Section 2
Essential Elements of an EPRMain Content
Section 2 Essential Elements of an EPR
What are the essential elements of an EPR?
To produce a quality EPR it is important to consider
all of the required elements of reporting prior to drafting the detailed
text of your EPR. Apart from providing information on these essential
elements, this Section also provides practical information on the report
content development process.
The essential elements that are applicable to all
HKSARG departments/bureaux/related organizations, whether your department/bureau/organization
is policy-based, office-based or operations-based, are stipulated in the
ETWB Circular Memorandum No. 1/2007 and explained in further detail
in EPD's A Guide to Environmental Reporting for Controlling Officers
(hereby referred to as the COER Guide). These include:
ETWB Circular Memorandum No. 1/2007 |
COER
Guide |
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Controlling Officer's Profile of Key Responsibilities |
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Controlling Officer's Profile of Key Responsibilities |
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Environmental Goal |
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Environmental Goal |
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Brief Description of Environmental Policy |
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Environmental Policy |
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Environmental Objectives, Targets and Milestones |
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Environmental Objectives, Targets and Milestones |
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Description of Environmental Management
and Performance |
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Environmental Management Analysis |
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Environmental Performance Analysis |
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Environmental Actions Requiring Special Attention |
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Environmental Actions Requirement Special Attention |
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Click here to download ETWB Circular Memorandum No. 1/2007 for details on each element |
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Click here to COER Guide for details on each element |
The contents of your environmental report should
include the most significant or pressing environmental issues to your
operations. Every HKSARG department/bureau is unique and as such they
are expected to face different issues. Some may have more issues than
others simply because of their specific nature, scope and scale of operations.
Given the huge number and variety of potential issues, it is always useful
to prioritize issues by first addressing those that are of most significant
environmental consequences, or those that are most relevant to your core
responsibilities and in areas where your influence is most significant.
The table below provides some examples of potential issues:
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Examples
of Issues to be Covered by the Report |
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Procurement
and use of raw materials, goods and services |
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Procurement and use of raw materials,
goods and services |
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Office computing, printing and
photocopying equipment and furniture |
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Chemicals and other raw materials |
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Pesticides, herbicides and related
services |
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Cleaning and maintenance services |
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Fire extinguishing equipment
and services |
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Uniforms |
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Vehicles/vessels/aeroplanes
/helicopters |
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Industrial/special purpose equipment,
machines, device, plant and replacement components |
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Contracted printing and brochure/report
production services |
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Contracted souvenir/tailored
materials production services |
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Contracted refurbishment, construction
and demolition services |
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Procurement
and use of energy and fuel |
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Electricity |
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Diesel |
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Petrol |
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Town gas |
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Aviation fuel |
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Lead acid batteries |
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Solar powered panels and units |
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Procurement
and use of water |
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Water for washrooms and pantry |
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Water for operation of equipment
and plant |
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Water for construction |
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Water for facility and vehicle/vessel/aeroplane/helicopter
maintenance and cleaning |
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Water for landscaping purposes |
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Water for amenities (e.g. swimming
pools) |
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Procurement
and use of ozone-depleting substances |
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Fire extinguishing
equipment |
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Refrigerants for air-con units
and refrigerator |
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Refrigerants for plant/equipment/special
processes |
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IAQ in managed facilities |
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IAQ in offices |
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Equipment and plant
noise |
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Vehicle/vessel/aeroplane/helicopter
noise |
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Construction noise |
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Office noise |
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Pollutants and odour
from construction sites |
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Pollutants and odour from equipment
and plant |
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Pollutants and odour from managed
facilities |
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Pollutants and odour from laboratories |
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Pollutants and odour from office
equipment (e.g. photocopiers) |
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Pollutants from air-con units
and refrigerators |
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Formaldehyde from office furniture
and floorings |
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Industrial wastewater |
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Office sewage |
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Site runoff |
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Vehicle/vessel/aeroplane/helicopter
wash water |
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Generation,
recycling and disposal of waste |
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Chemical waste |
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Construction and demolition
waste |
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Clinical waste |
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Oil and grease |
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Garden waste |
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Office waste |
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Food waste |
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Recyclables (e.g. cans, paper) |
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Tree planting, green
space management |
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Training and awareness raising |
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Furniture and office space
refurbishment |
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Campaigns and promotional events |
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Click here for
COER Guide Annex 4 Checklist of Key Environmental Impacts for
Bureaux/Departments to obtain a checklist that assists
your identification of issues and impacts |
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Click below for related FAQ(s) from the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs): |
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Click below for related tip(s) from the 10
Tips for Successful EPRs: |
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As the aim of environmental reporting is to report
on internal environmental performance, it is of utmost importance that
appropriate performance indicators are adopted to clearly achieve this
aim.
The diagram below illustrates the process of developing appropriate performance
indicators for your department/bureau, and the relationship with target-setting
to achieve performance improvement:
Illustration
of the Use of Indicator ![PDF File Format PDF File Format](../images/pdf.gif)
In principle, your indicators should enable you to directly measure your
organization's performance in relation to the significant environmental
issues identified for your operations. You could include indicators to:
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Describe management efforts to influence the
environmental performance of your department/bureau (i.e. Management
Performance Indicators), e.g. no. of employees trained, no. of consultation
sessions, no. of environmental improvement suggestions from employees
that are implemented
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Describe the environmental performance of
your operations (i.e. Operational Performance Indicators), e.g. units
of energy consumed, units of waste generated, no. of types of environmentally
preferable products in use
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Describe the local, regional, national or
global condition of the environment as a result of your department/bureau's
contribution (i.e. Environmental Condition Indicators), e.g. area
rehabilitated in a defined local area, concentration of a specific
contaminant in a water body.
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Further examples of the three kinds of indicators
and inspiration for development of indicators are given in GRI and ISO
14031.
Indicators could be presented in absolute or relative terms. Absolute
indicators directly show the magnitude (e.g. tonnes of waste generated),
while relative indicators (also called normalized indicators) provide
a ratio or scale to further assess performance (e.g. % of employees trained
out of the total no. of employees that need training). Relative indicators
are useful but they should not replace absolute indicators in your EPR.
The following links provide useful examples, solutions and tips to identifying
suitable performance indicators, and developing relevant objectives and
targets for improvement.
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Click here for
COER Guide Annex 6 Examples of Analysis of Environmental Performance
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Click here for
COER Guide Annex 5 Examples of Environmental Targets and Milestones
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Click below for related FAQ(s) from the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs): |
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![](../images/star.gif) |
Click below for related tip(s) from the 10
Tips for Successful EPRs: |
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Experienced reporters could adopt indicators suggested
by the Global Reporting Initiative in its Guidelines.
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Click here to Useful
Resource Documents, Reference Materials and Links to find
the website to download the GRI Guidelines
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To enhance your department/bureau/organization's
performance, refer to Best Practices for Environmental Performance
Improvement. These suggestions can help you to improve performance
and gather more comprehensive or detailed information for reporting purposes.
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Click here to download
Best Practices for Environmental Performance Improvement
for ideas to improve environmental performance and management. |
A report framework can be produced based on your
awareness of the essential elements for reporting and the detailed contents
for your EPR resulting from your scoping exercise. A useful way to prepare
your framework is by sketching out the EPR as a cabinet with different
drawers. Each drawer would represent a specific HKSARG required element,
with relevant issues included in each corresponding drawer. Alternatively
you could prepare a graphic flow chart or tree diagram to help you visualize
each section, the contents of each section and the linkages between sections.
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Click here for
COER Guide Annex 7 Summary Table to assist you prepare
of the Report Framework |
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