As Chairperson of the Construction Industry Council (CIC)’s Committee on Environment and Zero Carbon Building Management Board, Ivan’s work focuses on developing tools and models—from carbon assessment to financing—to build a more sustainable industry. Apart from CIC, he has also served in various public platforms over the years, including the Town Planning Board; Urban Renewal Fund; Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme; and China Green Building Council. With over 30 years of industry experience, and as an authorized person and registered architect in Hong Kong, Ivan has been extensively involved in projects across Greater China and Asia Pacific while leading LWK + PARTNERS, an architecture and design practice in Hong Kong.
Being the chairperson of the Committee on Environment and a director of a local architecture firm, how did you get involved with the construction industry at large?
I volunteered to join the former Construction Workers Registration Authority (CWRA) in 2008, as I have always been grateful to the workers who carried out building works on-site. It’s our responsibility, as engineers and architects, to safeguard their rights and interests. In 2012, CWRA was merged with CIC and its functions were transferred to the then newly established Construction Workers Registration Board under CIC. This was how I started my service at CIC, continuing since then to contribute to the industry.
Why does the CIC Green Product Certification focus exclusively on Green materials?
To advance towards China’s 2060 carbon neutrality goal and Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050, CIC has implemented various tools to promote construction sustainability. These include the Carbon Assessment Tool (CAT)1; Sustainable Finance Certification Scheme (SFCS)2; Green Product Certification3; and Smart Waste Management.
The CIC Green Product Certification is developed as the primary certification scheme to assess sustainable building and construction materials or products. Currently, there are more than 800 certified products under the scheme with quite a lot of concrete and steel products in the list as they contribute substantial portion of embodied carbon in buildings. With a wider use of Green construction materials, the industry can achieve better results in reduction of embodied carbon.
Moreover, the Green Product Certification also acts as one of the foundations of the CAT, which creates a common platform to evaluate the carbon performance of buildings and infrastructure. It is important to understand the embodied carbon of construction materials and carbon emissions of on-site construction process, which provides the opportunities to improve the sustainability performance and construction project efficiency. As the built environment accounts for 70 per cent of Hong Kong’s carbon emissions, the industry needs to play its part. With these tools, among others, CIC strives to facilitate the industry to contribute to the overall carbon reduction goal, which is gaining traction globally, as well as to improve construction companies’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performances.
This is an excerpt. The original article is published in
Construction+ Q4 2022 Issue: Year End (Review & Forecast).
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