Green Management Policy

The Department is committed to be an excellent tax administration that ensures its services to the public as well as internal
operations are conducted in an environmentally responsible manner. In pursuance of this commitment, the Department has adopted the following principles:

(a) All the Department's operations should be in compliance with the relevant environmental protection ordinances.

(b) The Department should avoid, reduce or control environmental pollution arising from its day-to-day working practice. In
particular, it should exercise the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in the consumption of materials.

(c) The Department will require its contractors to adopt and implement sound environmental management systems and pollution
control measures in support of an environmental responsibility for its service.

(d) The Department will ensure that all staff are aware of its Green Management Policy and will provide information about its
Policy and initiatives to those who are interested.

(e) The Department will provide training for staff to increase awareness and promote continual improvement in protecting the
environment and preventing pollution.

Environmental Housekeeping Measures

Balancing operational needs with environmental care and social responsibility, the Department adopted the following measures during the year:

Energy Saving

The lighting time set for the timer controls of the Department's lighting systems was reviewed to keep it to the minimum. The electricity consumption of the Revenue Tower decreased by 896,000kWh as compared with the previous year (the Department occupies over 32 floors in the Revenue Tower).

Waste Minimization

Waste arising from the Department's day-to-day working practice was further reduced by:

- uploading templates of standard letters and memoranda onto the Departmental LAN;

- encouraging the publication and re-circulation of circulars and other departmental instructions through the Department's LAN;

- promoting the use of multiple screen method in printing on-line enquiries;

- suppressing the printing of housekeeping journals on computer jobs; and

- storing backup data on computer disks that have larger volume and durability than magnetic tapes.

During the year, the Department's consumption of paper and computer plain stationery dropped by 1.08 million and 1.8 million sheets respectively as compared with the previous year.

Waste Recovery

Over 400,000 kilograms of waste paper was collected from the Department for recycling in 2001-02. About 84 kilograms of aluminum cans and 130 kilograms of plastic bottles were collected under the trial recycling program for aluminum cans and plastic bottles.

Air Quality

In September 2001, the Department arranged with the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) to adjust the fresh air intake and air balance of its air conditioning and ventilation systems in the Revenue Tower. Cleaning and maintenance of the Tower's Air Handling Units was also completed in December 2001. The results of the Indoor Air Quality Measurement taken in January 2002 indicated that air quality within the measured locations complied with the directive values adopted by the Environmental Protection Department.

Promote Green Awareness

The Department regularly updated the promotional materials concerning environmental protection displayed on its notice boards. Stickers reminding good environmental practice were affixed next to the relevant facilities. Suggestions on green measures were continuously sought from staff through the Environment and Records Management Committee and the Staff Suggestions Scheme.

Way Forward

Striving towards a paperless communication for its major tax fields and cash receipting system, the Department will continue to develop its electronic services (e.g. electronic submission of forms) and telephone service areas (e.g. TeleTax).

The Department started in March 2002 to migrate some of its pre-printed forms to overlay printing, i.e. printing of forms on
plain papers as and when they are required. The retirement of pre-printed forms through the adoption of "form overlay"
technology will reduce the production cost of forms and increase the flexibility of various resources. Full implementation of the
"form overlay" technology is scheduled for May 2003.

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(Last updated/reviewed : January 13, 2003)