Sun Hung Kai Properties believes in protecting the environment, and it has green management policies in its developments to encourage residents and tenants to help achieve this goal. Millennium City in Kwun Tong is a showcase for the developer's innovative green facilities. It uses renewable energy and even has its own greenhouse; something of a rarity for a commercial building in a densely built up area.

80% of tenants involved in green activities

Millennium City has a special committee to oversee green initiatives. Committee members Kelvin Chan, Lewis Lam and Edmond Ho come from different departments and regularly review operations to integrate environmental goals with building management. One explained their work saying: "Millennium City goes beyond basic property management. We don't just work on energy saving and waste reduction, we also try new concepts like using renewable energy and making environmental protection part of tenants' daily operations."

The committee understands that tenants' support is essential if green management is going to work, so they liaise closely with them. Green initiatives in Millennium City generally get over 80% tenant participation. This is particularly high for a Hong Kong commercial building and has been praised by green groups.

Renewable energy system

Millennium City uses wind and solar power to light the podium car park, making it the first Hong Kong commercial building with a renewable energy system. Assistant Technical Services Manager Edmond Ho said: "Millennium City is close to the harbour, so it's a bit windy on the podium and we thought we could use this to generate power." He started consulting with wind power experts about the idea and became preoccupied with it almost constantly. He said: "I was in Guangdong with my family once when I saw some wind turbines, and I ended up spending so much time trying to find the turbine suppliers, I forgot that I was supposed to be on vacation."

After much study, the first six-metre wind turbine went up on the podium of Millennium City 1 early this year. Mr Ho explained though: "We found out that the wind isn't all that reliable, so the lights would fluctuate at first. We thought about other options and eventually decided to supplement wind power with solar panels and rechargeable batteries." The new system is now supplying reliable power to the podium car park.

New air filter

Frequent renovations as a result of tenant turnover can make it difficult to maintain good air quality in commercial buildings. Mr Ho and his colleagues tackled this problem by developing their own high-capacity air purifier to filter out particles and dust. "There were no commercially-available air purifiers that could handle this kind of volume, so we decided to make our own from scratch. A group of mechanical engineers did numerous trials and kept improving the machine until now it can filter the air in a unit of over 1,000 sq ft within three hours." said Mr Ho.

Green products from abroad

Property Manager Kelvin Chan is constantly on the lookout for new green technologies. Millennium City is trying out a flush-free urinal from the US that has special material in the drain that prevents odours from escaping. Mr Chan said: "Flush-free technology is catching on as water is scarce in some parts of the world. These urinals can help reduce the building's sewage discharge and associated maintenance costs." The urinal is now being tested at Millennium City. Mr Chan said that the manufacturer sent experts to give a presentation in Hong Kong, and that former US Vice President and new Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore is a consultant to the company.

On-site greenhouse

Green management at Millennium City also involves listening to tenants. Property & Facility Manager Lewis Lam said: "No matter how good our facilities are, we still have to motivate people to get them take part." He recalled how some tenants' plants died after being left without water over long holidays: "We decided to build a greenhouse to take care of tenants’ plants while they are away." It has proven very popular, and staff even grow small plants to give as gifts to tenants who take part in energy-saving and waste-reduction programmes.

Comprehensive approach to environmental protection

SHKP's property-management subsidiaries the Hong Yip Service Company and Kai Shing Management Services were pioneers in green property management. They have explicit green policies and ISO14001 environmental management certification. SHKP has promoted green management over the years; encouraging employees, residents and tenants to take part. The company stages a range of green activities for the 250,000 households in its residential estates and tenants in 50 shopping malls and 60 office and industrial buildings to further the ideal of sustainable development.