Labour Department
Environmental Report for 2002

The Labour Department and its Services

The Labour Department (LD) is the principal agency in the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the execution and co-ordination of major labour administration functions. It has four key areas of work namely, Labour Relations, Employment Services, Safety & Health at Work and Employee Rights & Benefits. As at 31 December 2002, the Department had an establishment of 1,801 staff, accommodated in 38 office locations throughout the territory.

As the Department attaches great importance to environmental protection, a committee comprising directorate officers has been established to oversee the department's environmental policy and performance. The committee has directed its efforts at various levels to achieve the objective of maintaining a green office environment. With increasing environmental consciousness amongst our officers and their support, good progress has been made in this regard.

Since introduction of the accountability system on 1 July 2002, the new Labour Branch (LB) of the Economic Development and Labour Bureau, with an establishment of 9 staff, has been housed in the Headquarters of LD. In view of the close working relationship and physical proximity between LB and LD, the environmental policy and measures mentioned in the following sections of this report are applicable to the LB. The LB has also been taken into consideration in quoting the performance statistics figures in this report.

Our Environmental Policy and Measures

The LD is committed to environmental protection by acting in compliance with the relevant legislations and codes of practices as well as providing a green environment for staff and members of the public visiting its offices. The following policies have been adopted in pursuit of such commitment:

1. Minimisation of Consumption
   The Department monitors stringently the effectiveness of various existing measures implemented under the Green Management Scheme, which includes minimisation of resource consumption, waste recovery and energy conservation. A detailed description of measures taken is annexed for general information.
   
2. Training and Publicity amongst Staff
   Through promotional and educational programmes, the Department aims at ensuring all staff members are aware of their environmental responsibilities. In 2002, a tree planting activity and two visits to Mai Po Marshes were organized with a view to boosting staff's environmental awareness. In addition, posters and circulars were circulated to staff regularly to invite staff's participation in environmental activities which include "No Plastic Bag, Please" campaign, the "Community Chest Green Day" and "No Smoking Day". Staff members have also been encouraged to put forward suggestions of green initiatives under the Departmental Staff Suggestion Scheme. In 2002, 20 suggestions on environmental protection were received from them.
3. Review of Office Practices
   The Department takes a proactive approach in reviewing office practices which are not environment friendly and introduces new improvement measures whenever feasible.
4. Minimising Environmental Pollutants
   In observing the guideline on infection control issued by the Department of Health regarding clinical waste disposal in our Occupational Health Clinics, the Department takes every measure to minimise the production of environmental pollutants and/or nuisance. Chemical wastes from the Occupational Hygiene Laboratory are collected by specialized waste collector. Asbestos wastes produced by the Laboratory are disposed of by appointed asbestos waste collector as required.

Performance and Targets

Note 1: Starting from this report, the basis of producing statistics on paper consumption is refined to follow the measurement adopted by the Government Supplies Department.

Note 2: The figures represent the electricity consumption of LD's offices in leased buildings only. Electricity consumption of LD's offices in multi-users Government buildings managed by the Government Property Agency is not covered in this report.

Due to the impact of economic re-structuring and economic downturn, the Department has in the past year experienced a sharp increase in its work, as reflected by the increase in number of registrants seeking our employment service and in the number of labour disputes/insolvencies handled by various offices. Moreover, new service like the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme was introduced in 2002. Notwithstanding the expanded scope of work, the Department has managed to reduce its paper consumption by 1.5% and contain the growth in electricity consumption within 3% in 2002.

Moving towards 2003, the Department will sustain its effort in environmental management. It will continue to encourage all staff members to take all possible measures in waste minimization and energy conservation.

Feedbacks and Comments

If you have any comments or suggestions on this report, please send them to the Green Manager of the Department at:
Mail: 17/F, Harbour Building, 38 Pier Road, Central, Hong Kong
E-mail: enquiry@labour.gov.hk
Fax: 2544 3271

Annex

Green Housekeeping Measures Taken

Minimising Paper Consumption

• Using both sides of paper -
  Internal circulars were issued to staff members encouraging them to write and print on both sides of each piece of paper.
• Minimising copies of circulars -
  In 2002, all circulars of the Department were disseminated to staff members by means of e-mail. By doing so, a saving of approximately 1,200 reams of paper was achieved.
• Communicating by e-mails -
  The Department has further enhanced and extended its e-mail network to all the branch offices. In 2002, over 500 staff members have been provided with an e-mail account.
• Exchanging softcopies / diskettes within and outside of Department -
  Officers are encouraged to minimize the printing of hardcopies by exchanging softcopies through e-mail. If e-mail communication is not feasible under special circumstances, transferring of softcopies on diskettes is encouraged.
• Minimising photocopies -
  Starting from 2000, documents like government gazette notices and internal proforma have been uploaded to the Government Office Automation Network for common viewing and access through the network to reduce printed copies.
• Using plain paper fax machines -
  The Department has fully adopted plain paper fax machines since 2000.
• Using double-side photocopiers -
  The Department has been replacing photocopying machines with those equipped with double-side photocopying function. A total of 11 such photocopiers were acquired in 2002.
• Avoiding use of fax leader pages -
  Staff members are encouraged to use fax notes instead of cover sheets for outgoing faxes.
• Retaining original documents for circulation -
  For those documents like departmental orders that require routine re-circulation, the original sets of documents would be preserved for re-use.

Minimising Use of Stationery

• Using refillable ball pens -
  All staff members are provided with refillable ball pens for their daily work.
• Minimising use of envelopes -
  When compared to 2001, the number of envelopes consumed in 2002 represents only a slight increase of 1% despite the drastic increase in the requirement for implementing promotional activities in various programme areas by the Department in the year.
• Minimising use of loose minute jacket -
  Staff members are encouraged to re-use loose minute jackets whenever practicable.
• Re-using decorative materials -
  Serviceable decorative materials have been kept for re-using since 1998.

Waste Recovery

• Using the blank side of used paper for drafting or printing of internal documents -
  Boxes are provided in all offices to collect paper, which has been used on one side only, for drafting purpose. Internal documents like departmental orders, advisory memoranda, circulars and file copies are printed on the blank side of used paper.
• Collecting waste paper for recycling -
  In 2002, 41,687 kg of waste paper was collected, representing an increase of 74% when compared with the quantity in 2001.
• Using recycled paper -
  About 93% of the paper consumed by the Department in 2002 was recycled paper.
• Collecting obsolete personal computers -
  In 2002, 436 sets of personal computers were collected for recycling through the Government Supplies Department's contractors.

Energy Conservation

• Switching off electrical appliances when not in use;
• Adopting the use of high efficiency lighting equipment;
• Adjusting the illumination of lighting equipment to the minimum required level;
• Adjusting the air-conditioning system to keep the room temperature to a reasonable acceptable level (about 24^oC); and
• Encouraging staff to use staircase, instead of lifts/escalators, for inter-floor traffic.

  With our concerted effort in adopting the above various measures in energy conservation, we have managed to contain our electricity consumption to 992,678 kWh in 2002, representing only a slight increase of 2.7% over the previous year (966,642 kWh), notwithstanding the extension of computer network and the increase in workload, which necessitates more consumption of electricity.