Part of the mandate when the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation was set up five years ago was to play a leading role for Hong Kong to become a major international centre of innovation and technology development and a hub for high value-adding, skill-intensive manufacturing and service industry capacities.
As part of its mission, the corporation also wants to show the community how offices and laboratories can be built to world-class environmental standards.
With solar panels on some buildings, a green refuse collection system, and two towers that heat or cool offices and laboratories for summer and winter, the park, which stretches across 22 hectares in the New Territories near Chinese University, shows what can be achieved with modern science and environmental insights.
Chan Man-wai, vice-president, projects and facilities, said that the three phases of the park were designed to incorporate green concepts. Phase2, which began taking tenants three months ago, has eight buildings. Six have been built. The last two will be finished in April.
'When we were building Phase2, we decided to build only two main roads so people could enjoy their environment without being disturbed by the sounds of traffic,' said Dr Chan.
'We also incorporated a building integrated photovoltaic [BIPV] system. These are panels that are solar cells that are integrated into the curtain wall, so that they can generate electricity. And the electricity generated by the BIPV is fed into our electric grid.'