NEWS & EVENTS ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

BEAM Plus 2019
certification ceremony

Co-organised by the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) and BEAM Society Limited (BSL), the BEAM Plus Certification Ceremony 2019 was successfully held on 5 December 2019. BEAM Plus is the Hong Kong’s leading initiative to offer independent assessments of building sustainability performance.  It covers the whole building life cycle including planning, design, construction, operation and management.

Mr WONG Kam-sing, GBS, JP, Secretary for the Environment, HKSAR Government, Mr LIU Chun-san, JP, Under Secretary for Development, HKSAR Government, and Mr CHAN Ka-kui, SBS, JP, Chairman of Construction Industry Council, presented certificates to the project teams with exemplary performance in BEAM Plus rating.

This year, around 100 projects were certified with final assessment ratings and provisional platinum rating. Among these projects, a record high number of 46 projects were certified with the highest rating in Final and Provisional Assessment, i.e. Platinum or Excellent grade. These certified projects have demonstrated that their sustainability performance has met or even exceeded the assessment requirements, of which some of the projects have achieved by adopting innovative design.

In the opening speech, Mr CHEUNG Hau-wai, SBS, Chairman of the HKGBC, congratulated all project teams on their outstanding achievement in BEAM Plus project ratings and commended their concerted efforts to make the buildings greener. Looking forward to the development of the BEAM Plus rating tool, he emphasised that it would become more user-friendly to facilitate the transformation of the built environment in Hong Kong, including the greening of the existing building stock.

Company representatives from management companies are committed to promoting BEAM Plus Existing Buildings (EB) Volume Certification by signing Memoranda of Understanding

At the ceremony, a number of portfolio management companies demonstrated their commitment to turning their existing buildings into green by signing Memoranda of Understanding with both organisers on the stage. These companies include Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Management Company Limited and Hong Yip Service Company Limited, Kai Shing Management Services Limited, Nan Fung Property Management, and New World Development Company Limited.

The company representatives were committed to promoting BEAM Plus Existing Buildings (EB) Volume Certification to over 500 properties under their portfolios.  This initiative was recently launched in October 2019.  It enables multiple existing buildings that bear similarities to be certified in a faster and more economic manner.  It is foreseeable that there will be a growing number of certified existing buildings in the near future.

Mr So Kai-ming, Chairperson of BSL, highlighted in his closing remarks that human centric design would be a crucial element in building design. The upgraded BEAM Plus New Buildings V2.0 assessment tool recently launched in September 2019, was an illustrative example. The upgraded tool has focused on the perspective of occupants, placing more emphasis on their wellness. — Construction+ Online