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HongKongEcho: Five reflections with sustainability expert Christine Loh
Christine Loh says sustainability is more than just big budgets and points to the UN Sustainable Development Goals to guide the city's mega projects.
On the Northern Metropolis…
The Northern Metropolis is a reconceptualisation plan of a large area which received positive public response when it was announced because it made sense to people. The conceptual plan has various environmental and nature conservation elements, which is positive. What would be even better is to include carbon neutrality and ecological progress explicitly into the mix since Hong Kong needs better long-term planning and design to achieve carbon neutrality, and to maximise its natural assets. There is a cross-section between environmental and social outcomes in providing housing and infrastructure for the people. The Northern Metropolis plan could use the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a guide to see how many of the 17 goals it can achieve.
On the Lantau Tomorrow Vision…
The Lantau plan has yet to ignite the people’s imagination. It is interesting to contrast the public response towards the project compared to the Northern Metropolis which received immediate public support. The project in Lantau, meanwhile, has seen many questions raised about its sustainability. I believe people understand there are good opportunities to integrate the northern part of Hong Kong with Shenzhen that enables both jurisdictions to cooperate in many things, such as climate adaptation (like common infrastructure for sea level rise), green mobility connectivity, circular economy re-industrialisation, innovation and technology, and so on.
On sustainable development…
It’s about development that considers the environmental, social, and economic aspects. All three can be furthered in Hong Kong, but what is needed is good planning and design. Hong Kong also aims to be carbon neutral by 2050. Moreover, China’s national policy is to pursue ‘ecological’ progress. That’s also a good principle for Hong Kong. Taken together, development plans should ensure strong ecological, environmental, climate, and social outcomes. While these elements have costs, they can be justified if you take the medium to long-term view. Fortunately, Hong Kong can afford it.
On Smart Cities…
The vision for ‘smart’ today has converged with ‘sustainability’. ‘Smartness’ is digital and one of its key purposes is to enable the city’s authorities to manage the city, as well as people to organise their lives and activities optimally. This includes lowering pollution, saving resources – such as energy and water – reducing waste, improving health and well-being, providing real-time information of all kinds. We now have to look at green alongside ‘smart’, alongside tech, alongside property, and alongside finance. With such a convergence, policies and implementation for the government, and management and innovation for businesses, can achieve sustainable development in ways that we couldn’t do before.
On optimising buildings…
All buildings can be re-commissioned periodically to ensure they perform at their designed capability. Existing buildings and structures can be retrofitted to also perform better, such as in energy saving that lowers carbon emissions. For a city like Hong Kong, the government should have a major plan to use buildings as a driver for business and social innovation, so that occupants can enjoy greater wellness, such as cleaner indoor air, lower noise, and better light and thermal comfort etc. Again, if Hong Kong can find a comprehensive combination of green, ‘smart’, tech, property, and finance, it will have a winning economic strategy that produces positive environmental and social outcomes too.
