Green Initiative
Property developer sends special 'ambassadors' to educate residents on environmental issues
Nowadays, property developers are eyeing environmental awards as recognition of their efforts in ensuring a better living environment.
Sino Group, a leading property developer in Hong Kong, has come up with a training programme that involves not only a 100 of its internal staff at managerial level but external parties, including government departments, as well.
The managers were selected from departments within the company to take a 10-hour 'green' management course with a focus on subjects ranging from waste separation to energy saving before 'being qualified as Green Ambassadors' who raise environmental awareness among residents of the buildings they manage.
This initiative is backed by the government's Environmental Protection Department and Electrical and Mechanical Services Department. Officers and engineers from these departments helped design the course curriculum, and lectured the 'green ambassadors' on the latest environmental strategies and trends, and ways to implement green management initiatives among the individual properties managed by Sino Group.
'Our green ambassadors will be divided into three categories covering industrial, commercial and residential to take charge of the green projects for the properties they are responsible for. On completion of the course, the most proven effective environmental measures will be shared with our ... residents,' said Sunny Yeung, executive director of Sino Group.
While individual property management companies and developers, such as Sino, provide in-house training to enhance the knowledge and skills of their staff, professionals in this field can take courses from local institutes to obtain recognised qualifications in facility management.
Facility management professionals can seek certification from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) based in the United States for their professional development.
'People who are certified as facility managers by IFMA have been carefully assessed for their competence in the field through work experience, education and their ability to pass a comprehensive exam,' said So Kai-ming, executive director of Urban Property Management.
'People who have obtained the certification from the association are considered professional in the field and their qualifications are recognised worldwide,' Mr So said.
The Hong Kong Institute of Facility Management also offers training courses to practitioners to upgrade their knowledge of property management and maintenance for professional development.
'Besides the professional institutes helping people to get relevant qualifications in facility management, local universities also offer bachelor's and master's degree programmes in facility management to groom local talent,' Mr So added.
