Green housing development and residents' participation in sustainable practices in Hong Kong

Abstract

Environmental sustainability has been gaining the world’s attention in recent decades. Green housing development is one of the key strategies to achieve housing sustainability. There are various green facilities and management measures in green housing. The perception and participation of residents towards these green attributes are important for the success of green housing. To a broader context, it is crucial to enhance people’s awareness in environmental protection. People should apply the green concept not limiting to their housing estates, instead, should adopt the sustainable practices as a way of life. By examining green residents’ preferences to their green housing estates and their level of participation to the green measures in their daily life, it is expected to explore possible ways to enhance residents’ awareness and participation in adopting green practices in their daily life as their habits. In green housing estate, property management plays an important role as they are responsible for the management and promotion of the green facilities. Therefore, their views and opinion are obtained for analysis. In the case studies, it has been found that government’s policies, sufficiency of information and costs-effectiveness are crucial factors in influencing residents’ participation in sustainable practices. Therefore, short term and long term strategies targeting the influencing factors are recommended in order to enhance people’s awareness and participation on environmental practices.