COMPARISON OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (EPA) FOR CONSTRUCTION IN HONG KONG AND THE MAINLAND CHINA Authors: Address: E-mail address: Keywords:
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VWY Tam , CM Tam , SX Zeng 1 Department of Building & Construction City University of Hong Kong 83, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 1
[email protected] environmental management system, environmental performance assessment, construction
ABSTRACT Environmental protection has aroused much public concern in recent years. Environmental management system (EMS) has been advocated for all economic sectors. Construction, being one of the pollution generators creating destruction to the environment, is by no means exempted from EMS. However, in carrying out EMS, the greatest obstacle is the lack of objective performance evaluation criteria. Trying to overcome this, Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) was introduced for assessing the environmental performance in terms of management and operational systems, which however is not popularly adopted in the construction industry of Hong Kong and the Mainland China. This paper compares and discusses the implementation status of EPA between Hong Kong and the Mainland China, highlighting their difficulties. Construction is passive and reactive in implementing EPA, the reasons being the non-mandatory nature of the scheme, lack of any external stimulus, thin profit margins of most construction firms, and the high investment cost that deter contractors from the implementation.
INTRODUCTION The construction industry creates and provides facilities for human activities and social development on one hand; the impact on the environment resulted from construction is witnessed on the other (Bossink and Brouwers, 1996). Environmental protection should be an important issue all over the world, including Hong Kong and the Mainland China (Tse, 2001). Environmental impact of buildings over the entire life cycle process has been recognized as a serious problem for the construction industry (Polster et al., 1996; Morledge and Jackson, 2001). However, construction, one of the pollution generation industries in Hong Kong and the Mainland China, lacks a systematic way in controlling pollution. Some researchers argued that the site environmental assessment could be an essential tool for parties within a construction organization (Crawley and Aho, 1999; Ren, 2000). Implementation of EMS is suggested for all industries including construction (ISO, 1998). EMS can provide a framework for achieving and demonstrating a desired level of environmental performance (Tam et al., 2001; Wu et al., 2000). However it is not easy for a company to establish an environmental performance evaluation system, which is an essential tool for achieving continual improvement in the environment (Sanvicens and Baldwin, 1996). Assessing environmental performance systematically by contractors will be useful to control environmental impacts. Thus it is necessary to implement EPA for effective environmental management (Kuhre, 1998). This paper mainly looks at the following issues: • •
Understanding the current behaviour of the construction industry in environmental management; and Investigating the difficulties and comparing their relative significance in the implementation of EPA between Hong Kong and the Mainland China.
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ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOUR IN CONSTRUCTION In protecting the environment, the Hong Kong government had issued plenty of laws and ordinances on environmental protection. The ordinances related to construction include the Water Pollution Control Ordinance, Noise Control Ordinance, Waste Disposal Ordinance and Air Pollution Control Ordinance. The government had also issued the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance for the construction industry. Enforcements of these regulations are mainly responsible by the Environmental Protection Department. For the Mainland China, the construction industry has undergone great changes due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization during the past two decades. Pollution resulted from construction activities has become a serious problem. In order to tackle the problems, the Chinese government has, thus, made great effort in enacting laws on environment protection such as the ratification of Environment Protection Act, Water Pollution Protection Act, Air Pollution Protection Act, Solid Wastage Pollution Protection Act and Noise Pollution Protection Act. These ordinances provide guidelines for practitioners. The report of the Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (EPD, 2002) unveiled that 38% of wastes in Hong Kong were generated from construction and demolition activities in 2001. In the Mainland, it is estimated that the annual solid wastes of construction reach 30-40% of urban solid wastes (Zhang and Yang, 2001). A number of complaints on the environment generated from construction sites have also been recorded. In Hong Kong, 1,098 (10% of the overall figure) air pollution complaints from construction were recorded from 2001 to 2002. As regards noise pollution, there were a total of 2,285 complaints at the same period in which 2,079 came from general construction works and the other 206 from percussive piling. Meanwhile, there were 240 liquid waste pollution complaints recorded concerning construction sites. The worst of all, there were 273 prosecutions imposed upon contractors for the infringement against the Noise Control Ordinance, which is about 75% of the overall prosecutions on noise pollution in 2001 (EPD, 2002). Pollution and its related hazards do not only annoy residents nearby, but also affect the health and well being of people in the entire city (Chen et al., 2000). For example, in big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, the air quality has been deteriorating due to extensive urban development activities. From the analysis of Chen et al. (2000), sources of pollution and hazards from construction activities can be divided into seven major types: dust, harmful gases, noises, solid and liquid wastes, falling objects, ground movements, and others. The causes of pollution and the corresponding preventive measures in these seven major types of pollution were tabulated in Table 1.
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Table 1: Causes of pollution and hazards and preventive methods (Source: Chen et al., 2000)
Types
Causes
Methods to prevent
Dust
Demolition, rock blast Excavation, rock drilling
Static crushing / chemical breaking Static crushing / chemical breaking / wet excavation / wet drilling Covering / wet construction Wet keeping / site clearing / mask Awning / concrete goods / washing transporting equipment Concrete goods / packing and awning / wet keeping Awning / storehouse Cleaning Concrete goods
Harmful gases
Noise
Ground movements Wastes
Falling objects
Others
Open-air rock power and soil Open-air site and structure Bulk material transportation Bulk material loading and unloading Open-air material Transportation equipment Concrete and mortar making Construction machine – pile driver Construction machine – crane Construction machine – electric welder Construction machine – transporting equipment Construction machine – scraper Organic solvent Electric welding Cutting Demolition Construction machine – pile driver Construction machine – crane Construction machine – rock drill Construction machine – mixing machinery Construction machine – cutting machine Construction machine – transporting equipment Construction machine – scraper Demolition Pile driving Forced ramming Solid-state waste – building material waste Solid state waste – building material package Liquid waste – mud / building material waste Liquid waste – machinery oil Solid-state waste – building material waste Solid-state waste – building material package Liquid waste – mud / building material waste Liquid waste – construction water Construction tools – scaffold and board Construction tools – model plate Construction tools – building material Construction tools – sling / others Urban transportation – road encroachment Civic safety – demolition Civic safety – automobile transportation Civic safety – tower crane Civic safety – construction elevator Civic safety – foundation / earth dam Urban landscape – structure exposed Urban landscape – night lighting Urban landscape – electric-arc light
Hydraulic piling equipment Electric machine Bolt connection / pressure connection Night shift Electric machine Poison-free solvent Bolt connection / pressure connection Laser cutting Static crushing / chemical breaking Hydraulic pile equipment Electric machine Static crushing / chemical breaking Concrete goods / prefabricated component Laser cutting machine / prefabricated component / soundproof room Static crushing / chemical breaking Static pressing-in pile Static compacting Prefabricated component /recovery Recovery Recovery Material saving Recycle of solid waste / technology improvement Recovery Technology improving / recovery Recovery Safety control / reliable tools Technology improving / safety control Technology improving / recovery Safety control Enclosing wall / night shift / underground construction Static crushing / chemical breaking Overloading forbidden / speed limiting Safety control Safety control Safety control Masking Using projection lamp Bolt connection / pressure connection / prefabricated component Drainage organization Technology improving / plan preconception
Urban landscape – mud / waste water Urban landscape – civic facility destruction
ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (EPA) There are some records of studies defining the concepts of EPA such as the works by Apsan (1997), Bennett and James (1999a, 1999b), Chen et al. (2000), Jasch (2000), Meyer (2001), Thoresen (1999), Tron (1999) and 14000 and OSL (2002). EPA can be defined as improving environmental performance by providing information about achievement of the environmental policy, objectives, targets, actions, responsibilities and information flows, and measuring, analyzing, assessing, reporting and communicating an organizational environmental performance (Kuhre, 1998; Ren, 2000). It facilitates an organization to determine its ongoing performance in meeting environmental performance criteria continuously, which helps reduce environmental impacts, report EPA, identify ways to prevent pollution, and improve the business overall performance. Kuhre 107
(1998), Thoresen (1999) and White and Zinkl (1999) have identified seven objectives of EPA including: i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii)
Yardsticks for continual improvement; Internal environmental performance evaluation and benchmarking between organizations; Evaluation on levels of environmental risks; Feedback instrument for information and motivation of the workforce; Identification of market chances and environmental targets; Communication tool in gathering, reporting and maintaining resources; and Technical support for environmental regulations or EMS.
In the current practices, there are still lots of construction organizations not joining the EMS and EPA in Hong Kong and the Mainland China because of the existence of certain degree of difficulties in the implementation of EPA. Based on previous works, 10 major difficulties were identified as follows: i). ii). iii). iv). v). vi). vii). viii). ix). x).
Lack of technological support, including training, staffing, etc; Lack of commitment from senior staff; Difficulty in defining responsibility of EPA; Increase in cost due to resources input; Lack of clients’ support; Short construction duration; Lack of frontline staff’s support; Lack of legal enforcement; Increase in paperwork; and Need in re-organization of existing practices and policies.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS In order to unveil the level of difficulties in implementing EPA for the construction industry, a questionnaire survey was organized to construction practitioners at senior project management levels. Structured questionnaires were sent to 577 practitioners who worked in government departments, developers, consultants, contractors and sub-contractors in the Hong Kong and the Mainland, in which 377 questionnaires were sent out in Hong Kong and 200 in the Mainland. Finally, a total of 131 questionnaires were completed and returned, giving a response rate of 22.70%. However, two returned questionnaires were not incomplete and therefore only 129 are valid for the analysis, including 71 returns from Hong Kong and 60 from the Mainland. To unveil the difficulties in implementing EPA, respondents were asked to provide their opinions on the importance of various factors influencing implementation of EPA by scores from 1 to 5, where ‘1’ represents the least important and ‘5’ the most important. To determine the relative ranking of the factors, the scores were then transformed to relative importance index (RII) based on the formula (Tam et al., 2000).
Relative importance index (RII) =
∑w A* N
Where ‘w’ is the weighting given to each factor by respondents, ‘A’ is the highest weight and ‘N’ is the total number of samples. Based on the formula, the RII can be derived, ranging from 0 to 1. Table 2 lists the RII and ranking of the factors.
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Table 2: Relative importance index for difficulties in implementation of EPA in Hong Kong and the Mainland China
Difficulty Lack of technological support, including training, staffing, etc Lack of commitment from senior staff Difficulty in defining responsibility of EPA Increase in cost due to resources input Lack of clients’ support Short construction duration Lack of frontline staff’s support Lack of legal enforcement Increase in paperwork Need in re-organization of existing practices and policies
RIIH 0.791 0.714 0.665 0.775 0.754 0.702 0.726 0.692 0.698 0.609
RIIC 0.667 0.900 0.690 0.750 0.733 0.533 0.600 0.765 0.562 0.517
RankH 1 5 9 2 3 6 4 8 7 10
RankC 6 1 5 3 4 9 7 2 8 10
Where: RIIH - Relative importance index in responses from Hong Kong; RIIH - Relative importance index in responses from the Mainland China; RankH – Ranking of difficulties in responses from Hong Kong; RankC – Ranking of difficulties in responses from the Mainland China
“Lack of technological support, such as training, staffing and expertise” is considered as the major difficulty in the implementation of EPA in Hong Kong. The implementation of EPA asks for some special facilities, equipment, and additional training courses for the working staff and so the investment cost will be increased in the short-term (Shen and Tam, 2002). However, the responses th from the Mainland China do not agree with the result from Hong Kong and they ranked this the 6 in the survey. Respondents from the Mainland China ranked “Lack of commitment from senior staff” the first, with th a RII of 0.900, while this was only ranked the 5 in the survey of Hong Kong. From previous works, most researchers emphasized the role of top leaders in environmental management. Without strong top management support, the implementation of EPA would not be successful (Quazi et al., 2001). Respondents from the Mainland and Hong Kong graded “Lack of legal enforcement” the second and eighth, with a RII of 0.765 and 0.692 respectively. As a mature market economy, Hong Kong has a well-structured legal framework for environmental protection while the Chinese government is still at the infancy stage in the issuance of laws and ordinances on environmental protection (Table 3). Table 3: Laws of environmental protection in Hong Kong and the Mainland China
Laws Water Air Waste Noise Construction
Hong Kong Water Pollution Control Ordinance (issued in 1980) Dumping at Sea Ordinance Air Pollution Control Ordinance (issued in 1985) Waste Disposal Ordinance (issued in 1980) Noise Control Ordinance (issued in 1989) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) ordinance for construction industry (issued in 1998)
Mainland China Water Pollution Protection Act (issued in 1984 and revised in 1996) Air Pollution Protection Act (issued in 2000) Solid Wastage Pollution Protection Act (issued in 1995) Noise Pollution Protection Act (issued in 1996) Construction Act (issued in 1997); Regulation of Environmental Management for Projects (issued in 1998)
Note: The Chinese government is still implementing the “Three Decisions” plans, which will define the function, organizational structure and personnel in environmental protection. The “Three Decision” plans of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), formerly the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), was approved by the State Council and officially issued on 7th July 1998, and it represents a substantial strengthening of the SEPA’s authority. Although the legal framework is improving in the Mainland, the legal system is still immature and lacks administrative enforcements, which is considered one of the prerequisites for effective 109
environmental protection. The enforcement of the legal system is considered not stringent in the Mainland; especially when the system is distorted due to corruption, selective implementation of rules, difficulty in enforcing those rules which oppose the interest of local government, the low political status of those officials administrating the system and so on (Edmonds, 1998). Thus, the environmental management in the Chinese construction industry is no doubt an onerous task. Nevertheless, “Increase in paperwork” and “The need to reorganization of existing practices and policies” are considered least affecting contractors in EPA implementation in both Hong Kong and the Mainland. This is because most construction firms implementing EPA have experience in implementing quality management systems and both systems follow similar workflow and procedures. Further, it is possible for some firms to partially integrate the two management systems, instead of creating a completely separate set of system-level procedures (Block and Marash, 1999) although the integration requires a comprehensive understanding of the existing quality system process and procedures as well as knowledge of environmental regulations and the environmental impact associated with various operating processes (Ranzi and Cappeli, 2000). Respondents of both Hong Kong and the Mainland considered “The need to reorganization of existing practices and policies” having the least influence. As people in both regions have common cultural backgrounds and Chinese believe in “the golden mean (of the Confucian school)” in tradition, they would be rather keeping the existing practices and policies than changing them due to the risk and uncertainties arising from reorganization of existing practices.
CONCLUSION The environmental management is a burning issue in the construction industry of Hong Kong and the Mainland China for the reason that the industry is one of the biggest pollution generation sectors. EPA can help in checking, reviewing, monitoring and evaluating environmental performance. From the structured survey, it shows that “Lack of technological support, such as training, staff and expertise” is considered as the major difficulty in implementing EPA in Hong Kong, while “Lack of commitment from expertise staff” is contemplated as the major difficulty in the Mainland China. This reflects the lack of environmental awareness in the Mainland China. Therefore, improvements in “Lack of legal enforcement” should be the first step in environmental protection. As the quality management system had been promoting for all construction organizations, it will relieve the difficulties arising from the “Increase in paperwork” and “Need in reorganization of existing practices and policies” when implementing EPA in Hong Kong and the Mainland China.
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