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Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency - Symposium 2015 Strategic management of megatrends to achieve sustained success

Striking a balance between urban development and environmental conservation

Speech by Mr. Wilson Fung,

Executive Director, Corporate Development Airport Authority Hong Kong

Ladies and gentlemen,

Many thanks for inviting me today to speak on a subject that is of such great

relevance to Hong Kong; and that is – How we could strike a fine balance

between urban development and environmental conservation. This is

coincidentally a topic of particular relevance to the Airport Authority, as we are

about to embark upon one of the largest single infrastructural projects in Hong

Kong’s history against a backdrop of vigorous public debate as to how such a

balance could be struck.

Rather than diving into the details of this debate, I would first like to walk you

down memory lane back to some twenty years ago, to revisit the discussions and

the ultimate decision to move our airport from the bustling Kowloon City to the

relatively remote and isolated location at Chek Lap Kok.

I still remember vividly the unforgettable experience every time I flew into Kai

Tak - the aircraft always appeared to be approaching uncomfortably close to the

Lion Rock, before banking sharply to the right above Kowloon Tong, almost

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scraping the laundry on the roofs of the tenement buildings of Kowloon City

before taxiing out over Victoria Harbour.

Exciting for air travellers though that might be, it was much less so for the

hundreds and thousands of city residents to whom the roars of the earlier

generations of jet aircraft posed a constant disturbance. The Kai Tak

International Airport, as I remembered it, was developed from an old military

airstrip. Circumstances were such that its rapid development allowed relatively

limited consideration to the environmental impact that it created. Kowloon City

also grew symbiotically with the airport and, I must say, the level of tolerance of

people living directly beneath the flight path was quite beyond the realm of our

imagination today. The notion of “striking a balance” did not feature

prominently on the agenda of public discourse then.

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As the history goes, Kai Tak very soon ran into a problem similar to the one we

face today at Chek Lap Kok – capacity crunch. In the early 1990s, Kai Tak was

operating very close to its design capacity, and the demand for flights into and

out of Hong Kong has expanded rapidly as our economy continued to grow.

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After repeated rounds of policy review and site selection, Chek Lap Kok was

eventually chosen as the site to develop a new two-runway airport, symbolised

by Sir Norman Foster’s iconic and, since then, much emulated terminal design.

With the new infrastructure in place, HK regained its capability to meet the ever

expanding demand for air travel. The new airport has also positioned Hong

Kong as an efficient, spectacular and thoroughly modern aviation hub for China

and South East Asia.

However, what is less well known is that under the auspices of the New Airport

Master Plan, the environmental impacts of this strategic project had been

carefully mapped, mitigated and compensated by the Airport Authority under

the watchful eyes of the Environmental Protection Department. All these were

done on a voluntary basis as they preceded the enactment of the Environmental

Impact Assessment Ordinance.

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The re-profiling of Chek Lap Kok Island and the reclamation of the surrounding

waters impacted two species of special conservation concern – the Romer’s Tree

Frog and the Chinese White Dolphin. The impacts on these two species were

addressed through a successful relocation of tree frogs to several well-protected

sites around Hong Kong, and of the dolphin, by extensive monitoring and careful

management of the reclamation process and the subsequent designation of Sha

Chau as a Marine Park to ensure that one of the dolphins’ key breeding grounds

in Hong Kong waters was protected.

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Other less well known environmental protection measures undertaken by the

Airport Authority in association with the project included mangrove planting on

the Tai O saltpans, and tree planting on Lantau.

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While these measures addressed the ecological concerns associated with the

reclamation, there were more environmental innovation in the design of the

airport itself:

Our triple water system combines Hong Kong’s world-leading expertise in

using seawater for cooling and flushing; as well as the use of reclaimed water

for irrigation of landscaped areas throughout the airport to minimize our

potable water consumption;

Again, leveraging the best of Hong Kong’s indigenous expertise, the extension

of the city’s world class network of buses, ferries and of course the Airport

Express Line, ensures that over 95% of airport staff and 60% of all passengers

travel to and from the airport by public transport;

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Furthermore, HKIA’s signature “big window” terminal design allows the

maximum use of natural light with the minimum of solar heat gain, thereby

keeping our energy consumption firmly in check. This design is currently

being employed even more widely and in a much more advanced fashion in

the design of our soon-to-be-commissioned Midfield Concourse.

It goes without saying that the greatest benefit of moving from downtown

Kowloon to the more remote and largely unpopulated North Lantau has

dramatically improved the quality of life for hundreds and thousands of urban

residents under the flight path.

However, the Airport Authority has not rested on its laurels, but rather has built

on these foundations to find new and better ways to reduce the environmental

impacts that are typical of a busy airport.

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In 2008, we conducted our first audit of Airport Authority’s carbon emissions

and, a year later, those of our airport business partners. In 2010, the entire

airport community made a public pledge to reduce carbon intensity by 25%

by 2015. This programme has been a great success, and we are firmly on

course to achieve one of the city’s most ambitious and wide-reaching carbon

reduction targets.

As part and parcel of our overall strategy in improving our energy efficiency,

we also launched an ambitious programme in 2009 to replace over 100,000

traditional lights with LEDs throughout the Terminal Building. This was by far

the largest single LED replacement project in Asia. It also played a crucial role

in establishing the market for LED lighting at a time when the technology was

only just beginning to find acceptance in Hong Kong.

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The above examples serve to illustrate two very important lessons we have

learned:-

First, we fully appreciate that multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential to

achieving significant environmental improvements. To put it more simply, we

need to work together with our business partners. As the airport operator, we

have an undeniable responsibility to take the lead. But it is worthwhile to note

that Airport Authority cannot on its own achieve environmental targets to any

significant extent. In the case of the carbon reduction program, over 40% of the

total carbon reductions achieved under the pledge were actually contributed by

our business partners.

Secondly, we cannot expect commercial enterprises to undertake green projects

solely for the sake of being green. What we learned is that a sound business case

is the best guarantee that our green efforts and initiatives are sustained in the

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long run. The LED replacement programme is one good example that fully

demonstrates that we could ultimately save money by pursuing a green agenda.

With the above green credentials, I hope I have impressed upon you that the

Airport Authority has not suddenly become “green” only when the Third Runway

System project appeared on the horizon. Rather, our ongoing commitment to

minimize our environmental footprint is fully integrated into our management

agenda.

2012 was a landmark for the Airport Authority. In March that year, the

Government approved our Masterplan 2030, and instructed Airport Authority to

proceed with the planning of the Third Runway System project. Following that,

work commenced on the EIA study, but admittedly under a very different

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environment from that of the original development of the airport some 20 years

back.

Hong Kong had continued to grow. And along with the rising population and

maturing economy came the public expectation that our environment and

quality of life should be protected. As a result, many statutory processes, such as

EIAs and Town Planning Board Applications for major housing and development

projects have routinely faced well-organised challenges from the community.

We fully recognise these changing public expectations and, in response, through

the preparation of the MP2030, we conducted the most comprehensive public

consultations ever on a development project. This involved several hundreds of

meetings and public fora to allow all relevant stakeholder groups to air their

views – NGOs, District Councils, legislators, community groups and the media, to

name but a few. These engagement efforts have helped Airport Authority to

better understand the most important concerns of the public.

Another major change since the building of Chek Lap Kok airport was of course

the enactment of the EIA Ordinance in 1998, which has since provided a

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statutory process under which proponents of major projects must conduct an

EIA study and issue a report that meets the specific requirements of the

Environmental Protection Department, while giving the public the opportunity

to express their views.

Vigorous though the debate over the 3RS has been, it is in no way extraordinary

if one looks elsewhere in the world. Cities such as London, Munich and Sydney

have taken many years to determine a way forward when the increasing demand

for aviation appears to conflict with the environmental concerns.

Closer to home, Osaka, Seoul and Singapore have followed the same path as Hong

Kong in moving their airports out of the city and into the sea to find more space

and reduce the impacts on urban residents. The problem is that the further you

move an airport from the city, the more likely you are to encroach upon

ecologically-sensitive habitats and species of conservation concern.

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Hong Kong’s Statutory EIA framework indeed serves as a useful tool to enable a

wide range of stakeholders to contribute to finding the best way forward.

First, the EIA process reminds the Government that in determining the need for a

major development project, especially in as densely populated a city as Hong

Kong, that economic considerations alone are not sufficient to justify

development.

Secondly, it provides the project proponent with a clearly articulated process

within which to find the approach with the smallest environmental impact, and

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also the motivation to do this well, as we cannot take it for granted that all

projects would necessarily be approved.

Indeed, Airport Authority’s combined experience in adopting best practice from

other airports, building our environmental capacity over the last 18 years, and

the knowledge of the public concerns expressed through the 2030 Masterplan

engagement exercise, have provided a solid foundation on which to prepare

what has subsequently been acknowledged as the most comprehensive EIA

study ever conducted in Hong Kong.

If you will allow me to blow a few trumpets, the ground-breaking elements in the

3RS EIA include:

1. For the first time that three simultaneous study approaches (i.e. land, sea

and submarine-based methods) were adopted to assess the potential

impacts on Chinese White Dolphin more accurately than ever before.

2. The first ever health impact assessment in a Hong Kong EIA (focusing on

air quality and noise)

3. The first proposed use of deep cement mixing technology on a massive

scale for reclamation in order to minimize construction-phase

disturbance to the marine ecosystem.

4. The proposed establishment of the largest marine park in Hong Kong, the

size of which equals to all of the existing marine parks in Hong Kong

combined.

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It goes without saying that the EIA process provides the opportunity for the

public to express their views. These are generally objections raised either

directly by the environmental NGOs or by members of the public. The rise of

social media in recent years has significantly tilted the balance, resulting in the

dramatic increase in the volume of objections that have to be handled by the

authorities.

Ultimately, what all this means is that it is not really a question of how AA could

successfully prove that our proposed development will not result in any

unacceptable environmental impacts. This is a tall order, bordering on a

“Mission Impossible”. On the other hand, it is equally misguided to believe that

economic development is so important to us and to our future generations that

we could afford to allow it to ride roughshod over all other considerations. As

we see it, the balance between environment conservation and urban

development is struck through an open and formally structured collective

decision making process to which the entire community subscribes.

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In the case of the Third Runway System, we have faithfully followed this process;

and, to the extent possible, undertaken the best possible measures in mitigating

all the environmental impacts that our proposed development brings; we are

very glad to have obtained our Environmental Permit late last year after two

years of very intensive research work.

This is of course not the end of the “balancing” story. As you will all be aware,

EPD’s decision in granting the EP to AA is currently subject to two judicial

reviews. The final decision will of cause be determined by the courts. But I

naturally look forward to a favourable outcome as we believe that the 3RS

project, after having taken into account considerations from different

perspectives, is indeed in the overall best interest of the whole community, and

that is what “striking a balance” should, ultimately, be about.

On this note, I would like to thank HKQAA for inviting me to speak to you today

and I look forward to further exchanges with you during the panel discussions.

Thank you.