Our Mid-year Performance
Currently we are 50% below the 2014-15 baseline level and be able to reduce waste to landfill by 137 tons in December 2022 compared to the same period of the baseline year. 74% of waste reduction came from recycling efforts while the remaining from reduction at source. The trash and recyclables ratio was 6:4 and among all 15 types of recyclables that were being collected on campus, food waste (41%), landscape (29%) and paper (14%) were the 3 major recycled materials. In order to further cut down the waste generation and encourage waste separation, the University will implement a comprehensive hallway trash bin replacement plan in the coming months with the aim to replace the majority of 1-compartment trash bins in office area with 2-compartment trash and recycling bins. The project management team under the Jockey Club Sustainable Campus Consumer Programme is also developing an intelligent and automated reusable meal container distribution and collection system to tackle the campus single-use container problem and the prototype is expected to be piloted in the HKUST Clear Water Bay campus in early 2023.
For energy, we have achieved a reduction of 5% net energy savings against the 2014 baseline. There was a 1% energy reduction comparing December 2022 with the same month of previous year and the progress was attributable by energy reduction of 814,000kWh and a bump of 60% renewable energy generation that contributed to 1.6M kWh in net electricity generation. Over the past year the projects contributing to energy savings included campus-wide lighting improvement work by upgrading a total of 3500 sets of lighting at various locations, replacement of ageing and less efficient air handling unit, lift modernization with enhanced lift control system and sequential phase-out of stand-alone air-cooled chillers. Meanwhile, phase 2 of the solar panels project is being carried out to study the feasibility of extending the solar panel coverage and thus increasing renewable energy generation. If you have any ideas that can contribute to our energy and waste reduction targets, feel free to share with us at green@ust.h
