Enabling Low Carbon Living in Shek Kip Mei (ENLOCALI)

Discoverers’ Brief: Faculty and Students Guide

17th April 2013 Overview

1. The – Information – Snapshots – Existing Low Carbon Initiatives 2. Timeline of fieldwork 3. Data Collection – Questionnaire – Observation List 4. Undertaking Visits 5. Student Learning – Stakeholders’ Workshop – Fieldwork Diaries The Sham Shui Po District

• The lowest median monthly domestic household income of ’s 18 districts – HK$11,003 – ( average HK$15,035)

• Highest percentage of over 65 year olds (16.3 %)

• Public rental housing population approx. 60,000

Source: Census and Statistics Department (2006) Estates in the Sham Shui Po District

Year of No. of No. of No. of Authorized Estate Flat size (m2) intake block(s) rental flats households population

Chak On Estate 1983 4 1900 11.3-39.1 1800 4100

Nam Shan Estate 1977 8 2800 23.1-46.5 2600 6900

Pak Tin Estate 1975 20 8800 30.6-38.8 8300 23400

1976, Shek Kip Mei 2006, 17 9200 11.5-55.7 8000 20600 Estate 2012 Tai Hang Tung 1984 9 2100 17.7-50.1 2000 5000 Estate Tai Hang Sai 1995 8 n.d n.d n.d n.d Estate

Source: Hong Kong Housing Authority (2012) Snapshots in the Sham Shui Po District Existing Low Carbon Initiatives

Green Delight in Estates (since 2005) • Aims at raising environmental awareness of Public Rental Housing dwellers • Organisations involved:  Housing Authority (HA), Friends of the Earth (FoE) & Green Power • Estates involved:  Tai Hang Tung Estate, Pak Tin Estate and Chak On Estate

Air pollution survey in Sham Shui Po (2011) • Carried out by the Clean Air Network (CAN) • Focuses on outdoor air pollution • About 70% of citizens surveyed think air pollution will be a threat to their health Apr 2013 • Dissemination Workshop: Timeline of fieldworkApr 2013 Launching of Residents’ Brief and presentation of findings Jan-Mar 2013 • Analysis and evaluation of Jan-Mar data 2013 Dec 2012 Dec 2012 • Stakeholders' Workshop

Sept-Nov 2012 Sept-Nov • Field visits 2012 • Analysis of data from Jan-Aug 2012 demographics and surveys Jan-Aug • Recruit and Brief Student Leaders • Demonstration and test of 2012 • Contact Sham Shui Po District particular energy and water Councilors to introduce project saving technology and seek their support • Set up website • Conduct pilot tests and analyze • Getting some residents and/or the findings commercial tenants of • Compilation of Discoverers’ Brief particular housing estates to use the website Data Collection

1. Questionnaire to explore current practices in relation to energy, water, air quality and Observation environmental awareness List Questionnaire 2. Observation list to assess the flat/shop physical condition (lighting, ventilation, indoor Power temperature, indoor greening, Meters orientation and surrounding environment)

3. Power meters to check the consumption of specific household/shop lighting fixtures and appliances Primary Data Questionnaire Criteria Questions 1. How many people from the following age groups live in your apartment? 2. How big is your apartment ? Background 3. How much were you charged in your latest electricity, Towngas and water bills respectively? 4. How many fluorescent lights (non-incandescent) do you have in your apartment? 5. How many LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights do you have in your apartment? 6. During hot weather, how many hours do you tend to have air-conditioning on at Energy home? 7. Do you regularly turn off lights when you leave the room and not leave your appliances on standby? 8. What temperature do you usually keep your home at? 9. How many times per week do you use the washing machine on average? Water 10. How do you describe the amount of water you use during your shower/bath? 11. Which flushing water do you use in your apartment? 12. Do any family members smoke in the flat? Indoor Air 13. Do you think the air quality in your flat is affected by vehicles and roads nearby? Quality 14. Are there any exhaust fans installed in your flat? 15. How often do you recycle these items? Paper, plastic, cans Environmental 16. Do you know whether there is any renewable energy generation in Shek Kip Mei? awareness 17. If yes, what type(s) of renewable energy generation are you aware of in Shek Kip Mei? Observation List

Adequacy of natural light Indoor temperature Total number of light bulbs  & fluorescent lights Ventilation

Energy Efficiency Labels: Air conditioner/Refrigerator Indoor greening Water Efficiency Labels: Washing machines/ Busy road nearby Shower/Water tap Undertaking Visits Undertaking Visits Undertaking Visits

• Students distributed promotional material into the mailbox of each household Student Learning

Pursue • a discovery-led, innovative project of local interest and impact in the field of environmental public policy and management

Demonstrate • an understanding of the existing approaches, gaps in knowledge and implementation of low carbon living in localities

Raise • social awareness of City U faculty and students and contribute to the quality of life of deprived communities through knowledge dissemination

Analyze • basic research data in a systematic way

Exhibit • ability to set ideas in a wider context, to sustain them long-term, and to reach some conclusions Stakeholder Workshop – 8th Dec 2012 Students presented their work to the District Councillor (Mr Tsung Po-shan) and Shek Kip Mei residents

Group 1 Slides Group 2 Slides Group 3 Slides Fieldwork Diaries

Students were asked to critically reflect on their experiences and ideas through a weekly fieldwork diary.

For example: • How has your experience of participating in the project changed your perception of low carbon living? • What difficulties have arisen in undertaking the work? • How might you take forward this work in the future? • What have you gained personally from the Idea Incubator project? Understanding Low Carbon Living Initial uncertainty: “For visiting flats every week, we were excited to imagine what would happen during the visits – would the households refuse to let us come in? Will we meet some kind households? Our first visit is in a few days and we are looking forward to it” Becoming aware of the concept of low carbon living: “We have done different flat visits and it helped me realize people would live a low carbon lifestyle mainly to save money”

Awareness of other factors – such as education “We discovered that the questionnaire is too simple to collect data… so our group has added more questions related to carbon emissions and family size in order to get more meaningful data” Practical Challenges

Overcoming the challenge of gaining access to residents:

“The response from residents is little, passive or even negative. This is quite different from what we expected at the beginning. We had distributed about 3,000 leaflets and DC office said the response was near zero”

Being inventive in order to measure energy consumption:

“Since the location of the sockets of the refrigerator and television are behind the refrigerator and the table respectively, we can’t set up the power meters” Involvement in a Practical Project “As a pilot scheme student leader, it offers me a glimpse about how to organise a project, from meeting and communicating with DC offices, contacting the households, to designing posters, leaflets and certificates, etc. To sum up our project, it provides me with an invaluable first-hand experience of visits to local families. Apart from theory learnt from textbooks, it is good to have something practical”

"This meaningful project provides us with experience that cannot be obtained from textbooks. I hope in the future we can have other projects like this in other subjects or that this project can be expanded to a larger scale”

“Through the incubator, I had a lot of experience like how to arrange visits and to interview people. Moreover, I have the chance to know more about different life style of Hong Kong citizen”. References

• Hong Kong SAR. Census and Statistics Department. (2006). Basic Tables for District Council Districts: Hong Kong 2006 By-Census. Retrieved March 22, 2013 from the World Wide Web: http://info.hktdc.com/econforum/tdc/tdc080203.htm

• Hong Kong SAR. Housing Authority. (2012). Estate Locator. Retrieved March 22, 2013 from the World Wide Web: http://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/global- elements/estate-locator/search.html Q&A