Under our Climate Change Policy, the agenda is to be restorative rather than mitigating, to have influence over contractors and suppliers to adopt best practices exceeding compliance and, to improve and implement internal initiatives that reduce our expanded negative environmental foot print.

The data base of suppliers and contractors which tracks performance in safety, quality and environmental best practice in now operational. It principally serves as a reference guide for tender qualification and tracks supply chain performance in projects. It also supports audits for legal compliance and any breaches in contracts which can, in certain circumstances, lead to banning contractors from future tenders.

In 2007, substantial headway was made in the completion of the survey on human and labour rights issues. In preparation to the response for continued membership in the DJSI and FTSE4Good indices, this survey, undertaken principally with our PRC contractors and suppliers, examines corporate governance on labour issues within our top 70 suppliers in order to identify areas where attention and improvement actions are to be undertaken. The strategy is not to exclude or punish because of a lack of good management or prosecution history, but rather to work with suppliers to improve practices. Going forward, our agenda is to extend procurement practices to include environmental and labour issues as part of the tender pre-qualification processes.

In addressing environmental impacts at the community level, the Corporation is one of the 11 founding members of the Hong Kong Green Purchasing Charter, established in 2007. Initiated by the Green Council, the Charter seeks to consolidate the many scattered initiatives across Hong Kong to establish as set of common goals and standards when managing our city's collective "green" future.

Also in line with environmental best practice, a system is being developed for vendor repurchase and responsible disposal of employed toxic materials.