At a Glance

We will publicise to the community in general our Environmental Policy and report annually on our environmental performance

Introduction

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is committed to protecting and improving the environment of Hong Kong - for both present and future generations.

This is EPD's first report that evaluates the environmental performance of our own programmes and activities. It covers the department's key performance areas in 1999, and the main targets we set out to achieve in 2000. In going through this reporting exercise, we recognise the need for continuing efforts to establish clearer and more meaningful performance measures of our work and seeking continuous improvement in future exercises.

• The Environmental Policy - provides the overall direction in which we work.
• The EPD's organisational profile - includes departmental activities, programmes and responsibilities, as well as the facilities we manage.
• The environmental impact of our programmes and operations - provides the context for the rest of the report.
• An analysis of our performance - focuses on the key areas in which we are involved.
• Our performance targets for the years ahead.
• Finally, this Report ends with an independent verifier's objective evaluation of this report.

For more comprehensive information on EPD's programmes and the state of our environment, readers should refer to our annual report Environment Hong Kong 2000.

Highlights of Programmes in 1999

Environmental Assessment

• We completed a strategic environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the Comprehensive Transport Strategy Review, identifying possible solutions to potential road traffic problems which could affect the environment.
• We protected about 270,000 people from environmental impact or nuisance through the EIA Ordinance.

Air Quality

• More stringent emission standards for new vehicles were introduced in 1999. This combined with more active enforcement against smoky vehicles helped reduce street-level air pollution.
• We developed a scheme to improve indoor air quality.

Noise

• We phased out noisy pile drivers completely.

Waste Reduction

• Under the Waste Reduction Framework Plan launched in 1998, we established a Waste Reduction Committee in February to identify priorities and co-ordinate waste reduction measures. We also completed the Waste-to-Energy Feasibility Study and environmental impact assessment of four potential sites.

Water Quality

• Water quality ranking at 10 of the 41 gazetted beaches moved up by one rank. None were downgraded.

Landfill Restoration

• We commissioned a temporary public golf driving range on the restored Shuen Wan Landfill at Tai Po, the first completed project under the territory-wide Landfill Restoration Programme which returns landfill to public use.

Legislation and Enforcement

• To enhance enforcement efficiency, we implemented an integrated pollution control system in which our enforcement staff are qualified in all pollution control areas.
• We succeeded in catching 121 additional polluters in two weeks with our special enforcement task forces.

Greater Cross-Border Cooperation

• We established greater cooperation with the Guangdong authorities on air pollution control measures, conservation, environmental impact assessment and air quality management.
• We signed a memorandum of understanding on cross-border waste shipments with the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Community Awareness

• We started a three-year publicity and education campaign aimed at increasing public awareness of environmental problems and support for the government's environmental initiatives.

Helping Other Departments

• We set up a help desk to assist other HKSAR government bureaus and departments in utilising their Controlling Officer Environmental Report as a tool to integrate environmental management into their pro- grammes and activities.

Greening EPD Operations

• We revised our own Environmental Policy to embrace our programme activities in addition to green office management.
• We implemented an electronic environmental monitoring and auditing reporting system for construction projects which reduced drastically the amount of hard-copy submissions.
• We capped the size of our fleet of vehicles through streamlined operations.

Chart of Vehicle emission on a decreasing trend
Chart of A quieter environment
Chart of Beach water quality is improving
Chart of More population is served by environmentally acceptable landfills
Chart of Serving the community better in resolving local pollution problems
Chart of More population is protected through the EIA process on major capital projects
Chart of More public seminars to promote environmental awareness