of countries that has adopted an attractive feed-in tariff for renewable power generation. It is no coincidence, its the the very same mechanism that drove a sluggish German renewable sector from obscurity to world leader status.

Unlike China’s tariff policy supporting wind, the Indian feed-in tariff is inclusive covering small hydro, solar systems, biogas, cogeneration, and waste to energy technologies subject to approval by the regulatory commission.

CDM
During the first year of operation the developer enjoys 100% of the potential carbon credit under CDM. However every year thereafter, an additional 10% up to a maximum of fifty (50%), must be shared with the utility.

Click here to download the entire document (317K, PDF format)

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Now, one could argue that is one of the primary aims for building green, the largest cost centre is your employees, therefore even minor productivity improvements equates to a valuable dollar return for employers.

However, two points to consider.

First defining and measuring “productivity” is no simple matter, it’s a very subjective, unlike objective equipment meter readings, the exercise is wholly dependant on fuzzy variables such as the respondents mood and feelings. Certainly surveys are a useful, and providing snapshot of the current situation, but how will the employees, solar panels, or chiller performance look next year?  The next survey might provide a different outcome.

Secondly, the last part of this report is also instructive, it reveals that the respondents said they would not pay more for a green building!  Therefore, we could conclude that they wouldn’t actually trust the productivity findings, and that measuring workplace productivity remains an elusive goal.  Another possible but unlikely conclusion is that green building has finally become main stream, therefore “extra cost” is not an issue.

Unfortunately, the report doesn’t reveal if respondents would have pay more for a building with proven, independently verified, cost, energy, water, and carbon savings.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

[PRD – the Pearl River Delta region]

by John A. Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

by John A. Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

However, here LEED is not alone, many of the building environmental performance rating tools are based on a similar structure, under assessment projects need to accumulate points or credits, and the higher score equates to more prestigious building rating.

In the absence of other metrics, often the design team is often tasked to deliver a target rating (for example refer to Hong Kong green building circular mentioned yesterday) and that is the driver, the pursuit of the necessary points/credits becomes the goal without considering other viable options that do not attract credits.

So the rating tools are flawed, but I am not advocating that we abandon the assessment models. The industry does need a common language for building assessment, to recognise, encourage, and reward superior environmental performance. However, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that LEED/BEAM/BREEAM is not the only route to provide superior environmental performance, and it can be achieved without fanfare and rigid assessment tools.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/

by John A. Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Earlier this year  the Hong Kong Government finally discovered it needed to embrace Green Building, quietly in April 2009 word was issued for the adoption of green Government buildings. However, the joint circular was not widely advertised. Covert copies have changed hands under the table, as if it was some government secret.  So today, I decided to investigate further. Google didn’t give up its secrets lightly, anyway after an hour or so searching I finally stumbled on the prize a public document [1].

Framework
The Government has created a framework for Government Green buildings in Hong Kong. There are more than 180+ buildings have been registered and or certified under the BEAM building environmental assessment scheme, many of which are Government or quasi-government buildings, and now in 2009, the HKSAR Government wants to promote green building in Hong Kong.

New Construction
In brief, all government new build projects, with an area of more than 10,000 square metres will be green! The framework states that Government buildings shall assessed with a goal to achieve the second highest award under an internationally or locally recognised building environment assessment system.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the US LEED system is cited, and considered suitable for Hong Kong [2]. It also strongly advocates achieving the highest rating award with certain caveats, immediately reminding readers about additional costs that not exceed 2% of the budget.

This framework also sets out additional targets and requirements for building energy efficiency, greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy, waste reduction and management , water management, indoor air quality, and carbon audit

Building Energy Efficiency
Lets take a brief look at the specific targets for building energy efficiency. The circular states that a new government building, with a construction area of more than 10,000 sqm. shall outperform the Hong Kong Building Energy Code by ten percent (10%) for offices, headquarters buildings, and recreational facilities. Other facilities such as hospitals, schools, and cultural facilities shall outperform the code by five percent (5%). A very reasonable in my view payback hurdle of nine (9) years has been set.

Has the Government shot itself in the foot? Remembering that BEAM, like other rating tools, compares assessed project against a basic, no frills, code compliant building. Now in this situation one could easily argue that the Environment Bureau Circular Memorandum No. 2/2009 is the base case for Government buildings, including the 10% energy efficiency improvement. Under BEAM 4/04 (page 4-6) that 10% improvement could have earned one credit. In my view, as it stands today, Government buildings would have to offer greater improvements to gain that credit – In due course another issue for the TRP (BEAM Technical Review panel) to wrangle over.

Existing Government Buildings
Based on the numbers alone, the existing building stock provides the largest potential for improvement. How many 10,000 sqm Government buildings are constructed every year? very few. However, green building certification is NOT required for existing Government buildings. Instead the government had opted to once again to set specific targets for energy efficiency, water conservation, greenhouse gas reduction, waste reduction and indoor air quality objectives.

Other Government Buildings
Here in Hong Kong we have the “Government” and several other government funded organisations, known as subvented, and quasi-government bodies. It strongly recommends that this green building strategy framework is vigorously applied.

[1] Environment Bureau Circular Memorandum No. 2/2009 & Development Bureau Technical Circular No. 05/2009

[2] USGBC LEED was designed specifically tailored for the US market. Certainly, the latest version, LEED 2009, included regional credits to account for the relative importance of the different aspects of LEED system within the the US, but USGBC still does not officially sanction overseas projects.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

I can’t be the only person that has noticed, we have tools such as LEED (http://www.USGBC.org) and BEAM (http://www.HK-BEAM.org.hk) which treat new build (LEED NB, CS) projects and existing buildings (LEED O&M) differently. You might argue, without doubt, that new building is resource intensive, and sustainable construction activities should be supported. However, the operating cost of these green buildings was not considered a problem that needed solving! So the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) which considers the total operating cost, and air conditioned buildings the majority of which tends to be energy cost, little focus was put towards increasing efficiency. In the US pictures of LEED certified buildings with lights burning bright all night long have raised the issue of green building operating energy consumption.

Indoor Quality
One of the many green building challenges is IEQ (Indoor Environmental Quality) expanded from the former and tighter IAQ (Indoor air Quality) goal. You might wonder is there any real difference between IEQ and IAQ, and does it make a difference? IAQ is the environmental air quality, it is measurable, whereas as IEQ covers a wider range of factors such as air quality, lighting, noise, etc. These factors that impact the quality of your working environment, it is frankly a very difficult metric measure.

IEQ is very subjective measure, the benefits of natural daylighting, and access to vistas (windows) have been documented to improve productivity. However, for the night shift for example FX traders does sight of a dark window improve your productivity? doubtful in my view.

Studies prove that under a given set of indoor conditions, varied by temperature, humidity and clothing, the best one can achieve is 80% occupancy satisfaction, so given a set of optimum environmental conditions that leaves 20% out in the cold.

Greener Data Centres
For greener data centres its a different story, immediately the focus is the TCO of the facility. Its difficult to pick a single reason for this anomaly. Maybe it is the lack of occupants, machines don’t complain loudly if there is no view. Perhaps a more rational explanation is that most data centres are owner operated, and therefore energy awareness is at the forefront. Google Inc. states that its energy cost are second only to its payroll, a mighty incentive for improved energy efficiency of its hardware and facilities.

THE US EPA report (PDF format) [1] in 2007 certainly brought the issue into the public domain. The summary says:

The energy used by the nation’s servers and data centers is significant. It is estimated that this sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption) for a total electricity cost of about $4.5 billion. This estimated level of electricity consumption is more than the electricity consumed by the nation’s color televisions and similar to the amount of electricity consumed by approximately 5.8 million average U.S. households (or about five percent of the total U.S. housing stock). Federal servers and data centers alone account for approximately 6 billion kWh (10 percent) of this electricity use, for a total electricity cost of about $450 million annually.

Perhaps it was fear of a backlash, or just the obvious opportunities to stop wasting energy, whatever the driver, facility operators started a drive towards greater energy efficiency.

Data Centre Operations
Another important issue for data centres has been operational change control. With separate IT and facilities operations departments.

As the world becomes digitized demand for data centre facilities increases, creating additional space is a time consuming and costly option, therefore rapidly increasing density followed, cramming more computing capacity into existing facilities. IT depts often installing additional equipment first, leaving struggling facilities manager to provide the necessary Power and Cooling. Whether through budgeting or structure IT and FM departments need to closely co-ordinate their activities if hot spots and power outages are to be avoided and improved energy efficiency achieved.

Building Energy Costs
With developers, and end users are becoming increasingly carbon aware the media grabbing projects have gone green, the challenge will be for every development to be green or at least greener. Over time, as green construction square footage increases, and acceptance widens, it will become the norm not the exception, and hopefully commercial buildings will be treated more like data centres where the TCO is considered at the conceptual design stage.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

…..two-thirds of Hong Kong’s respondents thought the government should place a higher priority on climate change, while 30 per cent thought the current priority was appropriate

Now I haven’t seen sight of this survey, but it is an interesting idea. People in general tend to think that climate change is large problem, so overwhelming that it is only a governmental issue rather than business or personal issue. Yes, I do agree that government has a role to play but I feel it is far more important that you stack the cards in their favour first. Governments are inherently slow to act, business can act  today, gain a leadership position before regulation is imposed.

I think Wal-Mart a US company has the right idea, its ahead of the curve. Voluntarily, without any fancy regulation, its products will have a carbon footprint, the cost has been estimated in the region of US$250million, and other retailers will be left to follow the leader.

In certain instances government needs to balance the mismatched market, the much vaunted Polluter Pays principal is fine if it is actually implemented. Presently it is not, externalities, for example the social cost for health, and well fare are not costed in the market, and only regulation can readdress that issue. As this survey indicates like it or not the people want more government action.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Personally, I have more faith in the promised co-operation between USGBC, BREEAM, and UKGBC to tackle common global carbon emissions than ICC setting a global green construction code, which like LEED will be difficult for countries outside north America to incorporate. It is heartening and reassuring that sustainable building is finally escaping from the dark back alley, becoming a main street activity.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Essentially the seven MPR’s are:

1. MUST COMPLY WITH ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
2. MUST BE A COMPLETE, PERMANENT BUILDING OR SPACE
3. MUST USE A REASONABLE SITE BOUNDARY
4. MUST COMPLY WITH MINIMUM FLOOR AREA REQUIREMENTS
5. MUST COMPLY WITH MINIMUM OCCUPANCY RATES
6. MUST COMMIT TO SHARING WHOLE-BUILDING ENERGY AND WATER USAGE DATA
7. MUST COMPLY WITH A MINIMUM BUILDING AREA TO SITE AREA RATIO

Clearly these are aimed to precluding toilets, bus shelters, trailers, tents, toll booths, ships, and the like. from claim LEED building certification. And to provide the teeth USGBC/GBCI also included a “revocation” clause, I quote:

“NOTE: CERTIFICATION MAY BE REVOKED FROM ANY LEED PROJECT UPON GAINING KNOWLEDGE OF NON-COMPLIANCE WITH ANY APPLICABLE MPR.  IF SUCH A CIRCUMSTANCE OCCURS, REGISTRATION AND/OR CERTIFICATION FEES WILL NOT BE REFUNDED.”

Sparse details indeed, but in my view these MRP’s are essentially common-sense requirements, clearly designed to prevent tents, boats, and other structures from gaining LEED certification.

The interesting exception perhaps is Item 6 – sharing energy and water consumption data which is obviously a post occupancy activity, and in a sector where building construction and operations are separate a thorny subject.  As one might expect the construction lawyers in USA have started a debate on the issue. However, from an international perspective what will USGBC/LEED do with projects in China, Hong Kong or UAE will these overseas entities also still need to share energy data?  and who has access the shared data? and in the case of speculative developments the future owner is committed to providing data to retain the certificate provide by the developer.

Transparency
As a panellist at the recent 2009 Greenbuild Asia conference, if I could distil one common theme it was a clear demand for increased transparency, and frankly the lack of transparency is criticism levelled at BEAM (HK-BEAM).

Green Building as the name implies was aimed clearly at new construction, to help encourage, rate and compare new sustainable construction activity. If a building that meets all the LEED MPR’s, was constructed sustainability, but then fails to share energy data does it then enter the twilight zone of formerly green.

The next few months should be interesting, will these MPR impact uptake of LEED? or has it already reached a critical mass such that developments will opt to bite the bullet and share the data?  Providing or not providing the energy data is not a LEED green building issue is it? USGBC want the data for self marketing purposes period.

Locally the HKSAR government is finally starting the embrace green building, BEAM or LEED being accepted as the prefered tool for large developments, but will the HKSAR government or for that matter any government be willing share energy and water data with USGBC.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

• Comfort air conditioning plant running 24 hours/day for an office block with only 9-5 occupancy!
• Steam systems where process equipment burns unnecessary fuel, poor steam distribution, no condensate recovery

Reality bites, its you the consumer pays that for this waste.

Why waste energy?
So the real question: why do these businesses keep wasting energy? Is it the often cited lack of technology, finance, or availability of know how? I think not. Seriously, is it that difficult to Goggle energy consultant, pick up a phone and ask? It might be an awareness problem, but it’s not a shortage of resource problem.

A code problem?
One of the often cited explanations is absentee regulation. Generally every facility must be built to the current “code” for example the local fire code. But in circumstances where no code exists, i.e. energy waste, there is no limitation to the amount can be wasted.  However, assume for a moment the plant was efficient on day one, it is commonly recognized that maintenance budgets are wholly inadequate, so over time the plant efficiency deteriorates resulting in excessive waste. For buildings an energy code is not going to solve all the problems.

Accountability
Yes, having an Energy Czar, reporting at board level puts a driver at the wheel of the bus, but is that enough? You also need the ability to handle change, without guidance and drive we all generally work to avoid change. We are creatures of habit, and prefer the easy way, its less stressful, less pain, than considering change.  We need support, we need systems to motivate and embrace change. And I feel that is the real key to understanding energy efficiency projects, we all know having management “buy in” is critical, however if the employees fear change little progress would be made.

Often the employees already know where energy could be saved, but businesses are not structured to leverage that knowledge. Large facilities with quality circles, etc. have the opportunity to use that change structure to benefit the bottomline.

– John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft E&M Limited

helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Its dark down here

I am equally sure that for all the talk about energy efficiency improvement projects, not many people have actually spent as much time in plant rooms as I. The real work behind energy efficiency is not rocket science, it is dark and dirty work, hours spent crawling around equipment rooms, many of which have not seen a broom since practical completion! But the opportunities for energy efficiency improvements are often staggering. You only need the right perspective to identify them.

The Code

The Hong Kong Government is currently preparing the new Building Energy Code, of course aimed at the new construction, but will likely include a requirement for an energy audit energy ten (10) years.  We will have to wait to see the final code, however, lets be clear, an energy audit every 10 years is ludicrous, ten years is far too long. In other jurisdictions it is required annually or when the ownership changes.

If you read the countless EE “reports” they identify the typical barriers and obstacles for improved energy efficiency, and you’ll find plenty of talk about introducing new technology, technology transfer, etc.  Yet the basics are still being overlooked. In place of diatribes about lowering barriers for importing new technology (perhaps more accurately encouraging sales from west to east)  why not explain IRR and the poor use of capital?

Building owners happily make a long term investment in the structure without any tangible yield, yet expect energy efficiency improvements to payback their investment in much shorter periods of time.  I visited a ten year old building, instead of upgrading the air conditioning equipment they made the building “pretty”, it was dressed, new external decoration, and thousands of new ceramic tiles, and neatly cut to fit around the aged air conditioning plant. I wonder if the efficient use of capital figured in that decision, probably not.

Tough Decisions

Globally, every sixty seconds another sixty six houses are built, most are in-efficient, and there are still few incentives to encourage sustainable energy efficiency. The same applies to commercial and industrial facilities.  So looking forward the future for energy efficiency practitioners looks very bright indeed.

In China alone the estimated that the energy efficiency improvement market is worth more than RMB 300 billion, yet other developing countries still have not learned the lesson, and today are repeating the same mistake. It is not easy, when your constituents are suffering power shortages today it requires an extraordinary sense of purpose, and a vision to look past the immediate crisis, to avert a future crisis.

One idea to change the status quo, a mandatory annual building tuning assessment would be one step, but lets take it further, and require publication it within their annual report, that will let the stakeholders have a clearer picture.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Energy Efficiency might well be the fastest, least intrusive and lowest cost solution to implement energy conservation projects that also lowers your carbon footprint, the McKinsey report even highlights these opportunities. However, it does not take way from the fact that little improvements have been made.

This report dated March 2009 covers much of the same ground, only offering legislative improvements to encourage take up of energy services.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

I know many have high hopes for the forthcoming treaty negotiations in Copenhagen, I don’t. In my view only an overwhelming ground swell of public opinion today has a chance to sway our local officials from the typical do nothing course.

Need evidence? Let’s review the Hong Kong Council for Sustainable Development media output over the last two weeks. The Chairman, Mr Bernard Chan, recently commented upon the soon to be released green building consultation. Being the Government de facto sustainable development proponent one should expect a little waffle.  But No, it was an avalanche of warnings.  The chairman spent his air-time warning the general public about the dire consequences of asking for green buildings, including a thoughtful statement about “extra cost” of energy efficiency, without reference to the missing part of the puzzle – externalities (social cost).

To add insult to injury, the general public will not get sight of the consultation, until those renowned building energy efficiency experts Hong Kong’s “architects” and “developers” have given there views first no doubt to shape what will be finally issued to the public.  Yes, your read it correctly, we can’t have a consultation with prior approval.

It seems Europe is suffering too, here is a great little video to encourage action. enjoy.

~~

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

With the recent introduction of carbon footprint into management vernacular perhaps now energy will finally have a seat in board room. If not through carbon foot-printing then pressure for CSR reporting, and sustainable business practices will provide the needed energy oversight at board room level.

If proof is need, I read that the Uptime Institute (USA) has caught up. They recommend, in a typically flamboyant style it must said, that in the data centre space organisations assign an “Energy Czar” and that’s great news. However, a recent Uptime Institute survey of the executives and IT managers found that although 41% were aware of the recommendation to create an energy Czar position, only 13% had assigned a personnel.

So for the time being I’ll have to keep fighting for an energy Czar’s in the firms here in Asia.

energy efficiency of data
Across the planet bits and bytes sit on hard drives and virtual servers, helping business, why the sudden interest in data centre energy efficiency? It energy consumption became a key issue in initially in USA, when the US EPA issued a report with some startling figures, it focused attention on the infrastructure cost to provide IT services we have all grown to reply upon, including every blog note ever written. It also highlighted the existing inefficiencies found in the data center environment. It sparked new debates if servers should be powered by DC or AC, power supply manufacturers where reminded of the poor conversation efficiencies.

New metrics, include PUE were created by IT consortium with little thought about the real meaning of efficiency or efficacy.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

Building Tuning

Improving the existing building stock is critical issue, and one solution is tuning your building. If you owned a vehicle – would you run it year after year without a regular tune-up? of course not, yet buildings are often run for fifty years or more, without tuning.

Behind the glass façade air-conditioning, lighting and other environmental systems of commercial buildings, hotels, shopping malls are burning electricity contributing to the Hong Kong carbon footprint, for efficient operation the engineering systems need to be tuned and optimised and I would argue that it should be conducted annually.

One interesting point I have noticed, often I find firms have an elaborate ISO 14000 EMS (Environmental Management Systems) protocols in place, seemingly unaware that the building energy consumption is causing a larger, and more significant environmental impact!

Building Tuning means optimising the operation of the energy systems, including the chiller plant, pumps, and other systems to identify opportunities to lower the building carbon footprint based on today’s operating environment.

Changing Times

It is one of those facts of life, things change. For a building it is no different except it doesn’t it complain so loudly. Electrical tariffs, usage, building codes, the neighbourhood is a little more crowded, social pressure, these and other influences occur over the operating life of a building and may impact the building energy consumption.

Other influences include new legislation also play a role. For example the relaxation on the use of water and cooling towers for air conditioning systems in 2000, offers opportunities to lower operating costs for hotels and other commercial buildings in Hong Kong.

One approach is the hindsight method – review all every engineering system as if it was a new project – what would you do differently today?

The electricity tariff for commercial buildings in Hong Kong island is significantly higher than Kowloon.  Is this fact taken into consideration when designing a building for Kowloon side or HK island?  In my experience unfortunately not.  The main reason often cited is the structural disconnect between building developers don’t pay the fuel and electricity bills. All the operating costs are paid by the tenant, including any core services such as air conditioning, which is charged in the form of a management fee, charged by square foot not actual usage.

Industrial Tunes

Building Tuning is not limited to just office buildings, factories and manufacturing facilities are not immune to the influence of change.

When you lead others follow

Presently, any tenant of a grade A building in Hong Kong looking to lower their carbon footprint presently has limited opportunities while the primary cost, the cost of air-conditioning, is charged on a square foot basis irrespective of actual consumption. Now that’s true for the majority. However, some innovative developers have seen the light, and have started to provide a metered service, therefore tenants will only pay for the actual usage.

Buildings don’t have any voice to complain, and let you know where the problems are located. A buildings Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is correlated with its annual energy consumption, over its entire life the OPEX (Operating Expense) is significantly higher than its CAPEX (Capital Expenditure), mortgage, cost of finance, etc.  For single owner buildings its a no brainer, the real challenge is multi-owner buildings.

I talked with a client last week regarding his facility, apparently it emerged that a competitor had already completed some work, and now they needed the same work stat. To remain competitive and distinctive in the market place, you either lead or follow.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Mandatory green roof?

Alas not in Asia. The green building is still driving built environment innovation, and whilst politicians ponder carbon limits, and building owners ignore operating costs then obviously the next step is regulation. In Canada, the Mayor of the Toronto is poised to implement legislation becoming the first city in North America to impose mandatory green roofing for an area of 5000 square metre and up. In my view It is yet another step in the right direction. JRLIR | J&R Long Island Roofing will offer you best options.

Its not Morse code
Essentially it all boils down to one issue, communication. From within the industry it is clear to see, look at any project brief, it includes those immortal words familiar to every developer, architect, and engineer on the planet “comply with code” or some equally ignominious phrase. This mini brief communicates to all parties the expected standard, covering all aspects of the building including occupancy, building safety, means of escape, fire prevention and protection, mechanical ventilation, etc. Its often used by those who don’t understand the individual legislative requirements, but know a building must comply with the local code to earn the necessary occupancy certificate.

Regulation
The implications are clear, green building is becoming main stream period. Once considered a fringe activity, at the edge of society, the development of green building has slowly entered the lexicon of typical both builders, developers, and regulators.

I don’t see this as a trend as many claim, flares were a trend, green building is not. However, just like consumers goods, some people will want to buy the latest camera/TV/computer/etc. and these early adopters are the real beneficiaries, because over time achieving a new green standard will only become increasingly difficult as the entry level bar is continuously raised.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

waste heat rejected challenges

In the sustainable building sector fortune telling is easy, however future-proofing is not.  Over time what could be considered “state of the art” today is destined to become tomorrow’s rating tool baseline case. Translating that into project work, it means that earning your green credentials in the future must become increasing more difficult.

This is best exampled with an example, lets take the rain/storm water credit. Today’s green building rating tools such as LEED and BEAM award credits for a building project that includes rain/storm water capture and re-use.  At some point in time, this will become ubiquitous, a pre-requisite for certification.

As old ideas, and technologies become widely adopted, the number of credits within the rating tools for past innovations will decrease, and the number of pre-requisites credits will increase.  Your probably thinking yes that obvious, yet the implications for future green building are still not widely understood.  This will require more creative, and innovative thinking coupled with new technologies to meet future targets. Engineers will be stressed into new thinking “outside the box” thinking, and do more research to bring innovative credits to the design table.

After the building’s initial certification period, it then joins the largest sector in the industry – existing buildings or EB. It’s a critical future-proofing issue, and where the rating tool standards have a critical role. There is no point to create an existing building tool that certified buildings cannot achieve, yet as time and technology moves forward finding space to incorporate innovative credits within an existing building will be a challenge.

At this stage, green building is still a “new” and everyday I witness plenty of opportunities to improve the buildings.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Energy efficient design opportunities lost

Often you don’t even need to go inside a building to see opportunities for energy conservation in Hong Kong.  Sadly this opportunity (refer photograph) was many lost years ago at design stage when the lighting control strategy was planned and conceived.

Perhaps it is not clear from the photograph, I took this photo on a glorious sunny morning yet the unneeded halogen incandescent fittings burned bright, serving no useful purpose except burn extra carbon.

And that is the reason why independent third party energy consultants review projects, to highlight these opportunities before the die is cast.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

The confusing launch of USGBC’s LEED v3 or it is LEED 2009?  has launched. As the graphic and schedule below shows that LEED v3 / LEED 2009 becomes compulsory for new green building projects after 27 JUNE 2009.

• March 27: Reference guide e-copies available for order; hard copies available for pre-order.
• April 27: LEED v3 launches.
• June 27: New projects will be required to register for LEED 2009.
• Dec. 31: Last day of free migration period, during which currently registered projects can transition to LEED 2009 and LEED Online v3 without paying a new registration fee.

International Perspective
USBGC’s LEED V3 (or LEED 2009) is still not an international Green building rating tool. Interestingly USGBC local chapters in US were involved to identify keystone criteria for specific regions. The separate regionalisation element, totally focused on USA, does not provide regionalisation credit for international projects. Essentially, the regional credit system is intended to recognise that a “water” credit should have a higher weighting and more importance in a desert location or a region with a combined storm water and sewerage system, for example Washington DC, USA.

Green Buildng Qualification
If your project team is not stressed enough the LEED qualification system has also been “upgraded”, introducing CPD, new levels.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Hope on the horizon for ESCO’s and Energy efficiency projects? EVO has released (April 2009) a new publication (cover see right) titled International Energy Efficiency Financing Protocol or IEEFP to tackle the issue of bank training.

This guide is based on work conducted by EVO in Mexico, and Thailand is targeted at your local financing institution, primarily banks, essentially helping them to understand and evaluate energy efficiency project finance risk.

As mentioned here ESCO’s historically suffer from a  weak balance sheet, and often find difficultly finance for viable energy projects, one of the reasons most often cited being Financial Institutions lend only based on collateral.

Considering the financial chaos gripping the US, perhaps that prudence should have been extended across all sectors of banks activities?  Anyway, the present approach, demanding asset based collateral, overlooks the benefits of energy efficiency improvement projects, including the income stream from lower energy costs and to some extent lack of understand the mechanics of energy efficiency programmes.

This guide aims to show financial institutions how energy projects that generate energy savings, result in cash flow revenue, and can increase credit capacity for repayment of loans. It is comprehensive overview including a plan for a two day training programme, what expected risks strategies from new and emerging technologies one might encounter.

Unlike the Hong Kong’s recently launched Buildings energy funds it clearly states the obvious, the need for Investment grade energy audits and M&V (Measurement and Verification) to ensure that projects are sound and that projected energy savings are sustainable.

Risk is always an issue, especially for banks entering new territory, recognizing the outstanding opportunities and potential benefits multinational financial institutions (MNF) such as IFC created a programme for help manage the credit risk, for example this publication cites the experience from using IFC/GEF Commercializing Energy Efficiency Finance (“CEEF”) programme.  Locally, we already have IFC’s CHUEE programme which is entirely focused on China energy efficiency projects.

I agree that education, and edcuating the banking sector as a whole, not one person at a time, is a critical issue for wider adoption of energy efficiency improvement projects.  So will this guide answer all of your questions? Unfortunately no, as stated in the preface, it only provides a framework, it is intended as a starting point for a series of further IEEFP programmes and a perhaps a teaser for their two day training course.

Overall yes it is a useful energy efficiency primer, IEEFP 101. It does provide the bare bones of a programme, however key points are only covered with a list of bullet points and likely to leave the reader equally unsatisfied.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Indeed I am fortunate to be chosen to speak on the green building expert panel (PM 9th July 2009).  It should be interesting event, awareness of green building has never been higher. I will continue to advocate for the wider understanding and adoption of WSD (Whole System Design) principals, also called Integrated Design.

And I am also certain that the issues surrounding certified green buildings that are not energy efficient and carbon will be a hot topics this year.

• Leave a comment suggesting a hot green building topic
• Visit the conference website
• Email a colleague about green building
• Learn more about green building in Asia

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited
helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

Let’s be honest for a moment, if there is one area where the E&M or MEP engineers lack creativity it is engineering definitions. To the outside world engineers are often accused of speaking Klingon dialects, but between ourselves in many cases we still don’t have a simple word or phrase to convey complex engineering phenomena. Unlike the medical profession where they created an entire dictionary of new terms, engineers didn’t try very hard.

I coined the use of the word contention and pressed it into action for E&M engineering services to describe a very common engineering phenomena that is found in many facilities. And it is a lot easier to use than provide the entire word heavy description every time we need to explain it.

Here is a typical situation, imagine a large room with two (or more) air conditioning/heating/humidification devices installed, each fitted with its own automatic control system.  Now, imagine we operate the equipment, it is operated simultaneously and because each has an independently controlled, over time each starts to operate in a different control mode.

For example if one system senses rising room temperature it delivers more cooling, whilst another system senses dropping temperature and delivers more heating.  This double act wastes an enormous amount of energy as the systems figuratively “fight each other” simultaneously delivering either more heating or more cooling to the same space.  This also occurs when individually controlled humidifiers operating in the same space. one system senses dropping relative humidity and starts its humidification operation, whilst another unit sensing increasing humidity and its starts de-humidification cycle, both operating to cancel each other.

For the lack of a better phrase, engineers will often use a phrase like “the controls are fighting each other” hardly an elegant description I think you will agree.

This energy efficiency nightmare often occurs in datacenters, and other large areas such as hospitals and production areas with multiple systems in the same space.  It is common in datacenters and mission critical facilities that use packaged CRAC (Computer Room Air-Conditioning ) units since each has a complete inbuilt automatic control system, and during normal operations each attempts to “control” the space condition – that is contention, use it you might like it.

There are plenty of complex engineering situations that occur in the built environment arena that would benefit from improved terminology that would aid communications and replace a those drearly, wordy descriptions, perhaps we’ll leave those for another day.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

As HAESCO (http://www.haesco.org) was a supporting organisation for the SustainaBuild conference in Hong Kong last Wednesday, I decided to attend, a decision I would regret later. The pitch for the event was sustainable design of buildings, but shouldn’t such events that tout sustainability do more than just talk?

There were some great speakers, and bad powerpoints – it was bullet point city (they should have read Garr Reynolds book Presentation Zen).

Most of the speakers started laying out the current dire situation, some even used stats from USA. Yet as the day dragged on,  nobody had mentioned the elephant in the room, she had been strangely silent.  So in the final open forum, I had to ask the obvious question:

Considering all the disastrous predictions that we had heard during the day,  shouldn’t green building assessments, whether using Hong Kong BEAM, or another system be compulsory?

Honestly, I was expecting the long winded non-committal answers comprised of the usual arguments for delaying regulation, I am sure you have heard them before, you know the ones, they extol additional stakeholder engagement while engaging possible future policy initiatives etc and so forth.  It was a great surprise, one speaker after another respond with an fairly unequivocal affirmative answer.

It was an interesting event, in my view marred by refreshments provided with disposal paper cups, paper plates littering the breakout area.  You would think that the organisers The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) to do better, wouldn’t you?

Time is running out, we all agree, yet sustainability proponents and organisers of these events are not leading by example, and should not be serving up even more material for our the overburdened landfill sites.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

I have previously reported that the writing is on the wall for voluntarily carbon reporting.  And that prediction is one step closer to reality since the EPA (USA) has grasped the opportunity of the new 2009 presidency and signalling intentions for compulsory carbon reporting for US factories.

Global Carbon
Since Carbon is a global phenomena it does not require a vivid imagine to see where all this could lead.  Let’s assume for a moment that China continues to claim “developing country” status and does not require compulsory carbon reporting for manufacturing facilities. Importing countries, like the USA could demand it. You might think I am stretching the US EPA’s jurisdiction, perhaps, perhaps not. Consider the considerable power wielded by US trade negotiators, and the political pressures recently demonstrated by the “Buy American Only” stimulus package! It seems clear to me that any factories or business exporting to foreign markets will need to report their local carbon emissions.

Indeed it could be argued that the China is already heading in this direction (China wants importers to cover some emission costs) has already laid the groundwork, with Chinese official’s arguing that the cost of Chinese emissions for products exported to US markets are the responsibility of US market. In the future US importers may be required to bare an extra cost, the carbon cost, for emissions within China, but wait China is not the only exporter to the US.  Surely India, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. will have equally valid reasons to claim equal rights?

While US business might be quietly smarting over the idea, extra costs that are never welcomed, another surprise could be around the corner because the distant carbon emitted, and hence its cost, will surely give them further reason for pause.

China Energy Efficiency
If your report card was based on China’s energy efficiency, its one that you’d probably like to hide. The power generation sector is predominately coal based that is well known, lacks modern boilers and the latest controls technology. The risk from the resultant emissions could cause a nasty surprise. How this will play out is unclear, it is really a political trade issue more than a technical Carbon issue, undoubtedly there is an unseen business risk.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

If the facility owner implements the corrective measures the operating cost will be lower, and environmental impact of the facility will be reduced, so we have cleaner production.  Shameless plug for my firm Kelcroft is a registered consultant for the Hong Kong Cleaner Production Programme called CP3 (refer image).

Need an example to clarify? Right let’s take a look at the injection moulding process. Like many processes the press creates heat energy therefore to cool the machine moulds cooling water is needed. It circulated through the injection moulding machine, and the heat rejected outside the building typically using a cooling tower.  However, often the cooling towers are out of sight (and out of mind) they are not properly designed and not regularly maintained. Therefore the effectiveness of the whole process deteriorates causing excessive energy consumption.

This deterioration process does not occur overnight!  No, it is a slow steady process.  These apparently insignificant efficiency losses combine lowering the cooling capacity of the cooling tower installation until one day the injection moulding machine malfunctions, and the facility manager then replaces the whole cooling tower. An energy auditor familiar with cooling tower operation could identify the fix before a minor problem becomes a catastrophe.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

In terms of green building standards Asia is ahead of the game too, BEAM (Hong Kong’s Building Environmental Assessment Method) http://www.hk-beam.org.hk is the defacto green building rating standard in Hong Kong, with more than 100 buildings already registered covering millions of square feet.

Here I must confess that I am member of the BEAM executive committee, so have some insight in this area. To date, BEAM is the most successful in Asia, on per capita basis, well ahead of USGBC’s LEED, and is making headway in China.

If you are interested BEAM has already developed three versions, New Build, Existing Buildings, and Interiors. BEAM New build and Existing Building standards are published, and can be download free of charge from the BEAM website.  The third in the series BEAM Interiors is complete, and the pilot study is underway. Hopefully it will be launched 2009.

Looking forward, certainly the outlook and opportunities for green building in Asia will continue to grow steadily. I constantly advocate for better buildings, to avoid repeating the past mistakes.  Officials are only now just begininng to realise what engineers have known for many years, buildings consume the lion share of our energy budget. We can’t continue to create inefficent homes, offices, hotels, and other buildings, it is not sustainable.

The recent uproar in USA regaridng LEED (Henry Gifford’s video) is only part of the whole, future buildings must be sustainable, and that includes energy efficient irrespective of the brand.

I attended a Sino-German green building conference last year, one presentation noted that two office buildings, one designed by Sir Norman Foster was a “Green Building” it consumed more than 400w/sqm/year, yet a local design, not branded green, consumed 123w/sqm/year. Now, if you pay the energy bill which one do you want to own?

However, we can’t just create energy efficient buildings, and ignore sustainble building methods and materials,  we need both and we need them now.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

So where do we go from here? Could LEED, or for that matter any green rating system, be the driving force for more energy efficient buildings, perhaps that is the future intention? LEED O&M is the building operating rating system, however if your building is already certified as a LEED Gold building, why would you consider another certification process?

What is needed measurement, and publication of the annual resource consumption (not only electricity and fuel, but water consumption too because cooling towers are widely used).  Once the information is in the public domain the market has the opportunity to choose the lower cost, and reduced environment impact buildings. Building responsibly choosing recycled materials, and those from sustainable resources is a key part of green building, but it is not the only metric.

John Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

The whole building design approach is really simple. If designers conceptualise buildings without considering energy costs from day one, that building will surely become an energy hog. The WBD (Whole Building Design) approach means thinking about the whole building impacts simultaneously.  A simple example, if a west facing glazing is shaded, reduce or eliminated, both the initial capital cost, and operating cost for the cooling plant will be reduced.  Since 63% of Hong Kong’s carbon footprint, and 90% of all the electricity generated is attributed to buildings, the opportunities for improvement are obvious.

The hidden beauty is that the principle is equally applicable to other sectors, including process, industry, and even cooling systems. And the latter is one area where the WBDG has overlooked an opportunity to apply whole system design approach for cooling systems.

Too often, building codes and energy codes only specify COP (coefficient of performance) for chiller plant, yet it is one part of the cooling system cycle. In the diagram below, each circle represents a heat exchange process.

Consider all the electrical power consumed for every heat exchange process, and divide by the total cooling capacity gives us a common metric kilowatts per ton (Kw/Ton) defining the whole cooling system efficiency.

The whole system includes all the electrical power used by:

1. motors driving fans in the AHU (Air Handling Units) and other air moving equipment
2. motors driving the chilled water pumps
3. motors powering the chiller compressor
4. motors driving the condenser water pumps
5. motors driving fans in the cooling tower

With the focus elsewhere many cooling systems operate inefficiency in a range between 1.0-1.2 Kw/TR, whereas an efficient system would operate nearer 0.6-0.70 Kw/TR.

The question is where is your system operating?  If your cooling system is operating in the red, the good news is you have opportunities for improvement.

John A. Herbert
Consultant
Kelcroft E&M Limited

helping lower the cost of doing business in Asia

I would have thought that perhaps the World Green Building Council would be a certain driver for global standardisation, but did they not receive a mention? I feel the idea stemming from the increasing internationalisation of the LEED system.  The USGBC, operates the LEED system and they have more than 18,000 members organisations worldwide, and whilst the US leads the planet in terms of carbon emissions, the marketing of the LEED has been masterful, Seth Godin would be proud.

They built a system, a system where every member markets LEED spreading the green word, whilst simultaneously marketing themselves as a green professional. LEED has now spread across the globe, with many projects outside the US, including the Middle East, Europe, and here in Asia. Indeed the local AIA chapter will host LEED training courses here in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. Also as LEED is being widely adopted, many professional firms now demand LEED AP as a minimum qualification adding to the marketing effort.

BEAM which is Hong Kong’s defacto sustainable rating and assessment tool is currently owned by the BEAM Society, and is still struggling to keep up with times, the long awaited BEAM Interiors (LEED CI equivalent ) is under development with no launch date set. When this this global building emssion protocol is developed, to remain credible BEAM will need to change to incorporate this protocol within its system.

John Herbert
Kelcroft E&M Limited

helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

1. A group of possible customers you can identify and reach
2. A group with a problem they want to solve using your solution
3. A group with the desire and ability to spend money to solve that problem

Item 3 is particularly interesting for energy professionals – How can the energy industry persuade new customers to part with their hard earned money to lower their operating costs and lower their carbon footprint.

Potential customers offer a range of reasons not to buy, ranging from the obvious to to the sublime, and the often cited cost is just one obstacle. I sure this is a question is vexing the minds of many. Perhaps the energy industry should offer more guarantees – a cost saving guarantee, using the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) model.  However, an EPC is not a silver bullet solution, it is not for everyone, and some facilities can’t take advantage of EPC’s due to the high transaction cost.

As living standards here in Asia has increased, the demand for electricity has sky rocketed, mainly generated by from coal burning, with areas of south China and PRD region consistently suffered power shortages over the last few years is evidence of that.  However, it is often difficult to gain sufficient traction for big issues let me give you an example, a recent report stated that many emanate financial experts predicted the financial crisis but the problem was too hard for government to take preventative action, same applies to climate change. It is hard for organisations to deal with big issues period.

I think energy professionals need to help, we need to help advise and educate businesses, and stakeholders to create a demand before thinking about the sale.

An Energy Performance Contract (EPC) is a tried and tested method to fund capital expenditure for an energy efficiency improvement project from the future cost savings. First, let me say this is not a new idea, energy performance contracting has been around for decades, and today is probably the best option around where budgets are tight. Typically an EPC covers the entire project cost, including all the new equipment, cost of finance, measurement and verification, and maintenance all funded from the energy savings.

I was asked today is an EPC only suitable for replacing old and ageing equipment? Typically my answer would be yes, that is a good application because large energy efficiency improvements equate to significantly lower operating expenses.  However, here in Hong Kong, there is also the option for healthy air cooled chillers can be replaced today with water-cooled chillers under an EPC so facility owners can immediately enjoy the benefit of lower operating costs.

Energy efficiency improvements achieve cost reductions by improving facilities, for example a more efficient air conditioning system, but also create soft benefits too including lower maintenance costs and improved comfort for the building occupants. Facility owners have the new equipment installed so the risk to the owner is minimal, yet there is an overwhelming inertia for EPC’s to traction in this part of the world. The objections to be honest are not clearly defined.

Also an often overlooked benefit is the value gained by combining multiple technologies and payback periods, to achieve an overall package which will meet the project cash flow projections. EPC Projects are typically 3-5 years in length, although government bodies have been known to enter into lengthy contracts.

Nowadays, with the software and analysis tools available, EPC’s often include more complex systems such as central plant distribution loop modifications. These more complex upgrades could include plate and frame heat exchangers, variable frequency pumping, and controls.  Some contracts even include other sectors, such as water, grey water, and waste treatment.

There are seven model Energy Performance Contracts types, and clearly these will continue to evolve. In the current economic climate they might even reach critical mass.

John Herbert
Kelcroft E&M Limited

helping lower the cost and impact of doing business in Asia

I see the potential for the wider application  of CDM AM0017, which is the official CDM methodology for calculating the Steam system efficiency improvements by replacing steam traps and returning condensate.

System Systems
Steam is still a marvellous high density medium for transporting heat energy, and an essential part of industrial process needs, however a high pressure fluid, at temperatures up to 500 Deg C needs to be respected.  Twenty years ago I cut my teeth on steam projects in the United Kingdom, a typical hospital project demonstrates the utility of steam, where it is used for autoclaves, sterilising, catering, cleaning, domestic hot water, humidification, and also heating systems.

A steam system, consists of four main elements:

1. Steam Generation
2. Steam Distribution
3. Steam Traps
4. Condensate Return

Energy Audit Opportunities
An energy audit should examine the whole steam system, from generation through to point of use to identify wasted energy, and identify any cost effective improvements. You’ll notice immediately that unlike other piped systems, the steam flow and condensate return have to be handled separately.

Steam Generation
Steam generation means creating steam using fuel typically coal, oil, or gas, although electricity is sometimes used also.  Water is heated from atmospheric pressure to the designed steam pressure for use in the facility.  Operating boilers at maximum efficiently, including monitoring air flow, improved firing controls optimise the use of fuel and can yield good results. Power stations often use coal fired boilers, and naturally have a low thermal efficiency thirty percent is common, so there are opportunities to utilise that wasted heat energy for an local industrial process.  Opportunities for energy savings would include recovering any waste heat energy for example from flue gases, or blowdown to pre-heat the any fresh (raw) water. For large industrial plants it could be possible to use higher pressure steam to drive electricity generating turbine, and use that lower pressure exhaust for process purposes. You can contact Utility Saving Expert for expert advice on how to conserve electricity.

Steam Distribution
Steam distribution is the transfer of your steam now under high pressure from the boiler to the point of use with minimising losses, Steam is not mechanically pumped, its movement driven from the inherent pressure difference, high to low pressure.

It is important that the steam distribution system does not reduce or lower the quality (dryness) of the steam because that lowers the heat energy. Unlike other piped systems the steam can travel at high velocity, upto 30m/sec, and the self drainage of the steam pipework is critical to effectively deliver dry steam, and is air vented for start up conditions.

Piping configurations that dip under obstacles such as other services and beams would create a natural low point where condensate will accumulate impacting the steam quality, and provide a source for damage by water hammer. Particular care is required for the configuration of expansion joints to ensure they are self draining.

Opportunities for energy efficiency improvements in the steam distribution system include minimising heat losses, reducing piping routes, where possible design out low points, and economic insulation.

Steam Trapping

Although Steam trapping could be considered as part of Steam Distribution, or Condensate Return, the problems are so common and distinct Steam trapping deserves a separate section.

The steam trap is the gateway between the process outlet and the condensate piping system, very often the traps leak due to internal blockage.  Most steam traps have a small orifice that can easily become blocked by debris and fail in the open position. A failed steam trap wastes energy due to causes increased heat-up time, and lengthened the product cycle times because the potential latent energy in steam passes straight though the process and is lost in to the condensate system.

Condensate

Bad design or maintenance panic (just to get production running again) causes another common problem, the wrong type of steam trap, and facility operators are unaware that the wrong type of trap is wasting energy. In some circumstance, poor management can cause injury to operators.

Traditionally,  condensate steams were fitted with a special type of fitting known as a sight glass so operators had the opportunity to visually check that water, and not steam, was flowing in to the condensate line.

However, the sight glass had many disadvantages.  Over time the “glass” viewing port become obscured and unusable. Also some sight glasses were installed in such a location that the operators couldn’t physically access the sight glass to check it.  To overcome these shortfalls a different type of steam trap monitor was invented to provide remote monitoring of condensate or steam flow, for example, the Spira-Tech manufactured by Spriax Sarco, other companies provide similar systems.  This type of trap monitoring system immediately alerts the facility operator that they have a faulty trap, and importantly its exact location.

Condensate Return
After the steam has been used in the facility process to heat a product, what remains is the Condensate (hot water). It must be noted that still many industrial steam plants don’t have any condensate return system! Why is that a problem? because it millions of litres of hot water are wasted, in additional “cold” raw water needs to be purchased to replace it.

Where uncontaminated condensate can be captured, it can be sent through insulated piping back to to the boiler for reuse. In my experience, next comes the most commonly asked question “What percentage of condensate should be returned to the steam boiler plant?” In a perfect world 100%, yes, all the condensate should be returned to the boiler, since the condensate contains up to 20-30% of the heat energy used to create the steam, returning it to the boiler saves both fuel and raw water.

However, there are no targets written in stone, 100% is an ideal goal but it is simply not practical in the field, any system that returns less than 70%-80% condensate warrants investigation.  It is worth noting that condensate flow varies, during start-up approximately twice the flow rate of normal operating conditions is experienced so condensate handling must account for higher loads at start-up. Opportunities for energy efficiency improvements include increasing the quantity of condensate returned to the boiler, eliminating leakage, and economic thermal insulation for the condensate piping.

Carbon Credits
Energy efficiency improvements are driven by the economic imperative, lower facility operating costs. In addition to the lower costs, saving fuel also reduces the demand for finite fuel resources such as oil and gas.  Another potential income stream from energy efficiency improvement projects in developing countries is provided by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).  AM0017 is the CDM methodology for calculating the Steam System efficiency improvements from replacing steam traps and returning condensate. That means the saved energy can be translated into a carbon credit which has a real monetary value, and can be sold on the carbon market.

by John A. Herbert, Consultant

Governments across the planet are finally realising that it is very much harder to the promised reach targets, although most were only modest goals and the next climate summit will be interesting.

It is reported here that within the US stimulus package approx. 3% has been allocated for energy efficiency projects-that is significant.  However, no single country, government, state, business, or individual can solve this problem alone, it is the big daddy of all global issues, requiring complete international cooperation.

We have already exceeded the danger threshold @ 350ppm, and CO2 is still increasing faster than ever before. At a local level, many business are preoccupied with the financial crisis, will likely overlook the quietly accumulating business risk (see the graph) until there weighty carbon tax demand note hits their mailbox.  By then it will be too late. Those who were are not already prepared will likely suffer the wrath of stakeholders and investors for ignoring the writing on the wall.

Still I remain optimistic, since there are many businesses are still unaware of the zero cost, low impact opportunities to embrace Energy Efficiency Improvements (EEI) using a performance contract, can be quickly implemented without upfront capital cost.

It is a good question since all most every energy audit RFQ demands a benchmark, even in sectors when a benchmark for that business type is not published, you need an apples to apples comparison. Comparing a hotel to commercial building is clearly pointless, hotel to hotel is certainly feasible, however comparing a hotels with integral casino, and shopping mall, etc. to those without is just futile.

Clearly he key advantage for a using benchmarking – its a shortcut, giving management access to simple index so that they can easily grasp their energy situation without delving into kwh charts. The reality of modern life is that we all need shortcuts, in the financial world listed companies are compared based on debt/equity ratios, P/E ratios, etc. it is not the full picture, its a snapshot summary for the finance side of particular business and practitioners know these need to be used wisely.

Studies have shown us already that merely public posting of neighbours energy bills creates a competitive environment in the neighbourhood to lower energy consumption. So there are needed, if only for self comparison, but practitioners need to apply then carefully.

Nowadays greenwashing is a commonly recognised term, it evolved from unscrupulous advertisers and marketers using fake, or at the very least uncertain green and environmentally friendly claims to support products that were clearly not friendly to the environment, few if any had any real green credentials.

Much has been said about the future low carbon economy, and I wonder if we faced with a Carbonwashed future.

Lets take a look at the Symposium for Electrical and Mechanical Safety & Energy Efficiency organised here in Hong Kong, to be held on 23-24 February 2009 (http://www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/e_download/wnew/Symposium2009Leaflet.pdf). Not withstanding the confusing mix of topics, the sub-title sounds inviting Innovating for a Safe and Green Environment.

Surely such an event that will cover all the benefits of energy efficiency, and explain the governments low carbon economy policy would be a carbon neutral event?  I spoke with the event manager today Ms April Li and her answer was a disappointing negative.

It’s unfair to pick out just one event right? However, I do comment upon all carbon, energy, and sustainable events, with unsustainable practices. Last year, Sustainable Development forum organised by the BEC (Business Environment Council) used hundred of paper cups comes to mind.  Back to the symposium, this particular event is heavily sponsored by the Hong Kong tax payers!! And Hong Kong Government is busy preaching about the benefit of a lower carbon economy and then doesn’t heed its own advice.

What is clear, more individuals, and sponsors need to ask more questions before attending these conferences and events.

I know it is hard to find good quote for your EE presentations, so the report report by the The Asia Society  A Roadmap for U.S.-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change is welcome.

However, it is worth noting that the fixation with CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) as a solution remains as strong as ever. Now bear in mind that over the years it was another promised solution, yet as the report recognises, nobody has as managed to build a working facility. The reports first recommends further US-China cooperation to develop CCS projects.

Yes, Energy Efficiency improvement is mentioned as part of the solution, so we must be grateful. From page 32…….

2. Improving Energy Efficiency and Conservation
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance national energy security, and save money, the United States and China both need to prioritize and expand energy efficiency and conservation efforts.

In the near term, the most significant step that the United States and China can take to reduce their emissions and enhance their energy security is to reduce energy demand through greater efficiency and conservation. In many cases, these efforts also promise significant economic benefits, with only modest upfront investments returning substantial long-term savings through lower energy costs.

Indeed, energy efficiency measures are often characterized as “negative cost” opportunities, meaning that they result in positive economic returns over the lifetime of the investment. A recent McKinsey study estimates that 40 percent of emissions abatement opportunities in the United States could be achieved at “negative” cost by, for instance, improving building insulation and lighting, and by using more fuel-efficient vehicles and appliances. However, these potential gains often remain unrealized because of market inefficiencies, lack of information, government neglect, and shortages of upfront capital. More targeted government policies are needed in both countries to overcome these market barriers.

]]> http://www.johnherbert.hk/2009/02/07/japan-continuedpart-ii/ Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:34:11 +0000 http://www.johnherbert.hk/?p=448 Continue reading →]]>

solar roof panels and vending machines

In the places I visited, namely Tokyo, and in the countryside in Hakone Prefecture, a few solar panels were spotted handling self contained signage duties.

In Hakone, where you would think that the wide open countryside would encourage spacious living areas, the hotel rooms are even smaller than Tokyo, and the corridor is littered with 1m wide fluorescent Emergency Escape lighting fittings as shown below.

Although it looks similar to the standard signs, actually the base of the sign has a polycarbonate transparent section designed to light the corridor at the same time I wonder?

more later.

The good news, if you are in the Japanese energy efficiency business there are still countless opportunities in Japan.

Sure, Tokyo has adopted some improvment measures, for example LED traffic signals, and CFL (Compact fluorescent Lamps) however the energy wastage is still obvious.  Tokyo’s extensive communtor rail and subway system is noteworthy not only because of the extensive network, operated by several different companies,  but also the countless rows upon row of T12 lamps, with magnetic ballasts, that littered every subway station I visited.

Then there are Japan’s infamous vending machines, there are everywhere. Indoors, outdoors, on the street, in railway stations, on the concourse, on the platform, in hotels, there are everywhere.  Just behind the Star hotel in Shinjuki, Tokyo sits a row of eight vending machines lining the road offering a vast array of hot and cold beverages, the lighting is bright, bright enough to illuminated the street at night, they eliminate the need for street lamps in that area.  As far as I could tell, I didn’t personally conduct 24 hour surveillance, these machines burn electricity all day, all night, 365 days a year.

Japan has plenty of energy efficiency opportunities no doubt.

What I find annoying is that the current state of affairs makes no sense. No sense economically because it costs many times more to carry out remedial work to fix the problem than the cost to prevent pollution the occurrence.

Hong Kong’s environmental regulations should be designed to prevent toxic mercury contamination. The government estimates that 98% of businesses in Hong Kong are classified as SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises),  yet only the 2% (the large organisations) qualify for safe disposal of lamps.

Currently choosing replacement lamps with the lowest possible mercury content is our best option, whilst we wait for lighting manufacturers to deliver on the promised zero mercury lamp.

For the insurance business most of the media reports and predictions are dire, focused on the increasing losses, particularly the financial crisis and increasing claims many resulting from increasing number of natural disasters it said.

Finally big business has seen the light, and the new opportunities from the green, low carbon economy. The Lawyers Weekly (Canada) newsletter reports that insurers will introduce new Green insurance products, designed to help building owners manage risk.

Particularly interesting, some insurers will offer 10% saving on the cost of pollution legal liability insurance for LEED certified buildings.

Energy Performance Contracts
Also a long awaited insurance product suitable for EPC (Energy Performance Contract). The insurance is specifically designed to help building owners mitigate the risk in the event that a capital improvement project does not produce the anticipated energy savings. Here in Asia EPC’s are still in their infancy, and a product designed to help encourage building owners feel secure by lowering their downside exposure is welcomed.

1.00 pm, Sunday, 18 January 2008, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong

It is a beautiful bright sunny Sunday afternoon, the store is obviously closed, and the shutters are down. Yet all seven (7) exterior lamps are burning brightly, here is a photograph captured with my camera phone.

Did the owner forget? or believe it would not make a big difference? Did someone consider the extra coal that would be burnt at the power station and its resultant pollution to keep those lights on?

This raises the thorny issue, the true cost of power, can we continue to overlook the generation externalities? The social cost of pollution created by power generation in Hong Kong is presently estimated to be in the order of HK$ 6 billon (US$ 740 million) per year, but that cost is not priced into the consumers energy charge, its paid by the tax payers. The Hong Kong Government verbally advocates a polluters pay policy, however the reality is very different, often relying on the tax payer to foot the bill.

Exterior lighting control is hardly rocket science, low cost circuitry with a contactor and photocell is a preventative measure,  keeping the the external lighting from operating during bright day time hours saving countless kilowatts, and the maintenance cost for re-lamping.

Unfortunately, as the exterior area of the car park as the photograph indicates, poor design coupled with lowest first cost mentality means building owners often end up with only one control circuit operating both indoor and outdoor fittings simultaneously. Of course, this causes waste due to the unnecessary operation of lights during the day light hours.

It is easy to zone other areas too, in the car park example, covered parking having a perimeter with abundant natural light don’t need electric lamps burning during daytime hours.

If you opt for photocell control,  do ensure the photocell location is accessible for easy cleaning.

Lighting efficacy – Energy audits for buildings, typically include a lighting audit. But just recording the lighting level (known as the lux level) in the various rooms is not enough. We need to assess the effectiveness of the installation.

During a recent energy audit several lighting fittings (as shown in the photograph) were discovered. Perhaps discovered is the wrong word, the high intensity fittings were plainly obvious.

Pairs of uplighting fittings were installed close to each other, and very close to the ceiling.

These fittings didn’t add any value to the illumination of the space, as you can clearly see these intended uplighters only created an intense, localised pool of light (and heat).

Based on operating 3,600 hours per year, each fitting wastes HK$ 660 per year in electricity. Just measuring the lighting level is not sufficient for an energy audit, in this case immediate removal was recommended saving electricity.

Also remember that in air conditioned rooms removing lighting fittings not only lowers the electricity consumption for lighting, it also lowers the heat gain which in turn reduces the load on the air conditioning system. As a rule of thumb, eliminting 1 Kw of lighting lowers the total electricity consumption by 1.3 kw.

New Resource bank (in USA) is the country’s first “green” bank and they love helping in green people in green ways……. read the full article here

It is a positive step that at least one bank in the US is finally being to understand. However if you don’t have access to a green bank where do you turn? First ask your local energy consultant, they have the knowledge and contacts to point you in the right direction.

For economically viable large projects, let’s say US$ 10 million and up sourcing finance is not the major challenge, there are several options in the market. However, the important smaller schemes often struggle, and find difficulty to securing funding, in reality nobody is really interested due the transaction cost.

I have spent time explaining the an energy efficiency finance model to banks who seem to uninterested, prefering to opt or lets say demand upfront collateral, ignoring the efficicency savings as a future income stream. Luckily, we have an Mr Xu, an energy specialist at ADB Hong Kong, who we hope will help the re-education process.

Energy audit findings – the photograph above is a section of a damaged coil from an air conditioning unit. It is obviously a badly damaged, the aluminium fins have been stripped away, revealing the structure of the refrigeration tubing beneath, absolutely necessary for coolant-to-air heat exchange. However, since the air conditioning is still “technically working” it seems no repair is deemed necessary to restore the lost heat exchange area, and lost efficiency.

Specification Note: Actually this is a common problem, and easy to avoid – insist upon a heavy gauge, say 25mm x 25mm GI mesh over the exposed coil area to provide mechanical protection. With a large open grid, the mesh would not impede the air flow. It will protect the delicate fins from unintended damage.

sponsored by energy auditor

Tariff Analysis is a scientific based approach, examining your the utility bills to identify the optimum tariff for you, that the tariff with the lowest cost.

Where the utility company permits summation metering, and the facility has more than one power meter, re-analyse using the totalled data – using all the meter readings, to check and identify if summation metering provides a beneficial tariff.

Remember that tariffs change frequently and without notice,  so its wise to ensure that you order a Tariff Analysis at least once per year.

But that is only half the story, along with a smaller chiller, all the associated distribution equipment including the air handing units, air moving equipment, piping, cooling towers, circulating pumps, switchgear, and cables are also smaller, and less expensive. This is a critical point often overlooked using integrated design – minimise the load, drives the need for small equipment, it is not only cheaper, but uses less space.

There is good news from Good Energies that found evidence from 146 green buildings in USA that the additional cost for green building was only 2% not 17%.  However, whether or not these buildings used integrated design principles mentioned above was not reported.

Additionally there is still no cost category to account of the “soft” benefits of building green. How customers have you lost because you don’t have green building? People have already discounted your building (or your product) because it’s does not have a green label, and is not energy efficient, and I guarantee they didn’t stop by to tell you where you went wrong.

I believe, finally, the market is beginning to understand the future, oil and gas is finite resource will not last forever, and the energy position of operating costs are inevitably rising.

After your staff costs, energy represents the largest proportion of the operating budget for buildings. In Hong Kong buildings are voracious, consuming 86% of all the electricity generated, and 33% of all electricity generated is used to power air conditioning systems.

Let’s face it, incremental improvement is pointless, single digit savings will barely stave off inflationary pressures – Use the integrated principals to save your CAPex today and your OPex tomorrow.

sponsored by building air balancing commissioning

1. If you can’t measure it, how can you manage it? Regularly monitor and record on your electricity consumption, plus other fuels such as gas and oil. Provide and monitor sub-meters to record different systems and sub-systems.  Also don’t forget that utility companies are not infallible – remember to check that your bills relate to the fuel that you actually used rather than an “estimated” meter reading.

Incidentally, the fact that BEAM rewards a credit for energy sub-metering is an indication of the importance of energy awareness.

2. Switch off lights in empty rooms – sounds like common-sense doesn’t it? Turning off lights in unoccupied rooms and corridors especially at the end of the day. This can save up to 10% of your energy bill. And yes that includes fluorescent lighting fittings.

3. Use energy efficient light fittings – they use 25% less power and last six times longer. Switching to the last technology today will save the cost of the investment long before the old lamps have expired – recoup the savings today.

4. Use the light you need. Bright corridors? delamp (remove) or switch off alternate lighting fittings.

5. Use daylight it’s free, so regularly clean your windows.

6. Clean light fittings regularly – Dirt reduces lighting levels, encouraging people to switch on more lights.

7. Too cold, set the room thermostat at comfort levels say 24°.  Air conditioning consumes forty percent (40%) of buildings energy. For example, every 1° decrease in room temperature, the energy cost increases by approximately eight percent (8%) .

8. If humidity and condensation is not a risk, don’t pay for cooling unused space e.g. empty offices, storerooms, corridors, etc. turn off the air conditioning.

9. Check that your thermostats are property sited, out of draughts and away from cold or hot spots. Consider installing remote sensing or wireless. Bonus tip – horrified, I saw a the air conditioning thermostat installed next the hand dryer – please don’t.

10. Keep equipment such as air conditioners and filters clean. Dirt reduces efficiency and lowers output.

Bonus Tip

Top eleven tips just didn’t sound right, so here is a bonus tip, it is so critical that I can’t possibly leave it out – Lead by example.

If management and senior managers are “seen” to ignore the new corporate energy measures, I guarantee that your efforts will fail. It is human nature, people follow visual cues for seventy five percent (75%) of their information – we watch and learn. Actively demonstrating energy conservation will do more to promote energy conservation campaign within your organisation or business than a memo will ever achieve. Plan to ensure that your employees see your energy strategy.

Three vending machines all using energy, a closer look reveals the unit in the middle is out of service, see the photo below.  Didn’t anyone think about turning off the electricity completely? As you can see some of the lamps are still on, still burning electricity.

Powering an appliance that can’t or does not serve its intended purpose is an egregious waste of energy.

The photograph below, is typical, yet another unoccupied plant room with the lights burning fuel late into the night.

Is it safe to assume there is a disconnect here? Actually, it is a common problem. The firms which are employed to operate our buildings don’t actually pay the energy bill every month, so there is no financial or other incentive to switch off unnecessary lighting fittings.

We know penalties don’t work, a system of positive incentives are needed here.

http://www.weather.hk/wxinfo/news/2008/pre1101e.htm

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/chandler_clean_energy_final.pdf

Here are some more photographs from the venue.

Sadly, especially considering this was an environmenal exhitbition, each of the exhibition booths had several spotlights with 100 watt incandescent lamps – hardly a shining example of efficiency for the exhibitors and delegates.

electrical safety flaw - electrical bonding failed

Electrical condition assessment uncovers electrical safety problems – above photograph of earth/bonding not connected.

The Old Way
At the earliest stages of the process, at the critical juncture whilst conceptual ideas are still being formulated, a proposed scheme is presented sold to the owner or developer, before the engineers have any say. Unfortunately, once that scheme has received the official blessing, the fate of the of the buildings operating costs is virtually sealed.

Change is good but not in building development,  the designer and team had already lived with the plan for a few weeks, they are invested in it success.  Any subsequent “change” that could potentially undo that work, and perhaps might require the designer to modify the the layout or the facade is typically rejected. The designer moves on, there is a firm scheme, then other consultants are summoned to join his project team. It does not happen in every case, but that is a fairly typical MO.

Another Way
There is another way, a more productive way WST (Whole System Thinking) is an integrated approach to engineering design that challenges past assumptions made everyday. If evidence is needed here is a link to a cost Summary Sheet (1 page PDF format) incidentally is protected document, the password is kelcroft.

Evidence
Using the WST principal this heat rejection solution provides the same capacity with less CAPex investment, and provides a lower OPex for the lifetime of the equipment. Yes, it did require more engineering effort than the typical methodology, because the system needed to be properly designed. The WST approach exceeds incremental 2-3% savings, delivering more than 30% reduction in first cost compared to the typical design.

If concepts designs are locked down early, the opportunity for WST is lost along with the chance of lower operating costs and reduced carbon consumption.

Putting this in to a future context, it has been estimated that urbanisaton will continue to expand in China increasing the number of city dwellers upto 0.9 billion in 2025, building sustainably is the only solution.

John Herbert, Consultant, Kelcroft