Visit to University of Macau and Enjoy the House of Dancing Water Show

I was glad to visit the University of Macau through Dr. Simon Lee (Associate Professor, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences) on 28 Nov 2010 (Sunday).

(Right: Dr. Lee and I)

Firstly, we visit the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences. Dr. Lee showed many different equipment and facility in the institute.

Fundamental wet chemistry laboratory for Chinese Medical

Safety facility in the laboratory

One of the interested research items was introduced, which was applying Zebrafish in Drug Screening.

Experiments on zebrafish mainly involve three approaches. The first approach is observing cellular changes in various systems such as the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, and the skeletal system. The second approach is using biochemical indices (Changes in genes and protease can responds to medication.). The third approach is observing behaviours. Observing and monitoring zebrafish behavior can effectively yield results on drug (Chinese Medicine) efficacy.

The State Key Laboratory for Quality Research in Chinese Medicine was in there.

Institute for the Development and Quality, Macau was also observed.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new campus of the University of Macau (UM) was held on 20 December 2009. President of the People’s Republic of China Mr. Hu Jintao and Chief Executive of Macau SAR Dr. Chui Sai On officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new campus. The new campus will be nearly 20 times larger than the existing one and located in east Henqin Island, Guangdong Province.

After the visit, I went to the University of Science and Technology, Macau.

Since UST Macau is private university, the most of their research related to computing and IT.

Before I visited universities, I joined the Show entitled “The House of Dancing Water” in Saturday night. It was a very good show and I took some photos for sharing.

In front of Casino, mermaid was observed.

I took a photo near the hall.

In the beginning, a ship raised from the water.

It was like Circus above the water.

Waterfall

Motorcycles Show

Reference:
Instititute of Chinese Medical Science. University of Macau
http://www.umac.mo/icms/
Institute for the Development and Quality, Macau
http://www.idq.org.mo/
Macau Association of Science and Technology
http://www.mapst.org/
House of Dancing Water
http://thehouseofdancingwater.com/en/#/home

HKQAA Symposium 2010 – Sustainability Challenges (Part 2)

HKQAA Symposium 2010 was held in Hong Kong 26th November 2010 and will be held in Shanghai and Guangzhow on 3rd and 21st December 2010, respectively. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organization.
The symposium’s frame entitled “Tackling Sustainability Challenges with a Fact-based Approach” and I summarized it below for sharing.

Afternoon Session – Measuring CSR to Drive Sustainability



Dr. Michael P.H. Lam (CEO of HKQAA) gave an introductory remark.




Ms. Teresa Au (Head of Corporate Sustainability Asia Pacific Region, HSBC) gave a keynote remark about HKQAA-HSBC CSR Index establishment. She said the index was based on ISO 26000.




Ms. Connie Sham (Senior Manager of Strategic Business, HKQAA) was the first speaker in afternoon session and her topic was “Announcing HKQAA-HSBC CSR Index 2010 Benchmarking Results”.




Firstly, Ms. Sham recited a poem and then she said it was a choice to take responsibility or not.




After that she introduced the HKQAA-HSBC CSR Index which aimed to establish a level playing field for organizations in Hong Kogn to enhance the CSR performance by applying the principles of ISO 26000.




She mentioned Hong Kong CSR Advocate Index to be voluntary benchmarking project and 27 organizations participated in 2010.

The CSR Seven Core Subjects were “Community Involvement and Development”, “Consumer Issues”, “Fair Operating Practices”, “The Environment”, “Labour Practices”, “Human Rights” and “Organizational Governance”. Its average Hong Kong CSR Index score in 2010 were discussed.




CSR Advocate Mark Presentation Ceremony

Sammy Wan represented ATAL (one of awarded companies) to receive the Advocate Mark.




Group photo of all awarded companies




The second speaker was Ms. Ada Fung (Deputy Director – Development and Construction, Housing Department, the Government of the HKSAR) and her topic named “Managing Sustainability Risks by Means of ISO 31000”.




She quoted the Brundtland Commission (1987) and Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) to explain the sustainability as follows, respectively.
“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
“Sustainable Development concerns with Economy and Environment”




She introduced the guidelines on social responsibility based on ISO 26000 which was issued on 1st November 2010.




Ms. Fung then explained how to use risk management approach for sustainability.




Risk matrix sample for public housing development was briefed.




She said the risk management should be considered holistically and applied in the procurement cycle.




Finally, she shared two examples. The first one was “The comprehensive redevelopment programme for the Ngau Tau Kok resettlement estates”.




The second one was “Comprehensive redevelopment of Sau Mau Ping estates”.




The last speaker was Mr. Kam-Hung Lee (Hong Kong Media Practitioner) and his topic entitled “Voice of the Society”.




Mr. Lee told a story about an old woodcutter who always cut more wood than the young guy. The young guy didn’t understand and asked for the old woodcutter. The old woodcutter answered that he had do three things: i) when he went home, he made ax shape; ii) he understood the characteristic of tree; and iii) he had a skill to cut down the tree.

Then Mr. Lee said the Sustainability was not what we do but what we didn’t do.

He explained the concept of ICAC that was Integrity, Connective, Accountability and Creativity.

Q&A Session

During this session, I asked a question to Mr. Lee about the ability of conflict adaptation which stated by Ohmae's book entitled “The Professionalism”. It was because CSR and profit seemed to be conflict. Mr. Lee said that means to think the solution out of the box with creative idea. Mr. William W.H. Lam (Corporate Responsibility Development Manager, MTR Corporation Limited) added that it was conflict if we considered short-term for profit maximization. If sustainable profit was considered, we would found it was a long-term profit which better than short-term for profit maximization.


Friend photo: Mr. Sammy Wan and I


Friend photo: Mr. P.C. Chan and I


HKQAA Symposium 2010 – Hong Kong was ended and I found that the location in Langham Place Hotel was a very good choice. Moreover, I like this sculpture.

Reference:
www.hkqaa.org
www.hksq.org

HKQAA Symposium 2010 – Sustainability Challenges (Part 1)

HKQAA Symposium 2010 was held in Hong Kong 26th November 2010 and will be held in Shanghai and Guangzhow on 3rd and 21st December 2010, respectively. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organization.
The symposium’s frame entitled “Tackling Sustainability Challenges with a Fact-based Approach” and I summarized it below for sharing.


Morning Session – Building Towards Sustainability

Ir. Prof. Peter K.W. Mok (Chairman of HKQAA) gave a welcome speech. He introduced CSR and ISO 26000.




Then Mr. Che Wenyi (Vice Administrator, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China) gave an opening speech. He introduced the testing and certification industry in China and its’ importance.




Prof. Mok presented a souvenir to Mr. Che.




Ms. Janet Wong (JP, Commissioner for Innovation and Technology, the Government of the HKSAR) gave an opening speech. She briefed the development of testing and certification industry in Hong Kong and introduced part of HKCTC report.




Prof. Mok presented a souvenir to Ms. Wong.




Group Photo of Officiating Guests




The first speaker was Mr. Sheng Fei (Director General, Department of Accreditation Supervision Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China) and his topic was “Special Requirements of Construction Quality Management System Certification in China”.
He pointed out that there had many problems even though most of building and construction companies were registered by ISO 9001 certification, indicating the lack of effectiveness and efficiency on the implementation of ISO 9001. There were three main problems. First problem was that industries did not understand the requirement. Second problem was that they were not focused on “Quality”. And third problem was the monitoring of certification bodies.




The second speaker was Mr. David Dumigan (General Manager – Project Management Department, Henderson Land Development Company Limited) and his topic was “Value of a Sustainable Building”. He introduced the vision of Quality and the Environment of his company and showed an introduction video. His talk separated into following parts:
i) Quality – Indoor Environmental Qualities, Air, Daylight, Views, Acoustics
ii) Resources – Energy Flows & Energy Futures, Material Use & Water Consumption, Waste Management & Pollution Control
iii) Sustainability
iv) Innovation




Case – Indoor Daylight




Case – Reducing the consumption of energy




Case – Reducing the consumption of fresh water




Case – Energy efficiency water cooled AC system (30% energy saving)




Case – Comparative lower constructive cost




Brand Mark: Proudly Made in China.




Mr. Jacky Ip was the third speaker, who is Director of Property Management in Hong Kong Housing Society, and his speech entitled “Voluntary Assessment – Gaining Recognition from Future Mandatory Building Inspection”. Firstly, he briefed the management portfolio of Hong Kong Housing Society.




The building joined the Building Management and Maintenance Scheme (BMMS) before and after situation.




Then Mr. Ip introduced some new schemes called Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme (MBIS) and Voluntary Building Assessment Scheme (VBAS)



The objectives of the new schemes were:
· To advocate the best practice for continuous building management & maintenance and to nurture a building care culture in the community.
· To develop certification scheme for quality building management
· To gain recognition by BA so that a VBAS assessed building will not be required to go through MBIS.

The diagram showed some participating bodies.


Table summarized the key features of MBIS and VBAS


Assessment Categories between MBIS and VBAS


The certifications of both schemes were showed




The benefits of certification were got the recognition by BA through professional assessment so as to enhance property image.

Mr. Ip said the way forward was to train and register of VBAS assessors, as well as, to provide publicity & public education programmes for VBAS. The target would be set in mid-2011.

Dr. Thomas S. Ng (Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong) was the forth speaker and his presentation title was “Measuring Carbon Foot print of Your Building Supply Chain”.




Dr. Ng said “Building sector has an undeniable role to play in emission reductions” which based on the Kyoto Protocol and Hong Kong’s Target (to reduce carbon intensity by 50-60% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels).

The diagram showed the relationship between building lifecycle and whole life emission (Carbon). It demonstrated how import of the decision in the early project stage.




Then Dr. Ng. introduced “Gradle-to-Grave Concept” to us. It defined by Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE, 2008) that “The embodied carbon of a building material can be taken as the total carbon released over its life cycle.
This would normally include (at least) extraction, manufacturing and transportation.
Ideally the boundaries would be set from the extraction of raw materials until the end of the products lifetime (including energy from manufacturing, transport, energy to manufacture capital equipment, heating & lighting of factory, maintenance, disposal, etc.)”




The following table showed the embodied carbon of common building materials.




Dr. Ng stated many countries produced inter-industry specific datasets that knew as “Top-Down Approach”.




On the other hand, relevant standards such as ISO 14000 series, to be “Bottom-Up Approach” was discussed.



Then Dr. Ng introduced one of his study was “Envisaged Carbon Label for Construction Materials”. It could be putting Hong Kong at the forefront of sustainable development as well as accreditation service and carbon auditing.





The fifth speaker was Mr. Leo Wong (Assistant General Manager – Property Management, Kai Shing Management Services Limited) and his topic entitled “Showcase of Building Carbon Emission Reduction Projects”.




Mr. Wong introduced the Leadership of Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which was developed by the US Green Building Council, and KCC is the 1st building obtained LEED certificate in Hong Kong. There were 8 key areas of human and environmental health in the LEED. They were “Location and Planning”, “Sustainable Site”, “Water Efficiency”, “Energy and Atmosphere”, “Materials and Resources”, “Indoor Environmental Quality”, “Innovation and Design Process” and “Regional Priority”. KCC was the LEED Project and got the good result on energy saving.




One of drawbacks of green building was very high initial construction cost.




Lastly, Mr. Wong shared the analysis of whole-life costing of this LEED project. He concluded that the “Whole-building approach” in LEED was the new idea in Hong Kong. KCC project may be a role mode of green redevelopment.



The last speaker was Mr. Sean Gilbert (China Director, The Global Reporting Initiative) and his topic was “Key to Sustainability Reporting in the Construction and Real Estate Sector”.





Mr. Gilbert showed the increasing of CSR reports in Chinese from 2001 to 2009.




Then he pointed out several benefits form CSR reporting. CSR reporting was a management process which linked with stakeholder engagement.




Then he briefed the development process to launch Construction & Real Estate Sector Supplement (CRESS).




Mr. Gilbert showed their own reporting to us.

Panel Discussion was performed at the end of Morning Session of the symposium by Dr. Ali Al-Zubaidi (Managing Director of Integrated Management Systems Associates Limited).

Reference:
www.hkqaa.org
www.globalreporting.org