Free car charge-up next after 'green roof' success
Office tenants at The Metropolis Tower in Hung Hom may enjoy a free battery charge for their electric cars as part of the landlord's strategy to woo corporate customers concerned about protecting the environment.
'It is one of the ideas I'm thinking of as the building's energy-saving system generates more electricity than we need,' said Stephen Chu, chief executive of ARA Asset Management (Prosperity), the manager of Hong Kong-listed Prosperity Real Estate Investment Trust.
Chu is considering installing a cable linking the building's environmentally friendly battery system on the rooftop to the car park. 'Then we will be able to provide a free battery charge for one electric car per day. The service will be on a 'first-come, first-served' basis,' he said.
Prosperity Reit last year invested HK$1 million on a 'green roof' for the 15-storey grade A office building built by Cheung Kong (Holdings) and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation. The investment included the installation of three solar panels, a wind turbine and a battery system to capture energy. Cheung Kong owns about 20 per cent of Prosperity Reit.
The green roof also has a four-hole putting green and a Japanese-style bridge as half the tenants of The Metropolis Tower are Japanese firms such as Canon and NEC. Canon Hong Kong, the building's biggest tenant, occupies 46,151 square feet and accounts for 18.9 per cent gross rental income.
'These were some of the suggestions from our clients when we said we planned to renovate the rooftop,' said Chu. The rooftop now also has a garden divided into 12 small 'pots', each six sqft in size, for tenants to grow their own plants and vegetation, said Chu. 'The plants are irrigated with water from the 1,000-litre rainwater collection system,' he said.
The green roof opened last November and it quickly became apparent that the alternative-energy sources were generating more electricity than was needed to run the rooftop ambient lighting and services - hence the offer of a free battery charge for tenants' electric cars.