ICE HKA Public Voice Breakfast forum: Is

our construction industry ready to deliver

net zero infrastructure in Hong Kong?
Date: 16 December 2023
Author: David Mak

Background
In 2021, the Hong Kong SAR Government announced the Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2025 as the
directives towards the goal of carbon neutrality, which outlined four major decarbonisaiton strategies, namely
“net-zero electricity generation”, “energy saving and green buildings”, “green transport” and “waste reduction”.
Since then, the society has been working hard to promote sustainable construction with various certificates,
campaigns, and tools, etc. Nonetheless, is there any area we could put more focus to furtherance the net zero
infrastructure development? In this connection, the Institution of Civil Engineers Hong Kong Association (ICE
HKA) organised the breakfast discussion forum on 16 December 2023 to give an opportunity to enhance the
awareness of the ICE members in Hong Kong on how to support the construction industry to achieve net zero,
as well as gathering their views/suggestions on how the construction industry stakeholders could work together
for further improvement.

It was our honour to invite Ar Marvin Chen, council member and committee member on Environment of
Construction Industry Council (CIC) for sharing his insight on what challenges of climate change are we facing,
and how the construction market as well as CIC strive towards carbon neutrality. After his speech, an in-depth
group discussion then followed. Highlights of Ar Chen’s speech and the discussions are presented below:

Speech from the distinguish guest

Ar Chen began with an overview of the impact of global warming and climate change to all of us, including rising
sea levels and extreme weather conditions of excessive rainfall and very hot summers. Ar Chen expressed that
there is no more global warming but we are entering a global boiling era instead. Under the 2015 Paris
Agreement, countries agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions with a view to ‘holding the increase in the global
average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature
increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Hong Kong has demonstrated its commitment to global
decarbonisation efforts and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 through the Climate Action Plan 2050 with
strategies involved. The Hong Kong Government also announced various initiatives, such as turning to electric
cars or other new regenerative energy and get rid of fossil fueled engine.

Institution of Civil Engineers is a Registered Charity in

1 ICE HKA Breakfast forum: Net zero infrastructure in Hong Kong England & Wales (no 210252) and Scotland (SC038629)
In accordance with the statistic, the Hong Kong construction industry contribute about 3.7% of the total carbon
emission that the industry can meet the 2035 carbon targets. However, the construction industry needs to strive
for the carbon neutral target in 2050. The Hong Kong construction industry is entering into the golden era with
many major developments, such as the Northern Metropolis, Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands and the
redevelopment plan stated in the Policy Address. It also means that there will be more carbon produced in the
coming future. Ar Chen suggested three directions for decarbonisation: (1) use of electrification and clean
energy (e.g. hydrogen fuel cells and using batteries on site); (2) Waste reduction by reuse, reduce and recycle
in both temporary and permanent works; and (3) High productivity construction with digitisation (e.g. BIM), MiC,
MiMEP, etc.

Construction Industry Council (CIC) was formed in 2007 with the mission of sustainable development for the
construction industry in Hong Kong. To achieve the mission, the CIC conveys the industry’s needs and
aspirations to the Government, as well as providing a leading channel to solicit advice on all construction-related
matters to the Government. To demonstration good practice to the industry, CIC has built the zero carbon park
and the first MiC building in Hong Kong was built in the zero-carbon park. In addition, Ar Chen introduced a
number of initiatives by CIC, such as providing various certification schemes, a digitisation platform and
assessment tools. One example is the carbon assessment tool to evaluate carbon footprint building cycle for
new buildings as well as for infrastructure projects. At the end of the presentation, Ar Chen emphasised the
importance of collaboration with industry, and he encouraged the audience to join this sustainable journey.

Outcome of table discussions

Four discussion groups were formed to discuss how the construction industry could enhance the effectiveness
to strive for the carbon neutrality goal. To guide the discussion, there are four key areas included during the
table discussion:

1) Table 1 – Engineering technology/ Innovation

2) Table 2 – Incentives in industry;
3) Table 3 – Strategies/ polices; and
4) Table 4 – Planning;

Discussion topic in Table 1 – Engineering Technology/

Innovation
The group has suggested a number of technologies with potential to make the construction industry more
sustainable by enhancing its efficiency:

 Modular construction which could minimise material wastage and reduce on-site operations: Whilst modular
construction methods have been widely adopted in large scale infrastructure projects, the discussion has
concluded that research on economic design/usage is necessary to promote this technology also in smaller
scale projects.
 Electrification and clean energy on site: The group agreed that using hydrogen for construction plants is
one of the solutions for decarbonisation. Nonetheless, the group also suggested that the industry needs to
overcome the cost issue as well as the regulatory and safety issues.

Institution of Civil Engineers is a Registered Charity in

2 ICE HKA Breakfast forum: Net zero infrastructure in Hong Kong England & Wales (no 210252) and Scotland (SC038629)
 BIM/ digital twin/ digitisation/ AI which optimise the layout and design to avoid abortive works: The group
pointed out the merit that it helps engineers to evaluate the life cycle energy consumption for minimising
operation emission whilst integrating with the carbon assessment tools. However, it is agreed that
guidelines and benchmarking data should be available as reference for the projects in future.
 Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool: Carbon sequestration is a naturally
occurring process. The group suggested that engineers/researchers should explore the carbon storage and
absorption technique, so as to maximise the carbon sequestration potential of trees.

Discussion topic in Table 2: Incentives in Industry

After the discussion, the group suggested a few incentives to promote decarbonisation in construction industry:

 Contract administration: The group suggested specifying the conditions in the contract document, i.e. KPIs,
performance report on environmental management.
 Consider alternative procurement methods (e.g. D&B) to holistically incorporate both design and
construction considerations. Allow more time to do a proper design.
 Provide funding to promote carbon neutrality and develop mindset, culture and education.
 Promote decarbonisation to the younger generation (e.g. primary school students) with competitions or
technology software.
 R&D to develop new technology for decarbonisation through the whole carbon life cycle.

Discussion topic in Table 3: Strategies/ Polices

The group had a thorough discussion on strategies and polices of decarbonsation in the construction industry
and the outcomes are as follows:

Strategies

 Although Hong Kong construction industry is not the main contributor (3.7%) to carbon emission, the group
agreed that increasing focus/ emphasis is needed.
 To influence users’ behaviour, the group suggested to adopt that the “user pay” the true costs of natural
resources (e.g. energy and water).
 Consultants (designers) play an important role in reducing carbon through good design practice
(considering life cycle carbon).
 Need to overcome barriers arising from statutory bodies (e.g. approval procedure for new technology which
may help on decarbonisation in construction).
 Carbon considerations / assessment as part of early infrastructure planning.
 Whilst MiC is moving the embodied carbon and waste production from HK to Mainland China, the group
raised a question that if this is sustainable or just simply transferring the issue from HK to mainland China.

Policies

 Benchmark to policies in other overseas countries and localise them to Hong Kong context.
 Need a policy otherwise perhaps no action as cannot appreciate the urgency in Hong Kong.
 Set quantifiable targets for waste reduction.
 Carbon assessment must be mandatory and someone shall certify it.

Institution of Civil Engineers is a Registered Charity in

3 ICE HKA Breakfast forum: Net zero infrastructure in Hong Kong England & Wales (no 210252) and Scotland (SC038629)
 Integrate policies with Greater Bay so that Hong Kong will not be isolated to solve the problem of embodied
carbon and operational carbon emissions.

Discussion topic in Table 4 – Planning

The group suggested that the following methods and technologies would help the planning/ design stage to
more effectively use of construction materials.

During planning or design stage, it is suggested to:

 Utilise the latest technology such as the district cooling system for an effective cooling system for
infrastructure.
 Set up a code of practice for assessment and targets to reduce carbon footprint.
 Consideration of project life-cycle is critical. Tender incentives such as tender score related to the
decarbonisation measures could be implemented.
 For construction materials, it is suggested to utilise new types of materials, such as hollow core, concrete
replacing materials (CRM), high strength concrete & steel, and more importantly to recycling materials.
 A proper database of materials so as to promote the reuse of construction material (e.g. steel) by enhancing
the traceability. It could also store the past design data to avoid over design in the future.

Conclusion
This discussion forum is considered fruitful. Ar Marvin Chen’s speech and the subsequent discussions have
enhanced the participants’ awareness of decarbonisation in construction industry. It is hoped that these views
would be useful for the civil engineering industry partitioners to achieve the Hong Kong carbon neutral target in
2050.

Institution of Civil Engineers is a Registered Charity in

4 ICE HKA Breakfast forum: Net zero infrastructure in Hong Kong England & Wales (no 210252) and Scotland (SC038629)