Our first departmental green housekeeping guideline was issued in 1987 on the use of electricity. As part of our continuing effort to reduce electricity consumption, we invited the Energy Efficiency Office of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) to conduct an energy audit at Southorn Centre in February 2001. It recommended that we should replace the remaining obsolete T12 type fluorescent tubes which were being used in the service rooms by the more energy efficient T8 type since it would save 10% of the power consumption. The replacement work started in 2001 and was expected to result in energy savings. In addition, occupancy sensors with dimmable controls are to be installed on the 28/F at the Southorn Centre in early 2002. Another recommendation was to replace inlet guide vanes with variable speed drives for the air handling units on each floor at Southorn Centre, and we are exploring with EMSD whether the installation work could start in 2002. We also re-wired the lighting circuits in Southorn Centre to increase the number of lighting zones where lights can be switched off locally. Overall, a slight increase in electricity consumption was recorded in 2001, which was mainly due to an increase in our workload and longer operating hours of the air-conditioning equipment for our new servers.

Chart of Electricity consumption for office operations

The EPD was the first government department to specify the use of recycled paper for all our publications and we constantly strive to contain and reduce paper consumption. E-mail and other e-office practices are used widely in the department. In July 2001 we started issuing administration circulars and general notices by e-mails to all staff, under the title Administration Daily Bulletin, to replace hard-copy circulation. In August we placed the department's telephone directory on-line. And in September we introduced an electronic fax system for sending and receiving fax transmissions by e-mail. These measures resulted in an estimated saving of about 52 reams of photocopying paper. Further reduction of paper consumption was achieved through other electronic initiatives, such as the introduction by the Civil Service Bureau and Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau of a pilot Electronic Leave Application and Processing System (ELAPS), and the processing of training applications electronically. There will be further reduction of paper consumption after the roll-out of more electronic workflow applications on a number of subjects.