How did we investigate the reasons why there is not much green roof in HK?

 

 

a. Desktop research

 

  1.  Compare & contrast the foreign & local greening policies

 

• Because government policies are central to every social issue, we firstly had a thorough understanding and investigation into the existing HKSAR Government policies regarding greening, particularly roof greening.

• In order to know why the development of green roof in HK falls behind some foreign countries, we then did research on relevant foreign greening policies, e.g. USA, EU countries & Japan etc.

• The foreign and local policies are then compared with each other and it gave us knowledge that what policies that we are missing now to improve roof greening in HK.

 

  2.  Summarize important information from reports, journals & papers etc

 

• Past research on barriers of roof greening or reports of roof greening situations in HK can also give us more basic and essential information.

• Other than looking for the benefits of a green roof, we are more focusing on their comments on the unpopularity of roof greening in HK.

 

 

​​b. Implement a green roof by ourselves

Instead of conducting questionnaires, we actually planned to implement a green roof by ourselves to learn what the difficulties are.

 

Asking for a venue through sending emails

 

• We sent 975 emails in total from September to October 2014, stating that we are a group of students from HKU, we will bare all the costs incurred and there will not be any structural alternation to their buildings.

 

The targeted groups

 

• We sent emails to stakeholders of various types of building in HK.

• Before approaching to owners of buildings outside HKU, we asked for the venue inside HKU campus and one of the halls, as we thought it’s the easiest way for us to find a place. The results were, however, negative.

• We then sent emails to secondary & primary schools, property management companies with commercial, residential profiles, and buildings owned by NGOs.

 

Responses received & follow-up actions

 

• Till now, the rate of responses received are approximately 2%. Most of the responses received are positive and from schools. However, other than 1 secondary school, they refused to help us if they are required to pay the cost. Negative responses are provided with reasons and recorded.

• Tak Nga Secondary School agreed to participate in the project and we are actively planning to implement a green roof on their premises.

• Around 98% of the emails sent were no response. We sent another follow-up email again but still, no responses received. We came up with the conclusion that most people in HK are ignorant to our project.

 

Seeking for sponsorship

 

• We also sought for sponsorship to run our project and visit to renowned green roofs in HK from some greening organizations & landscaping companies through emails.

• However, no responses were received.

 

c. Interviews & Field Visit

 

Objectives

 

• To learn others experience in greening a roof and know their views on the development of roof greening in HK.

• To be engaged with the industry and know more about roof greening technologies.

 

The targeted groups & expected outcome

 

• We firstly interviewed with a students’ society of HKU, Greenwoods HKUSU. They have successfully implemented a rooftop farming on one of the buildings in HKU. We expected to have a visit to the roof and learn their experience in implementing rooftop farming.

• While visiting to Tak Nga Secondary School, we had an interview with their principal as they did rooftop farming before but failed. We expected to know the reasons leading to failure of a green roof.

• We also interviewed a lecturer from Department of Mechanical Engineering in HKU. We expected to know the factors hindering the development of green roof in HK and some technical information or suggestion.

• We requested to have an interview & field visit to some green roofs from some greening organizations, however, no responses were received. We expected to have their views on implementing green roofs in HK from their perspectives.

• We requested to interview with a roof greening company, however, no responses were received. We expected to know the opinions from the industry and some information on innovative green roof technologies.

 

Methodology

 

• We liaised with all the parties through emails. For the roof greening company, we contacted them on phone initially.

• They were free to talk about any opinions.

• Both the interviews with Greenwoods and the lecturer were recorded with their prior approval.

 

 

Issue 1 - Why do people in HK not want to have a green roof?

• Based on the email responses received, research conducted and interviews done, we have a deeper understanding to the reason why there is not much green roof in HK from the initial stage.

• We are then able to suggest some solutions regarding to this issue.

 

Issue 2 - What are the difficulties encountered while implementing a green roof?

• We are actually implementing a green roof by ourselves at a secondary school.

• We are able to know what the difficulties are during the realization stage from real cases and hands on experience.