The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is responsible for protecting Hong Kong’s environment, a role that is becoming increasingly complex. The nature of our job means that, on one hand, we must be constantly reaching out to the local community and national, regional and international bodies, to engage their input and support for a healthier environment. On the other hand, we must also keep an ever-closer watch on our own impacts to ensure we practice what we preach. This report reflects our efforts to fulfil these external and internal demands.

In 2003, we continued to look for ways to reduce our own impacts on the environment. The EPD is responsible for managing landfills, refuse transfer stations and the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre, as well as laboratories and offices. We cannot avoid having some environmental impacts, but our goal is to minimise these and ensure we meet and, wherever possible exceed, the statutory requirements.

In terms of office-related impacts, we have achieved good reductions in paper consumption, which is 11.2 per cent lower than that in 1998, and we are continuing with efforts to reduce energy consumption. We face challenges ahead in making further reductions, but we will continue to explore innovative ways of reducing our impacts on the environment.

Apart from managing our impacts, we also continued to expand our partnership programmes with various industries, encourage greater public consultation and fortify our links with local, national, regional and international bodies. These efforts reflect our commitment to ensure sustainability is a shared responsibility – one of the key messages of sustainable development.

On that note, I would like to invite readers to provide feedback on our performance and on this report. Our stakeholders are a broad group, encompassing numerous industries, businessmen, politicians, green groups, community groups, academics and the general public. We need your input to help us improve. A feedback form is provided at the end of this report or you can e-mail us at <enquiry@epd.gov.hk>.

R.J.S. Law, JP
Director of Environmental Protection