News & Events

HONG KONG, 7 December 2023 – Co-organised by the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) and BEAM Society Limited (BSL), the highly anticipated BEAM Plus Certificate Presentation Ceremony 2023 was successfully held on 7 December 2023. The ceremony was officiated by Mr David LAM Chi-man, JP, Under Secretary for Development, The Government of the HKSAR and Mr Victor TAI Sheung-shing, JP, Under Secretary for Housing, The Government of the HKSAR as the Guests of Honour. Ir Thomas HO On-sing, JP, Chairman of the Construction Industry Council, Dr CHEUNG Tin-cheung, SBS, Chairman of the HKGBC and Mr LI Ho-kin, Chairperson of BSL also attended the ceremony to recognise the 188 outstanding BEAM Plus certified projects this year. Since its launch in 2010, BEAM Plus has become Hong Kong’s leading initiative to offer independent rating on buildings’sustainability performance.

In the Opening Remarks, Dr CHEUNG Tin-cheung, SBS, Chairman of the HKGBC, congratulated all team members who had their projects certified this year. The Council would work relentlessly to collaborate with different stakeholders to promote the adoption of green building. 

Mr LI Ho-kin, Chairperson of BSL expressed his pleasure on BEAM Plus reaching the milestone of 2,500 registrations. BSL would continue to listen to voices from different sectors with a view to continually enhancing its rating tools. 

In light of increasing public awareness about green building, HKGBC and BSL are committed to listening to stakeholders’views and implementing enhancements to the rating schemes. There are more than 42,000 existing buildings in Hong Kong. HKGBC and BSL have put in great efforts to facilitate existing buildings to participate in BEAM Plus. Since the implementation of the BEAM Plus Existing Buildings Volume Certification in 2019, 328 real estate properties and 15 property management companies have participated in the scheme. 

The interior fit-out assessment tool, known as BEAM Plus Interiors (BI), has recently undergone a revision and was officially launched in late November 2023. This year, for the first time, there were new projects certified under BEAM Plus Interiors v2.0 (Beta Version). One of the main focuses of the new version is health and wellbeing. Moreover, BEAM Plus Interiors v2.0 is the first-ever green assessment tool designed for domestic spaces. These premises are assessed with a simple and user-friendly checklist, making it accessible for everyone in the community to evaluate their own spaces. This approach aims to encourage public participation in promoting a sustainable built environment. 

BEAM Plus has always been committed to encouraging the industry to raise standards. The Buildings Department announced through the revised Practice Note“PNAP APP-151”that starting from 30 June 2024, building projects will generally need to obtain a BEAM Plus Gold rating or above in order to be eligible for Gross Floor Area (GFA) concessions for green and amenity features. This effectively encourages the industry to strive for BEAM Plus Gold or above certification. 

In support of the Government’s target to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050, special awards have been presented in the Ceremony since 2021 to recognise projects that have outstanding performance in reducing carbon emissions and using renewable energy.  This year, we are pleased to see that projects are achieving deeper degrees of decarbonisation. One of the public sector projects has an extremely large reduction in estimated annual energy consumption and has optimised the local wind environment and maximised exposure to natural daylight, thus achieving an exceptionally high level of sustainable performance. 

In June and September respectively, HKGBC launched the“HKGBC Climate Change Framework for Built Environment”and the Zero-Carbon-Ready Building Certification Scheme. These tools help the industry to progressively reduce energy consumption with a view to mitigating climate change. In the near future, the latter certification scheme will be incorporated as one of the credits in the BEAM Plus.

BEAM Plus is Hong Kong’s leading initiative to offer independent assessments of building sustainability performance in various stages including master planning, design and construction, fitting out, as well as management, operation and maintenance. It consists of different kinds of assessment tools, namely New Buildings, Existing Buildings, Interiors, Neighbourhood, Data Centres and Existing Schools. Under the rating scheme, the buildings are assessed by BSL and certified by the HKGBC. As of November 2023, there are more than 2,500 registered BEAM Plus projects, covering a Gross Floor Area exceeding 81 million square meters, equivalent to the total pitch area of 8,300 Hong Kong Stadiums. The expected environmental benefit is a saving of 1.6 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually.  

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The Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) is a non-profit, member-led organisation established in 2009 and has become a public body under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance since 2016. The HKGBC strives to promote the standard and development of sustainable buildings in Hong Kong. The HKGBC also aims to raise green building awareness by engaging the government, the industry and the public, and to develop practical solutions for Hong Kong’s unique, subtropical built environment of high-rise, high density urban area, leading Hong Kong to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and to become a world’s exemplar of green building development. The Founding Members of the HKGBC include the Construction Industry Council (CIC), the Business Environment Council (BEC), the BEAM Society Limited (BSL) and the Professional Green Building Council (PGBC). 

To learn more about the HKGBC, please visit www.hkgbc.org.hk. 

BEAM Society Limited (BSL) is an independent, non-profit membership organisation established in 2010.  BSL is also recognised as a tax-exempt charitable organisation of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap 112) and as a public body under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (Cap 201) since 2016.

BEAM Society was established in 1996, which was later incorporated in 2010 as BEAM Society Limited. Being the developer and owner of the Building Environmental Assessment Method (BEAM), BSL is committed to administering and developing the BEAM Plus Assessment Tools.  We offer impartial assessment on building sustainability and build capacity by providing training for BEAM practitioners – BEAM Professionals (BEAM Pro) and BEAM Affiliates.
 

To get more information about BSL, please visit http://www.beamsociety.org.hk.