HKUST was Awarded Silver Medal in the Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence (HKAEE) 2020
The HKAEE, led by the Environmental Campaign Committee (ECC), aims to encourage organizations to implement environmental management, to measure organizational performance on their commitment to environmental management, and to recognize organizations with excellent performance on environmental management.
The “Public and Community Services” sector within HKAEE emphasizes the application of the eco-business model, which consists of green leadership, partner synergies, and environmental benefits within the community.
HKUST has served several outstanding efforts that initiated sustainable and smart movements within the community. The Sustainable Operations Executive Committee chaired by the Vice-President for Administration and Business has been driving new initiatives on achieving our energy saving and waste reduction targets of HKUST 2020 Sustainability Challenge. Alongside, the HKUST Green Team consists of over 300 students, faculty, staff, and residents of the campus community works on hands-on projects that improve our campus sustainability. Also, the cleaning steering committee operates systematically to drive performance-based improvements with our cleaning contractors and recyclers.
The campus is currently installing 8,000 solar panels at over 50 locations on campus to become Hong Kong’s largest solar energy generation project. When fully completed, it will generate up to 3 million units (kWh) of electricity each year, reducing up to 1.5 million kg of carbon emission per annum over 25 years. Different energy-saving technologies have been installed in recent years to improve energy usage. The campus library has installed smart lighting and air-conditioning to reduce the wasted energy. With the use of IoT (Zigbee) and smart thermostat technology, the library can save up to HK$200,000 and 120 fluorescent tubes waste every year.
The successful completion of HKUST 2020 Sustainability Challenge showed that with collective effort we managed to cut landfill waste by half, or 1,665 tons, since 2014. During the same period, energy consumption was also down by 7.9% despite the addition of four new buildings on the campus.
HKUST is extending its efforts towards the 2028 Sustainability Challenge, aiming to reduce 15% of energy and electricity, 85% of wastes, and improving the landscape, biodiversity, and community well-being.
HKUST has never forgotten to extend its dedication towards the community, with active communications channels, external collaboration activities with departments, waste-saving campaigns, workshops, and inter-university surveys were conducted. With the commencement of “Sustainable Smart Campus as a Living Lab initiative (SSC)”, the University is now funding around 30 faculty research to test out their solutions on campus that are both sustainable and smart, while contributing to drive the sustainability goals.
The HKAEE award is not only recognizing the efforts that the University has made in the past year, but it’s demonstrating the unique role and impact that we could make. Ultimately, with these efforts within the organization, HKUST is aiming to showcase as a sustainable educational institution and positively influence the other organizations to perform sustainable practices.
