Sustainability Report 2018/19

Diverting Waste from Landfills The majority of the Group’s waste generation comes from construction and demolition debris produced by our construction subsidiary as well as general waste produced by our property management subsidiaries. We support the Government’s waste-management policies, including the ‘Hong Kong Blueprint for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013- 2022’, and have adopted a three-tiered approach that gives priority to waste avoidance over waste reduction and waste recovery in order to achieve sustainable municipal solid-waste management across all of our operations. To reduce waste generation at our construction sites, Sanfield is actively exploring opportunities to minimise materials consumption. We aim to purchase the most appropriate quantities and sizes of raw materials, reduce errors during the construction stage, and introduce new building methods like Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Precast Unit to streamline our construction processes. In particular, the adoption of Precast Unit promotes the use of prefabricated modules which are completed with finishes, fixtures and fittings. The modules are manufactured and assembled prior to transporting to the intended sites for installation. With this method, each type of module can be fabricated, checked and tested before mass production in a controlled factory environment, providing a high degree of quality control while enabling off-site manufacturing for on-site assembly. It also reduces on-site construction processes and ultimately helps reduce a substantial amount of construction waste created by traditional field work. We also seek to reuse materials or recycle construction waste in order to divert as much waste from landfills as possible. For instance, designing and building properties with standardized dimensions to increase the chance of reusing or recycling components, sending unwanted materials to local recycling centres, and practising deconstruction instead of demolition to salvage components or materials that can be reused or recycled. Our hotels and property management subsidiaries have also adopted different measures to avoid or minimise waste generation and to divert waste from landfills. Under the Government’s ‘A Food Waste & Yard Waste Plan for Hong Kong 2014-2022’, we actively promote food-waste separation at our properties. The selected properties, including hotels and shopping malls, have partnered with their food and beverage tenants to deliver the collected food waste to Hong Kong’s Organic Resources Recovery Centre, commissioned in 2018, for turning it into energy. Tsuen Wan Plaza, for instance, has made continuous efforts toward waste reduction and recycling through rolling out different initiatives and programmes such as the children programme – ‘Little Green Gurus’, reuse of hoardings, a district-based polyfoam recycling scheme, and by holding green-contractor elections to promote waste management and reduction to the wider community. The Leighton Hill and Park Island provide residents and tenants with bins to collect food waste, and conduct free food audits, hoping to share with residents and tenants advice on how food-waste handling and reduction should be handled. Cherishing and Conserving Resources To improve our overall environmental performance, the Group incorporates environmental concerns into our procurement processes, giving priority to sustainable materials while also keeping track of our resource consumption in order to minimise unnecessary resource purchases. Considering the Environment while Sourcing During the procurement process, the Group takes environmental concerns into account to fulfil our social responsibilities. All timbers used during construction are required to be certified as sustainable. Suppliers must also prove that the timbers they provide come with a certification issued by the Forest Stewardship Council. To reduce materials consumption, our construction subsidiary adopts careful planning and sources pre-cast facades, aluminium formwork and green blocks for the construction process. The further use of pre-finished and smooth blocks helps avoid plastering. Using Water Effectively Although the majority of our business operations are not water intensive, we continue with our efforts to improve our water performance. Hence, we have supported the Hong Kong Water Supplies Department’s ‘Let’s Save 10 L Water’ campaign to encourage the head office and other properties to enhance water efficiency. Our property management subsidiaries actively maintain the plumbing and flushing systems of buildings to prevent water leakage and to ensure water quality. Value Created for the Environment Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited • Sustainability Report 2018/19 14