Under the leadership of the senior management, DSD has established a sustainability management structure to address various topics specific to sustainable development, and to provide appropriate recommendations as well as supervise the related initiatives. We also actively adopt suitable international standards and management systems and invigorate our management approach with innovative ideas. Risks are properly managed and multiple channels are in place to enhance interaction with all stakeholders, and for us to address their feedback on our development, enable us to improve our sustainability performance continuously.

Management Structure

We have set up three committees and two working groups, including:

Green Management Committee

Chaired by the Deputy Director, the Committee is responsible for reviewing the environmental management policy, formulating environmental work objectives and targets, and monitoring the effectiveness of environmental programmes and initiatives.

During the reporting period, the Committee held two meetings discuss issues including energy saving, greening, emission reduction and waste reduction in detail, and to review the progress of the environmental initiatives.

Steering Group on Safety

Chaired by the Deputy Director, the Group is responsible for supervising the safety performance of DSD sites, establishing safety standards and guidelines at sites, formulating and improvement measures, and evaluating the execution and effectiveness of the undertakings.

During the reporting period, the Committee held two meetings to discuss topics including the safety performance of the facilities and construction site under DSD, internal and external audit of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and OSH training and promotion programmes.

Research and Development Steering Committee

Led by the Deputy Director, the Committee is responsible for conducting research in support of DSD's development plans. The Committee consists of two teams which coordinate research in civil engineering and electrical and mechanical engineering respectively.

During the reporting period, the Committee held eight meetings and organised DSD Research & Development Forum 2017. In the year, DSD completed a total of 18 research projects on topics covering Blue-Green Infrastructure, odour control, artificial wetland, heat island effect, sewage and sludge treatment, renewable energy and project management.

Energy and Emission Management Team

Energy saving and emission reduction are key environmental issues addressed by DSD. Chaired by the Assistant Director / Electrical and Mechanical, the Team helps improve DSD's energy and emission performance through identifying emission sources, benchmarking performance, implementing improvement measures, and sharing professional knowhow.

During the reporting period, the Team held two meetings to discuss various topics, including energy conservation measures and targets, and applications of renewable energy, etc.

Taskforce on Sustainability Reporting

Chaired by the Deputy Director, the Taskforce gives comments and makes decisions related to the preparation of the sustainability report. These include determining the choice of international guidelines to be adopted for reporting, defining stakeholder engagement plans, and identifying substantive material topics, etc.

Integrated Management System

DSD has begun establishing and implementing management systems in line with international standards since 2002. To date, we have put in place an integrated management system made up of multiple systems that cover the aspects of quality, environment, and occupational safety and health.

We adhere to the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” approach of the management systems and strive for continuous self-improvement. During the year, the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System were upgraded to the new standards of ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 successfully. On the other hand, an internal review will be conducted on the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System with a mission to facilitate smooth transition to meet the requirements of the new standards of ISO 45001:2018 before the deadline in March 2021.

We strive to optimise asset management to reduce costs to better address the challenges posed by natural environmental change, climate change and urban sprawl. Since 2013, DSD has been implementing in stages an Asset Management System (AMS) to enhance management of our facilities. In July 2019, all DSD-owned sewage treatment works (STWs), sewage pumping stations (SPSs), and stormwater pumping stations, except six STWs and SPSs which are being operated under “Design – Build – Operate“ contracts or being under upgrading projects, passed the certification audit for ISO 55001 AMS standard, making us one of the first government departments to obtain such accreditation.