Environmental Report 2006

Introduction

In support of Government's initiative to advocate green management, this report sets out the Trade and Industry Department's green performance from January to December 2006 and its green targets in 2007. The report covers the performance of all offices of the Department situated in the Trade and Industry Department Tower at 700 Nathan Road, Mongkok, Kowloon.

Overview of Services of Our Department

2. The Trade and Industry Department is responsible for handling the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)'s commercial relations with our trading partners, implementing trade policies and agreements (including the issue of certificates of origin and export and import licences), and providing support for Hong Kong's manufacturing and service sectors within the framework of a free economy.

3. The Department is assisted in its work on commercial relations by overseas and Mainland Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices, and the Office of the Government of the HKSAR in Beijing. The Director-General of Trade and Industry is advised by various boards and committees, including the Trade and Industry Advisory Board, the Textiles Advisory Board, the Rice Advisory Committee and the Small and Medium Enterprises Committee. With a view to further improving its services, several Customer Liaison Groups have been set up to facilitate better communication between the Department and its customers from various sectors.

Environmental Management Structure

4. The Department has over 500 staff. The Director-General is assisted by two Deputy Directors-General. These two Deputies are supported by seven Assistant Directors-General, each heading a division. A Departmental Secretary takes care of office administration. Environmental management responsibility begins at the highest level and is cascaded down the Department.

Trade and Industry Department Organisation Chart

5. The Director-General is responsible for setting the environmental policies and targets, which will be executed by the Departmental Secretary, in the capacity of Departmental Green Manager. The Green Managers' team draws up various green measures and oversees the Department's environmental performance. The team works closely with the Office Managers of the seven Divisions on the implementation of green initiatives. Regular meetings are held to solicit the views of Office Managers and members of the Departmental Consultative Committee on green management. Traders' opinion on environmental protection measures of the Department is collected through various Customer Liaison Groups, advisory boards and committees.

Our Green Policy and Targets

6. The Trade and Industry Department is committed to helping to keep the world green. Our policy is to advocate green management, support 'Action Blue Sky' campaign, and to build into our culture a self-awareness to actively conserve the environment.

7. The work of the Trade and Industry Department is very much office-based. A main focus of our green targets is directed at the reduction in consumption of paper and envelopes in the office. In 2006, our targets were to achieve a reduction of 5% in paper and envelope consumption as compared to 2005, and to collect 50,000 kg of waste paper.

Green Measures in 2006

8. We adopted the following measures in 2006 to promote green management at our work place:

Paper consumption : using recycled paper instead of virgin paper, making full use of the blank side of used papers, reducing photocopying / printing, maximising the use of emails for internal and external communications.
	To promote the use of the blank side of used paper for photocopying, receiving fax and printing from computers, bins of recyclable paper are placed next to these machines.

Paper and envelope recycling : provision of green boxes to collect used paper and envelopes for recycling.
Waste paper is collected in green bags for recycling.		Collection boxes for recyclable paper are provided next to officers' desks.

Registries are provided with green boxes to collect used envelopes. Colleagues are encouraged to reuse them for internal communication.

Waste recycling : provision of separate bins to collect empty aluminum cans for recycling.
Waste separation bins - blue bins for waste paper, yellow for aluminum cans and brown for plastic bottles - are placed at convenient locations inside the TID Tower.			Separate bins for collecting aluminum cans are placed outside the pantries on each floor.

Green procurement : only alkaline dry batteries, recyclable toner cartridges and pencils made of recycled materials are purchased.
Green Products are used.

Electronic dissemination of information through intranet : promoting and facilitating the electronic dissemination and re-circulation of departmental circulars, notices, briefs and posting orders.
e-Notice Board disseminates various types of information, such as donations and training courses.		e-Circulation and Re-circulation of departmental circulars reach all colleagues within seconds.

Electronic booking of conference rooms : reservation of conference rooms through self-service on the web.
	The e-Booking system is both environmental friendly and efficient. Colleagues can check the booking status through the net.

Electronic greeting cards : sending e-cards to our official contacts.
Christmas Card		Chinese New Year Card
We stopped printing paper Christmas cards, Chinese New Year cards and calendar cards since 2003.

TID Departmental Portal : provision of a single entry point for our staff to access the Government's e-transaction platform (such as e-Leave, e-Payroll, etc.).
One of the green initiatives of the Government is to implement the paperless Government to Employee (G2E) services , such as electronic submission of leave applications. The entire process, starting from application, recommendation and approval to notification, now becomes paperless.

Education and publicity : promulgation of guidelines on best green practices and launching awards to reward staff achieving highest savings in paper.
Green guidelines are uploaded onto the intranet and circulated on a regular basis among all staff.		To raise colleagues' awareness of environmental protection, the Environmental Protection Department was invited to give a talk on "Green Life" on 17 November 2006.
The Deputy Director - General presented the Green Ambassador Award and the Green Pioneer Award to staff representatives in recognition of their efforts in achieving savings in paper consumption.

Staff participation in community's green activities : encouraging colleagues to participate in green activities such as collection of used moon cake cans, donation of used goods to volunteer agencies to achieve recycling.
Participation in the community's green activities helps strengthening the environmental awareness in daily life of our colleagues and also their families.		TID Volunteers Team collected old books, toys and electrical appliances from colleagues and gave them to a volunteer agency.

Clean Air Initiatives

9. In addition to the above measures, we contribute to the improvement of air quality in accordance with the principles and spirit of the Clean Air Charter signed by the Chief Executive on behalf of the Government by :　

Setting air-conditioners to 25.5。C. Encouraging staff to dress casual and smart, and to discard jackets and ties in summer.
	For better control of power consumption, indoor temperature is maintained at 25.5。C and the duration of time when air-conditioning is provided is also shortened. Eye-catching signs are displayed to remind colleagues of the importance of energy saving.

Reducing electricity consumption : Staff are reminded to activate 'energy saving' mode in office equipment during office hours, turn off electrical equipment and lights whenever they are not in use.
	Photo-copying machine with energy-saving mode is used.

Appointing Energy Wardens to ensure strict implementation of energy saving measures.
	Regular inspections are conducted to ensure that best green practices are followed.

Removing excess fluorescent lights and replacing tubes with energy-saving type.
	Thin fluorescent light tubes (T5) are used to reduce power consumption.

Switching off engines of departmental cars while waiting to avoid idling emissions and achieve fuel saving.
Label is displayed to remind users of the car to switch off engines.

e-Services

10. We are keen in enhancing our e-services to traders. To promote a green government and to shorten the time for processing and dissemination of information, the trade circulars are uploaded on TID website. The public are encouraged to obtain up-to-date trade information through accessing our web site and to register with our free email notification service. By registering the e-mail address and selecting the type of trade information needed, the registrant will receive an email alert whenever there is new trade information or circular issued.

11. To facilitate trade, we provide electronic services as far as possible. For instance, lodgment of Production Notification and Certificate of Origin applications are fully electronic. Textiles notifications and strategic commodities licence applications can also be lodged electronically, in addition to paper mode. As for comprehensive licences, while the initial application and annual renewal are done manually, traders can download the licences to cover individual shipments during the 12-month validity period.

Our Achievements in 2006

12. Our performance in 2006 has been impressive - a reduction of 36% in paper consumption and a reduction of 33% in envelope consumption (both against a 5% reduction target). We also collected 43,437 kg of waste paper for recycling, achieving 87% of our target. This shortfall is probably due to the lower overall consumption of papers.

Our Targets for 2007

13. In 2007, we will continue to build on our past performance. We aim to achieve a reduction of 5% in paper and envelope consumption, to collect 40,000 kg of waste paper, and to attain 30% of paper consumption using recycled type.

14. We will introduce more clean air measures such as installation of meters to monitor the electricity consumption on each floor of the TID Tower, and reducing the use of products that contain volatile organic compounds.

15. As always, we will continue to encourage our staff to economise on the use of precious resources and to render full support to the community's green campaigns. In collaboration with other departments and organizations, we will continue to help promote the electronic mode of submission for official trade documents.

16. We hope we can contribute to making the world a greener place with blue sky for our future generations.

Feedback

17. We value your opinion. If you have any comments or suggestions on what we have or should have done, please send them to our Departmental Green Manager through :