HONG KONG, April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- BEAM Society Limited, a non-profit organisation committed to the promotion and development of assessment tools for assessing green buildings and training professionals, celebrates its 5th anniversary this year. Over a hundred guests from the government, the building industry and leading professional institutions attended the 5th Anniversary Kick-off Cocktail Reception held on 23rd April 2015 at the Jockey Club Environmental Building. Mr. Wong Kam-sing, JP, Secretary for the Environment of the HKSAR Government was present to celebrate the BSL 5th anniversary and shared his insights on sustainability in Hong Kong's built environment.
The Guest of Honour, Wong Kam-sing, JP, Secretary for the Environment of the HKSAR Government said, "The updated circular on green government buildings jointly issued by the Development Bureau and the Environment Bureau has been uploaded onto the government website recently. The technical circular dated April 2015 stipulates the green building requirements for all public buildings, and applies not only to the new ones but also to the management of existing government buildings. I am grateful for the BEAM Society's contribution to the development of green building in Hong Kong."
Professor John NG, Chairperson of BSL, said, "BSL was established in 2010 with the vision in creating a sustainable built environment in harmony with the nature for Hong Kong. By adopting the BEAM Plus assessment tools, it is BSL's mission to facilitate the city's healthy social-economic development. In the past 5 years, BEAM Plus has helped improve energy saving by 30%, a significant step in combating climate change." By using the BEAM Plus Version 1.2 assessment tools, a registered building can be objectively assessed and be awarded an appropriate green label denoting their "green merits," namely, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze or Unclassified, with Platinum being the highest rank. Higher ranked buildings have a more positive effect on the protection of the environment, and provide an overall more convenient and healthy living environment for the residents. Until 2013, registered and labelled green building projects have successfully saved around 140 million kilowatts of electricity for Hong Kong every year. This in turn has reduced 95,000 tonnes of CO2 emission. It has achieved remarkable improvement on Indoor Environmental Quality, as evidenced by the reduction of contagious disease.
This year, with the "Better than Yesterday" initiative, BSL is putting its focus on Existing Buildings. Dr. Raymond Yau, the 1st Vice Chairperson of BSL, announced, "To help Hong Kong's transformation of aged building stock to greener buildings for a healthy living environment, and to align with the Government to push for CO2 reduction, waste reduction and an overall greener city, BSL is implementing a major revision of the BEAM Plus tool on Existing Buildings to encourage them to go green." BSL desires to have all types of buildings, the large existing buildings stock in particularly, to be registered and assessed for the purpose of protecting our environment and improving the living environment in our existing buildings.
BSL fully supports the HK3030 Campaign, which sets an ambitious but achievable target on energy saving that can only be achieved through green measures at existing buildings as it is anticipated that just the existing stock of commercial buildings alone would consume 58% of the total electricity demand of this city in the year 2030. BSL is in the process of implementing a major revision of its BEAM Plus Existing Building tool to help the community to achieve the target.
Today's cocktail will initiate a series of celebration events held throughout the year to commemorate BSL's 5th anniversary. Events will include a conference and an annual dinner, to be held in September, which will provide a platform for the industry to foster discussion and to encourage the exchange of innovative ideas.
Please download photos at http://www.bdcshk.com/webcontent/BEAM 5th_Best photo_PR.zip
About BEAM Society Limited
BEAM Society Limited (BSL), owner of Building Environmental Assessment Method (BEAM & BEAM Plus), is a non-profit organisation established in 2010. BSL is committed to developing and implementing, application & interpretation of the BEAM Plus assessment tools; conducting green buildings assessment; and offering professional training and guidelines to BEAM practitioners on green building assessment and related subjects.
