Environmental Protection Department - Environmental Performance Report 2005

We aim to promote community awareness through environmental campaigns, publicity, education and action programmes, and public access to environmental information, with a view to harnessing the community's support for, and contribution to, achieving the desired environmental goals.

The EPD operates a wide range of programmes that reach every sector of society, as described below. Our website is also an important tool for communicating with the public and operators, in a green, paper-less manner. In 2004 the website was enhanced to make it more reader friendly and to conform to the Government-wide design format of Common Look and Feel. We are also continuing to place environmental resource materials and information about our programmes and facilities on our website, to provide the public with easy access to the latest information.

The Community Relations Unit is the main co-ordinator of the EPD's community education programmes, as well as the secretariat to the government-appointed Environmental Campaign Committee (ECC), which organises community participation programmes. In 2004 the Unit:

Waste: Waste reduction continued to be the main focus of campaigns in 2004. The Waste Reduction Campaign in Housing Estates has accumulated 1 420 participants since 1998, as seen in Table 1. Paper, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are collected from each block of an estate. In 2004, in an effort to expand the scheme, the pilot programme on "Source Separation of Waste" (also known as "Super 3R") was launched to collect a wide range of recyclables on each floor of apartment blocks (see also 5.2e Environmentally Sound Waste Management and Facilities for details). In addition, $5.33 million was granted to green groups and community groups for 22 waste recovery projects in 2004 under the Government's Environment and Conservation Fund. Another $0.34 million was granted during the year to fund 19 environmental education and community action projects related to waste recovery.

Annual events: Two annual campaigns are held. World Environment Day, held June 5 each year, was celebrated in 2004 under the theme "Reduce Waste, Make Polluters Pay". More than 60 000 school staff, Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors and members of the public participated in games booths, workshops, district activities, environmental activities and green trail walks organised by 27 green groups and non-government organisations. The second annual campaign, the Environmental Protection Festival, was scheduled for January 2005 rather than the end of 2004, to enable the event to be tendered out to community and green groups on a trial basis. The slogan is "Love Our Nature, Separate Waste at Home".

Waste: Waste separation and recycling bins have been installed in 1 192 schools since 2002, funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The remaining 100 or so schools do not have space. Another 870 pre-schools have mini-bins to use as teaching tools.

Education: To supplement the school curriculum, the EPD produced subject-specific environmental teaching materials for primary and secondary schools, covering general studies, visual arts, integrated science, geography, chemistry, biology, physics, economics, public affairs and social studies. The Education and Manpower Bureau provided comment on the materials, which are linked to the Hong Kong syllabus, and green groups helped to prepare them. In addition, 17 environmental education training workshops on various topics were held for 823 teachers.

SEAS cum SEPAS: The ECC operates the School Environmental Award Scheme (SEAS) cum Student Environmental Protection Ambassador (SEPA) Scheme to promote involvement in environmental issues. The number of participating schools and students has grown steadily since these programmes began in 1995, as seen in Figures 1 and 2. In the 2004/05 school year, 11 975 students from 750 schools were made SEPAs at the end of 2004. The EPD has also trained 486 teachers to assess SEPAs for the Basic Environmental Badge since the badge system was launched in the 2003/04 school year.

Green School Awards: These awards were launched in 2000, with sponsorship from the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited. In 2003/04, 186 primary and secondary schools participated and 31 primary and 22 secondary schools achieved Green School status. Additionally, 27 pre-schools were awarded Green Pre-school status.

Other sponsored events: The ECC MTR Environmental Award for Schools organised a leadership camp in 2004 for outstanding and merit SEPAs, Girl Guide, Scout and Junior Police Call Environmental Protection Ambassadors, and youths from the Pearl River Delta region. The annual ECC AEON Environmental Award for Schools funded an environmental study visit to Japan for 10 outstanding SEPAs. Hong Kong Disneyland continued to promote the "Jiminy Cricket's Environmentality Challenge", which in 2003/04 had more than 40 000 student participants. Swiss Reinsurance Company sponsored the Nation-wide Environmental Competition for Youths of Mainland China and Hong Kong featuring "Caring for Our Water Resources", in which more than 400 000 primary, secondary and university students participated. The competition was organised jointly by the EPD, ECC and the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Students from American International School, the Grand Prize winner of the Jiminy Cricket Environmentality Challenge, present their winning report on "Let's Reduce Lunch Litter" to guests.

Wait Green Engine Off: More than 1 300 students supported this campaign in 2004 after the EPD wrote to schools seeking their support. The students, from 81 schools, approached more than 5 600 drivers near their campuses to inform them about the campaign.

Other Community Activities

An environmental education programme on the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) featured a series of road shows and exhibitions and attracted more than 38 000 people. More than 200 Environmental Protection Ambassadors helped to disseminate information about the scheme through their networks and their participation as volunteers in the road shows and exhibitions. Up to February 2005, 46 schools had applied to host a school roving exhibition on HATS (see also 5.2d Better Water Quality for details).

Environmental Protection Ambassadors participate in the kick-off ceremony of the environmental education programme and briefing session on the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme.

The sixth Hong Kong Eco-Business Awards attracted 107 entries in the categories of Green SME, Green Construction Contractor and Green Innovative Practice. The awards are jointly organised by the ECC with The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and Hong Kong Productivity Council.

In 2004, the Environmental Resource Centres in Fanling, Wan Chai and Tsuen Wan, as well as the Mobile ERC, attracted more than 130 000 visitors.

The Community Green Network Programme teams set up 123 "green desks" at shopping malls and other public places to answer enquiries, and gave 39 talks to members of mutual aid committees and owners' incorporations.

The Environmental Education and Information Centre answered 11 086 enquiries, received 6 311 visitors, provided 606 lending services and served 960 organisations.

The Environmental Protection Ambassador (EPA) scheme trained 159 property managers. EPA schemes are also in place for Scouts, Girl Guides, Junior Police Call, the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, the Zonta Club, the elderly and housing estate residents.

Press Releases and Publications

The EPD aims to make environmental information widely available to the general public. Press releases are issued regularly and the Internet is increasingly used to disseminate information.

•	Weekly press releases on water quality at gazetted bathing beaches are issued to the media. The press releases and reports on beach water quality are uploaded on the EPD website.
•	Hourly Air Pollution Indexes have been issued since July 1999 via the EPD website and a telephone hotline. Daily API forecasts and hourly API reports are issued to the media.
•	Statistics on environmental prosecutions brought by the EPD are released to the media on a monthly basis and also posted on our website.
•	A list of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) that are either in progress or about to start is released quarterly to the media. The EIA reports, and the Director of Environmental Protection's decisions on the reports, are placed on the EPD website.
•	Monitoring data for rivers and streams and marine waters are published in separate annual reports, as are air and beach water monitoring data.
•	The Environmental Protection Interactive Centre (EPIC) on the EPD website lets the public set parameters for the information they are seeking. It will soon be used for application, payment and issuing of permits and licenses.

In addition, the EPD produced 31 publications in 2004 ranging from publicity and training materials to guidelines on new services and initiatives. Most publications and other information from the department can be viewed on the EPD website.

During the year, three media visits were organised to the following sites: the West New Territories Landfill, the North New Territories Landfill and a green vehicle repair workshop. The EPD also handled 7 222 press enquiries, issued 182 press releases, organised four press conferences and briefings, and arranged 144 press interviews.


	5	Our Contribution to the Environment
		5.5 Environmental Awareness and Education