Developing sustainably

For a city that is known for it's continuous development and construction projects, sustainable and eco-friendly living isn't something I would first associate with Hong Kong. So I was very curious when I first came across this Zero Carbon Building and the surrounding urban woodland in Kowloon Bay.

Quiet parks with benches are something I miss here, which is what drew my attention to this space when I first walked by on my way to MegaBox. The park is situated in the middle of Kowloon Bay's industrial area and to my surprise it's also meant to showcase green building designs and raise awareness of sustainable living.
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A view of the Zero Carbon Building and the surrounding Urban Native Woodland from MegaBox (Photo: CathC)

According to the sign in the park, it doesn't seem as if the building is currently reaching it's zero carbon emissions target. The number on the left side represents the energy generation (in kWh) on-site by renewable energy from photovoltaic panels and a tri-generation system using biofuel made of waste cooking oil (energy sources described on official website). The number on the right side represents the energy consumption (in kWh). The two numbers don't balance, but the website does mention the target is to have zero net carbon emissions on an annual basis. So maybe these numbers will balance out later in the year...

The energy consumption of the building on April 21st 2013 (Photo: CathC)

The same sign on Jan 4th 2014 (Photo: CathC)

One potential problem I noticed is that the park is very well lit at night and the lights turn on early in the evening (~5 pm). The lights all use LED bulbs, but it seems a little excessive to line all of the steps leading up from the park to the building with lights (think movie theatre steps). Maybe it's a difficult to capture enough solar energy during the day (between the cloud days and film of dirt that accumulated on the panels) to really sustain all the lights in the park and other electrical demands of the building?

But there are some aspects of the park's design that seem like good ideas- like this building that's designed following a tree structure which mimics a tree's ability to provide shade and cool the surrounding areas. It's also suppose to be a framework for climbing plants. The roof of the building is lined with a thin film photovoltaic to power the fans that operate on the ceiling.

This cafe wasn't open yet back in April 2013, but was open for business when I came back in Jan 2014 (Photo:CathC)

 

Another is promote sustainable living in terms of buy local foods. This would be quite a shift in culture since there's a lot of imported groceries (like Danish eggs or Brazil Chicken) in the supermarkets and wet markets (surprising Brazil chicken can be found at wet markets).

I had fun wandering around in the park to learn about Hong Kong's take on sustainable living and green building designs.

The figures of engineers and technicians holding different tools were too cute not to photograph (Photo: CathC)