Lack of promotion
Lack of financial
incentive
Roof greening has been proved a beneficial and feasible practice. But why isn’t it a common practice in the well-developed Hong Kong? One of the major reasons is due to the lack of financial incentive. The government has seldom stressed on greening until the 2009-10 Policy address where the official get a real start on greening and landscape. Therefore, most of the supporting policies and roof greening projects have slowly taken off since then. In the recent roof greening works, large-scale projects like Cruise Terminal Building and Ancillary Facilities for the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal Development and North Lantau Hospital (Phase 1) are good examples demonstrating government-funded roof greening projects on public properties. However, few greening projects on private properties are undergoing especially when we are talking about existing buildings. There are simply not enough financial incentives to encourage owners to retrofit their buildings for a green roof. After all, the private sector is profit-oriented. When the benefits of implementing a green roof cannot compensate its cost, and without government funding, roof greening on existing buildings is not going to work. Moreover, the cost of building a green roof is never inexpensive in Hong Kong now. The existing roof greening market is so small that it scales the installation cost up to an unaffordable price to the strata owners. As a result, insufficient financial incentive hinders the development on roof greening in Hong Kong.
There is a lack of promotion or education towards city greening in HK. Although the government has been starting to do more on promoting greening in recent years, the level of achievement is still not satisfactory. Regarding the government bodies focusing on greening, the Greening, Landscape and Tree Management Section was established under the Development Bureau in March 2010 in order to achieve the sustainable development of a greener environment. However, the promotion regarding roof greening to the general public is not enough and they are more focusing on tree management. An inter-departmental Steering Committee for the Promotion of Green Building was another official body set up in 2013, aiming to formulate plans to promote green building. Concerning education, students in school are taught about environmental protection but not roof greening in HK, if there is not a green roof in their school. The actual benefits and performance of green roof are not well understood by the public. This will hinder the development of the local green roof or greenery market and technology.
Hong Kong is falling behind in the greening development. One reason is that there is no comprehensive policy framework with mandatory requirement in Hong Kong
In fact, the government has focused on the non-statutory policy. A handful schemes and researches are published by the government in the past few years. According to the “Study on green roof in Hong Kong” by the Architectural Services Department, the government try to promote roof greening by establishing green roofs in most of the government buildings, encourage the public by educating the benefits of green roof and cooperating with non-government greening organization. See the projects list in appendix
However, the result of that is still not optimistic. Many green organizations criticize that the government cannot effectively promote greening in Hong Kong due to a lack of mandatory policy. Even the recently published green scheme i.e. Joint Practice Notes 1 ‘Green and Innovative Buildings’ and Joint Practice Notes 2 ’Second Package of Incentives to Promote Green and Innovative Buildings’ co-implemented by Building departments, Lands Department and Planning Department are on voluntary basis. This means there is no statutory effect.
Please see the following table 1.
Lack of Government Policy
What are the barriers to roof greening?
Despite all the benefits a green roof can bring, there isn't much roof greened in Hong Kong.
We have stipulated some possible reasons for people to reject installing green roofs in Hong Kong. Below are the result obtained from research and survey.
Here are different constraints hindering the implementation of roof greening. One of the common cases suggests that: the top floor owners agree to implement green roofs. However, the underneath floor owners reject green roofs or show no preference. Roof greening cannot be implemented due to lack of consent. Those who reject green roofs worry that they have to share the liability to implement the green roofs. Besides, it is not fair to them to share the liability if they cannot enjoy the benefits a green roof brought.
The ownership of the roof is different from case to case as well as the liability. The situation in Hong Kong can be divided into 2 types:
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the roof is solely owned by one party
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the roof is jointly owned by undivided share holders
For the first scenario, the party is solely liable to any duty incurred concerning the roof (e.g. implementation cost, maintenance etc.). This is because the roof is entirely owned by the party. Therefore, the party is obligated to do its duty.
For the second scenario, the party is not solely liable to the roof. This is because the roof is jointly owned by undivided shareholders. Therefore, it is their collateral liability to perform the duties.
Another frequent question regarding the type 1 scenario is that: If I am not the owner of the roof, why should I bother to implement a green roof in our building? Or simply saying, why should I agree to do greening? People do not understand that the benefits of roof greening is not limited to the top floor. In fact, the whole building benefits from roof greening. For example, green roofs are estimated to extend the lifespan of a roof by 200%. Moreover, green roofs reduce energy consumption by improving the thermal performance of the roofs. It helps retain heat in winter and reflect heat in summer. This cuts the energy bill among each owner. The above advantages are enjoyed by all the owners.
Other relevant constraints are as follows:
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The roof area in many high-rise building is small while lots of building services have been installed
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The structural capacity of the building may not be suitable for the application of extensive green roof system
Other Constraints
Public Misunderstandings and Concerns
Roof greening in Hong Kong is a slow-start business comparing with other countries like Japan and German. Without sufficient promotion on roof greening, there are different public misunderstandings and concerns among HongKongers. With reference to the interviews to Dr. Sam Hui, 30 years profession in Building Engineering, he has concluded that the misunderstandings and unnecessary concerns among the public is one of the obstacles of implementing green roofs in Hong Kong. For example, two of the common misconceptions are that a green roof leads to water leakage and overloading on the roof. First we have to clarify that this is not a must-connection between these two problems and a green roof. A proper installed green roof should have benefited the building instead of damaging it. For further public misunderstandings and concerns, please direct to the table2-5 below.
Table 1: Evaluation of foreign roof-greening polices
After reviewing the development of roof greening in foreign countries, we find out that the most crucial point which contributes to these countries' success is the mandatory policy coupling with financial incentive schemes. This inevitable element boosts the willingness among the public to build a green roof. Therefore, Hong Kong Government should take reference with these successful foreign experiences when implementing roof greening.
Table 2: Planning Stage of Implementing Roof Greening
Table 3: Construction Stage of Implementing Roof Greening
Table 4: Operating and Maintenace Stage of Implementing Roof Greening
Table 5: Other Relavant Problems Stage of Implementing Roof Greening
Lack of government policy
Lack of promotion
Lack of financial incentive
Public misunderstanding and concerns
Other constaints
Barriers in details
