Concrete Analysis | HK building owners face fresh decisions

The Hong Kong government has declared that it plans to use its power and influence to affect energy use in Hong Kong. Its top line is a 40 per cent cut by 2025, a mere 10 years hence. Is this as remarkable as it first looks? Perhaps not.

First, this is a plan to cut energy intensity, not the amount of energy actually being used. (Energy intensity is the amount of energy consumed per unit of gross domestic product.)

Second, it is a cut compared to a baseline of 2005, not a baseline of today. It turns out that there has already been a reduction of 25 per cent in Hong Kong's energy intensity since 2005, leaving only a modest 15 per cent more to be cut by 2025.

Nevertheless, the city's commercial building owners would be well advised to take notice of this declaration since it is they, along with their tenants, who pay for a giant portion of the energy consumed in Hong Kong. So it is they, and to a lesser extent their tenants, who have the most to gain from understanding the options government is proposing, and from understanding their own options.

The government's intention was made known in a document released in May entitled "Energy Saving Plan for Hong Kong's Built Environment 2015-2025+". But the plan is not simply stating what is going to happen. Rather, it makes clear that "this document aims to stimulate and provoke wider community deliberation and debate".

Commercial building owners wanting to participate well in this deliberation and debate will have dozens of questions for themselves and government. They will have questions about what is included in the plan, and what has been omitted.

Skilful questions will bring building owners to a better vantage point from which to discern government's intentions, to gain insight into what others are doing - their competitors and business partners alike - and to get a running start on formulating their own "best outcomes" strategy.