Press Release
Don't be Cold, be Cool!
Turn Up, Dress Down(29/5/2005) Hong Kong has earned the title as the coldest air-conditioned place in the world according to a research by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Director of Friends of the Earth(HK) Mei Ng reminds Hong Kong people to use the air-conditioner in a sensible way, "Don't take the air-conditioner as a freezer, 25 Celsius indoor temperature is already comfortable enough. I hope the employers can take the lead in dressing down in summer to save energy, the environment and achieve thermal comfort."
Friends of the Earth(HK) launches its energy saving campaign on air-conditioning "Don't be Cold, be Cool!" today to raise public attention to a bizarre cultural phenomenon in Hong Kong where people turn down the air-conditioner and dress up for the artificial cold weather. FoE(HK) urges the citizens to have a green summer by dressing down.
Director of the Hong Kong Observatory- Lam Chiu-ying, Consul General of Japan-Takanori Kitamura and legislators Choy So-yuk, Leung Kwok-hung, Leung Yiu-chung, Li Wah-ming join the FoE(HK) to make such an appeal and go on the catwalk as models to demonstrate how to dress down for a hot summer.
The Chief Executive candidate Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is too busy to attend FoE(HK)'s activity. Mei calls upon Donald to shoulder a proportional share of environmental commitment and put more efforts in environmental works. Legislator Li Wah-ming also calls upon future Chief Executive of HKSAR to set an example for the civil servants by taking the lead in dressing down and raising indoor temperature
Japan has been far ahead in promoting energy saving. Takanori Kitamura, Consul General of Japan, says"Japan has been promoting 28 Celsius indoor temperature, 20% of the private companies have endorsed this indoor temperature with 50% of the companies in the private sector setting the indoor temperature at 25 Celsius."
Mr Kitamura believes the success of energy saving depends on popular endorsement of incremental measures like turning up the ac.
Choy So-yuk, Chairman of the Environmental Affairs Panel of the Legislative Council, supports the idea of dressing down: "A place so prestigious like Wall Steet has accepted t-shirts as office wear. Hong Kong's hot and humid summer is not suitable for ties and suits like Europe where the climate is different."
She complains that there were times that she was forced to leave the Legco in the middle of the meeting for home to get extra clothes to put on for warmness.
Legislator Leung Kwok-hung who has been having grumbles with the dress codes in the Legco says one's inner quality is more important than the appearance.
One of the models Dr Daniel Chan Wai-tin, Associate Professor at the Department of Building Services Engineering of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, conducted a research on thermal comfort in office premises and found the indoor temperature of most of the offices is around 21 Celsius to 22 Celsius with the coldest at 17.6 Celsius, far below the sensible range at around 25 Celsius.
"Hong Kong has the coldest air-conditioned environment in the world. Hong Kong people call the air-conditioner as 'cold air machine' and expect cold air to come out from it. The naming has resulted the overcooling of the indoor environment since the engineers tend to set the thermostat at a lower temperature to avoid complaints from the people about not making the ac cold enough. The air-conditioning is thus set to cool the clothing." Chan points out, "If you unbutton your collar, or roll up your shirtsleeves, you could feel at least up to one Celsius degree cooler. No need to turn down the ac."
Mei Ng tells her colleagues experiences of being freezing in the cinemas that they had to borrow the shawls from the cinema staff.
She says, "The air-conditioning takes up 60% of the electricity in summer. With every single Celsius degree upwards on the ac, 3% of the electricity consumed in air-conditioning can be saved. If everyone in Hong Kong does so, about 330 million electricity units can be saved and the emission of around 233,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide can be avoided in a year. Otherwise it would take a year for a forest three quarters of the size of Hong Kong to capture such an amount of carbon dioxide."
Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Lam Chiu-ying, warns that 2 billion lives could be lost as a result of climate change.
Mr Lam says, "We have been producing unprecedented amount of CO2 ever since the industrial revolution two hundred years ago to suit our complicated lifestyle. The result is the climate change-- the biggest disaster the mankind has to cope with in the future. The consequences of the climate change are going to exact far great damages than the South-Asian tsunami."
He urges Hong Kong people to live a simpler lifestyle for the benefit of mankind.
Leung Kui Kau Lutheran Primary School adopted measures to save energy on air-conditioning last year by keeping the indoor temperature at 25 Celsius. The saving on the electricity is significant. A monthly amount of HK$6147 is saved for the summer season and HK$2860 a month for the winter season.
The two power companies in Hong Kong will print messages by FoE(HK) on energy saving this summer on their electricity bills to support the campaign. Mobile phone companies Hutchison and Sunday will also send out sms messages on energy saving by FoE(HK) this summer.
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Media Contact
Agnes Chen Ying-hoi, Environmental Affairs Officer, Friends of the Earth (HK) Tel:25285588
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