Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): HKCTC Seminar on Testing and Certification for Environmental Excellence

2017年12月18日星期一

HKCTC Seminar on Testing and Certification for Environmental Excellence

The Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC) and Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) co-organized a seminar named “Testing and Certification for Environmental Excellence” held on 18^th Dec 2017. With increasing awareness of the importance of environmental protection, many enterprises and organizations had put in place green management and energy conservation measures. This seminar aimed to introduce how testing and certification services could help improve the environment and enhance energy efficiency for buildings, facilities and offices. I met Mr. Dominic Lam (CEO, CMATCL) and he was the first speaker. We took a photo for memory.

Before the seminar, all guest speakers took a group photo for memory.

The first speaker was Mr. Dominic Lam (Chairman, Hong Kong Indoor Air Quality Association) and his presentation entitled “Indoor Air Quality Control for Offices and Facilities”. Firstly, he briefed IAQ parameters included Physical (Air Temp, RH and Air Movement), Biological (Airborne Bacteria) and Chemical (CO2, CO, RPS, TVOC, NO2, O3, HCHO and Rn) parameters.

Then Mr. Lam briefed the concept of “Thermal Comfort” which related to engineering measures for air condition control. For Physical parameters, poor thermal comfort was caused by improper air-conditioning set-points and ineffective supply air distribution.

For Chemical parameters, high CO2 was caused by inadequate fresh air supply, overcrowding and improper ventilation; VOCs & HCHO from building materials and adhesives; RSP was from dusty outdoor, tobacco smoking and clothes fibers; and other parameters with different sources.

After that Mr. Lam discussed some new IAQ parameters included Mould Inspection and individual VOCs (not TVOCs) and they were Benzene, Trichloroethylene, Tetrachloroethylene, Naphthalene and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Finally, Mr. Dominic Lam introduced some association in China and Taiwan for indoor air quality. They had regularly technical seminar for exchange technologies and ideas. He told us that IAQ was mandatory in Taiwan and Korea.

The second speaker was Ms. Kacila Leung (Technical Consultant, Enviro Labs Limited) and her topic named “Improve Water Quality in Our Daily Lives by Testing Services”. Firstly, she mentioned that most of the contaminants in water were not easily visible such as Bacteria (e.g. E. coli and Legionella pneumophila) and Heavy metals (e.g. Pb).

Then Ms. Leung stated WHO guideline for Drinking Water Quality that contained 92 parameters. Moreover, 19 parameters was non-WHO which added by Water Supply Department.

There were three areas of analysis for Fresh Water in Buildings and they were Chemical, Bacteriological and Physical.

New requirement for plumbing works were also mentioned. The additional parameters in Chemical Sectors were Copper & Antimony; in Bacteriological was Heterotrophic Plate Count; and in Physical was Free Residual Chlorine.

Finally, she shared some case studies included Iron rust in tap water; total coliform was detected while E. coil was not. The following diagram showed the relationship between Total Coliform and E. coil.

Last example related swimming pools and its water testing and regulation was Cap. 132CA.

The third speaker was Dr. Daria Wong (Senior Accreditation Officer, HKAS) and her presentation topic was “Choosing Quality Testing and Certification Services”. Firstly, she briefed the benefit of Testing and Certification, as well as, value of Accreditation.

Benefits of accreditation were identified competent service and reliable result from it. Therefore, the impact of “Wrong Results” would be reduced. Following diagram showed the relationship among products/servies, Laboratories/Inspection & Certification Bodies, and Accreditation Bodies.

Finally, Dr. Wong shared the information about number of accredited organizations related to environmental services.

The first part Q&A, people asked how to measure and improve their factor IAQ and water quality.

During the tea break, I met my junior classmate in AP, CityU Ir. Roy Sin (Quality and Audit Manager, Lee Kee Group) and we took a photo for memory.

Ms. Meico Cheong (Assistant General Manager, HKQAA) and her topic entitled “Environment Certification and Verification: How to Support Enterprise’s Improvement and Growth”. Firstly, she introduced HKQAA background and then briefed the trends of environment management. She observed CEDD, HK Concrete Institute and Labour Department requested certification service which were related to environmental such as QSPSC^TM, QSPS-TA, QSPS-AC and F&IU(SM)R, etc.

After that she introduced the model of ISO 50001:2011 “Energy Management System”.

ISO 14064 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) was also highlighted. Those GHG included CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs and SF6, etc. All GHG gases would converse into a single unit: CO2 equivalent. There were five ISO 14064 principles and they were “Relevance”, “Completeness”, “Consistency”, “Accuracy” and “Transparency”. The framework for ISO 14064 GHG standard was showed as following diagram.

Finally, she explained the different between Validation and Verification. In simply speaking, she said Verification was concern the past but Validation was considered the future.

The last speaker was Mr. Joseph Tong (Manager, Sustainability Management, Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) Limited) and his presentation named “Experience Sharing: Achieve Greening and Energy Conservation through Certification”. Firstly, he introduced Fuji Xerox’s Commitment as follows:

1. Aims to achieve a 30% reduction in the volume of CO2 emitted across the entire product lifecycle (Scope 1,2,3) compared to FY2014 by FY2031.

2. Committed to the Science Based Targets initiative, which is to keep global temperature increase below 2 ^oC compared to pre-industrial temperatures.

Then he introduced their 360^o of sustainability which involved Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Equipment in use and End of life disposal. They governed sustainability performance with international standards included ISO 14001:2015, ISO 50001:2011, FSC Chain of Custody Certification and 5S Certification. He said they were the first one transferred to ISO 14001:2015 certification.

After that Mr. Tong shared their implementation steps to achieve ISO certifications.

Some energy saving initiatives were introduced during implementation of ISO 50001 and they were Lighting upgrade, regular computer-off checking, automatic light off at lunchtime, change from desktop to notebook, etc. After that they created an award-winning platform to manage the ESG compliance elements and extended to their customers.