Introduction

Is your building practical and sustainable?

In recent years, incidents related to the aging, maintenance, safety, quality and environmental issues of buildings have raised awareness of the need for practical and sustainable buildings.

The HKQAA Sustainable Building Index (hereinafter called HKQAA SBI) is a building sustainability performance disclosure and benchmarking scheme developed based on the UNEP-FI / SBCI's financial and sustainability metrics report 2009 and a few key ISO Standards on building sustainability. The HKQAA SBI serves as a simple and inexpensive tool for building owners to benchmark, disclose and understand the sustainability performance of their buildings.

Buildings subscribing to HKQAA SBI could easily follow the step-by-step guidance of the HKQAA SBI Metrics Handbook and Report Template for reporting their sustainability performance data.

The performance data reported by the subscriber will be compared to and scored based on the SBI Score Card. On reaching the score required, the subscriber will be issued the HKQAA SBI Mark. Subscribers could opt to disclose their performance data and display their SBI Mark on the HKQAA SBI website.

Building stakeholders such as the building owners, property managers, investors, policy makers and the community at large will be able to have buildings' key sustainability performance information at their fingertips for making decisions and driving improvements.

The HKQAA SBI subscriber could choose to self declare its performance data or engage a listed SBI verifier to endorse its data integrity on the HKQAA SBI website.

Roles and Responsibilities of HKQAA

As the scheme owner of HKQAA SBI, HKQAA assumes the following roles and responsibilities:

• Develops and keeps up to date the scheme administrative and technical requirement;
• Compiles and regularly updates the HKQAA SBI Score Card, by means of conducting desktop and primary research on the related regulatory requirement and the sustainability performance of the subscribing building and buildings in Hong Kong in general, for providing the building sustainability performance benchmarks;
• Administers the routine scheme operation, including managing the subscription process, compilation of subscribing building's SBI score and the issuance of HKQAA SBI Mark;
• Operates and maintains a web-based platform for subscribers of HKQAA SBI to disclose their building's sustainability performance and SBI score attained;
• Recognises the efforts of HKQAA SBI subscribers on promoting and demonstrating buildings' sustainability through the issuance of HKQAA SBI Mark.

The HKQAA SBI Framework

The HKQAA SBI offers a composite index of current building sustainability performance of the social, economic and environmental aspects of a building. It focuses on measurable outcomes that can be linked to current statutory requirements, recommended practices and the Hong Kong building sustainability performance data gathered from desktop research or the territory-wide building sustainability performance benchmarking survey conducted by HKQAA.

The quantitative metrics underlying the HKQAA SBI encompass 20 performance indicators (P.I.) for tracking the performance of 10 core issues of the social, economic and environmental aspects chosen and developed with reference to the UNEP-FI / SBCI's financial and sustainability metrics report published 2009, and a few key ISO standards regarding building and sustainability. For more details, please refer to the HKQAA SBI Metrics Handbook and Report Template*.

The HKQAA SBI was developed based on the following references:

• UNEP-FI / SBCI's financial and sustainability metrics report 2009
• ISO 15392:2008 Sustainability in Building Construction - General Principle
• ISO 21929-1:2011 Sustainability in building construction – Sustainability indicators - Part 1: Framework for the development of indicators and a core set of indicators for buildings
• ISO 21930:2007 Sustainability in building construction - Environmental declaration of building products
• ISO/TS 21931-1:2010 Sustainability in building construction - Framework for methods of assessment of the environmental performance of construction works - Part 1: Buildings
• ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on Social Responsibility

*If you wish to get a copy of the HKQAA SBI Metrics Handbook and Report Template, please contact Mr. Samual Ho at 2202-9565 / 2202-9111 or by email: samual.ho@hkqaa.org