BuildingMinds' role in driving sustainable supply chain solutions in construction
More than a dozen Hong Kong property developers and construction firms have formed a working group to standardise procurement of low-carbon construction materials as part of their climate-action plans.
The group, known as the Hong Kong Proptech Alliance, is seeking to slow or stop emissions embedded in construction materials across the industry’s supply chain. Major procurement shifts, policy incentives and technical documentation frameworks are required to drive investments that will help the building industry transition to low-carbon products and manufacturing, executives said.
The alliance members include Hongkong Land, Sino Group, Swire Properties and New World Development, in addition to Airport Authority Hong Kong and real estate investment manager Hines Asia-Pacific. It joined consultancy firm Reset Carbon on Thursday to achieve its long-term goals, according to a statement.
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“The key challenge for us, and also the industry and suppliers in Hong Kong and mainland China, is a lack of transparency on the availability and credibility of low-carbon construction materials,” said Kent Jan, head of digital transformation and innovation at Hongkong Land, the biggest landlord in Central.
Some 60 per cent of carbon emissions in Hong Kong stem from electricity consumption in buildings, government data showed. Globally, 28 per cent of emissions come from the lifetime operations of buildings, as well as 11 per cent from the construction process and the production of building materials, according to the UK’s Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
“Lots of Hong Kong companies have got a lot more progressive on carbon reduction by setting science-based targets that require them to engage into their supply chains,” Liam Salter, founder and CEO at Reset Carbon, told the Post. “If we want the supply chain to respond to that, we need to send a bigger demand signal.”
The proptech alliance has launched a technical procurement guideline aimed at accelerating the development of the low-carbon construction market, according to a statement. It plans to do that by standardising carbon accounting and disclosure, providing industry benchmarks and seeking policy support.
The guideline states that procurement tenders should include performance specifications, such as low-carbon product rating, recycled content and material composition. These would be in addition to the energy efficiency and carbon intensity of manufacturing processes, it added.
The guideline has incorporated input from building contractors, material suppliers, architects, surveyors and structural engineers.
Big companies in the building sector in Hong Kong have made great strides in slashing carbon footprints from their properties through energy-saving measures. However, efforts within the construction materials sector have been constrained by a lack of standards and information, executives said.
Hongkong Land has committed to nearly halving emissions arising from its operations and energy purchases by 2030 from levels in 2019, Jan said. On emissions attributed to its supply chain partners, the landlord aims to reduce the intensity per unit of materials used – mainly steel and concrete – by 22 per cent, he added.
Germany-based BuildingMinds, which helps clients preserve real estate asset values using digital tools, said property owners are increasingly required to calculate “embodied carbon” in their portfolios. It is essential to develop scientific methods to estimate the carbon that is locked up in older buildings, its CEO Marek Sacha said.
The Hong Kong Green Building Council has included an embodied-carbon assessment as part of its green building certifications, while the city’s Construction Industry Council has developed calculation standards and tools for it.
While Hong Kong has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050, the government’s climate action plan has not put much focus on tackling embodied-carbon emissions in buildings, the alliance noted. Without regulatory support, it has been difficult for innovative strategies to progress, it added.
These strategies include mass engineered timber, carbon dioxide-absorbing concrete, and the “bubble deck” method that eliminates all concrete from the middle of a floor slab.
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