For a Greener Future

To promote green living through education has always been a focus of our community efforts. In 2010, we organised a host of green education programmes and joined hands with our stakeholders to transform our care for the environment into practical initiatives.

Smart Power Campaign

The Smart Power Campaign 2010 was launched in April to advocate low carbon lifestyle. Educational activities were organised to communicate messages of energy conservation and efficiency in an interesting way, including competitions, school talks, open days and roving exhibitions. These activities attracted a record 46,000 participants throughout the year. The Electric Vehicle (EV) Decoration Competition was one of the major attractions of the year, receiving almost 20,000 entries. Winning entries were adopted to decorate three EVs in our operating fleet. Another competition which tapped the creativity of the public in writing low carbon applications was launched in September 2010 and attracted a total of 13,000 entries. The winning entries of the competition were incorporated into a smart phone application launched by HK Electric in early 2011 to share ideas with the public on low carbon living and energy saving.

Group Managing Director, Mr. Tso Kai-sum, and Chairman of the Legislative Council's Panel on Economic Development, the Hon. Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, promote the use of electric vehicles and a low carbon lifestyle at the launch ceremony for the 2010 Smart Power Campaign.

Around 1,000 students take part in the open day at Lamma Power Station and learn more about low carbon lifestyle.

Clean Energy Fund

In 2010, the HK Electric Clean Energy Fund supported 12 schools selected from 60 applicants with HK$1.14 million to carry out renewable energy projects.

Hong Chi Pinehill No. 2 School, the first special school awarded under the Fund, will set up a solar energy powered mobile tuck shop for its mentally challenged students.

Since 2006, the Fund has supported local schools to promote and apply renewable energy technologies on campus. As at the end of 2010, we have sponsored 60 projects from 53 local schools and tertiary institutes. The total installed capacity of solar panels and micro wind turbines set up on school campuses has reached 11,600W and 4,800W respectively.

To facilitate schools learning from each other, an experience sharing seminar was conducted in April 2010 for more than 100 teachers and school representatives during which they learned more about the details of the Fund and success stories of awardees.

Students of Hong Chi Pinehill No.2 School will attend cooking lessons inside the solar-powered tuck shop built on its school campus and sponsored by HK Electric Clean Energy Fund.

More than 100 teachers and school administrators attend the sharing session to learn more about the HK Electric Clean Energy Fund.

Thinking out of the Box
Christian Alliance S Y Yeh Memorial Primary School

In the eyes of many, a standard playground inside a school is nothing more than a badminton court or a football pitch for students. But Mr. Cheung Cheong-ming, the principal of Christian Alliance S Y Yeh Memorial Primary School in Tin Shui Wai, thinks differently. He wants something bolder for his school - and has turned the playground into a road safety park powered by renewable energy. As Mr. Cheung explained, the idea to turn the playground into an educational facility promoting the importance of road safety came about several years ago after he had witnessed a car accident involving a small child. "I gave first aid on the child and thought something must be done to prevent this from happening again," Mr. Cheung noted.

With a view to enriching the educational value of the project, Mr. Cheung, a green thinker himself, decided to power traffic lights and vehicles inside the park with solar energy.

This interesting idea won support from the adjudicators of the HK Electric Clean Energy Fund and was awarded $100,000 for the year 2009/10.

"The project will serve not only our own students, but also primary school students and kindergarten kids in the local district so that they do not have to travel a long way to learn," Mr. Cheung said, adding that to date, more than 500 students have joined in activities of the road safety park and more visits will be arranged in days to come. Mr. Cheung thanked HK Electric for sponsoring the project. "To me, this is only the first few steps along the road to sustainability," he said. As the next step, he has already started recruiting students, parents and the elderly as ambassadors for the project and seminars and training workshops are being arranged. Mr. Cheung further plans to turn his school into an education centre promoting environmental awareness and road safety with service extending to cover the neighbouring Tuen Mun and Yuen Long districts.

The people behind the road safety project that benefits kindergarten and primary school students in Tuen Mun: Principal of Christian Alliance S Y Yeh Memorial Primary School, Mr. Cheung Cheong-ming (left) and General Manager (Corporate Development), Mr. Yee Tak-chow.

Green Hong Kong Green

HK Electric joined hands with The Conservancy Association to embark on a three-year "Green Hong Kong Green" project in September 2009. The aim is to promote the eco-heritage of Hong Kong Island and to enhance public awareness of protecting and preserving such valuable resources. To engage the public in identifying valuable eco-heritage resources, the "My Favourite Eco-Heritage Hotspots on Hong Kong Island" competition was organised in 2010. Some 370 entries were received in the open and student categories. Ten hotspots were selected by a panel of adjudicators in conjunction with the results of an online voting campaign which attracted around 4,000 votes. The selected hotspots were considered for inclusion in the three eco-heritage routes to be developed.

The top 10 eco-heritage hotspots selected will be considered for inclusion in three eco-heritage routes to be developed on Hong Kong Island.

Some winning hotspots.

Electric Kitchens

Electric cooking promotes a low carbon lifestyle. To enhance public awareness of the benefits of electric cooking and living, HK Electric's Home Management Centre (HMC) offered over 220 cooking classes in 2010, from low carbon dishes to festive food. HMC classes are not just for leisure and fun. Some corporations also subscribe to the idea of using these classes for team building and in 2010, a total of 58 corporate classes were held.

Students of all ages enjoy electric cooking.

Other Engagement Programmes

An Environmental Climate Index survey for our staff was conducted in October 2010 to determine their environmental awareness and perceptions towards a green culture, with satisfactory findings. There is no room for complacency, however, and areas for improvement were identified and recommendations made to enhance the environmental management system and strengthen our environmental communications.

We also encourage staff participation and support for environmental campaigns and activities organised by local green groups, one of which is the "Take a 'Brake' Low Carbon Action" campaign organised by Friends of the Earth, Hong Kong.

The campaign promotes car fuel efficiency and a total of 72 employees took part in this programme and reduced their driving days by 1,034 in two months. We also initiated measures to reduce fuel consumption of our operating fleet, successfully improving fuel efficiency by over 8% and reducing fuel consumption by 4% during the period. As a result, we were awarded gold level achievement for "Fuel Efficiency Improvement" and silver level for "Fuel Consumption Saver".

Director of Friends of the Earth, Hong Kong, Mr. Edwin Lau, shares tips on green driving at a theme talk for our staff.

Director of Engineering (Planning and Development), Mr. Wan Chi-tin (second from right, front row), introduces our solar power system to Energy Advisory Committee members.

We also participated in the "Earth Hour 2010" organised by the WWF Hong Kong by switching off external lighting of some of our buildings on 27 March 2010. We also encouraged our staff to support the "Hong Kong No Air-con Night" organised by Green Sense and the "Carfree Day" organised by Greenpeace.

Apart from engagement with local stakeholders, we also work towards establishing a close rapport with our counterparts in the Mainland and outside Hong Kong. About 100 members from the Guiyang Power Supply Bureau visited our Marsh Road Station Building in May and June 2010, while two delegations from the Mainland's National Ministry of Science and Technology and from the Human Settlements & Environment Commission of Shenzhen Municipality visited our Lamma Power Station facilities including environmental and renewable energy facilities in October 2010.