ANewR starts our story with Acoustics. Participating in acoustics projects since 2008, let’s explore the meaning of acoustics in the sustainability movement.
(1) What is the role of acoustics in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? How can acoustics contribute to sustainability?
When we talk about “Environment”, the first thing that comes to mind is the greenery vs the waste, the blue sky vs the air pollution, and the crystal-like water vs the mud-like water. The acoustics is invisible; still, it is not hidden—We do not see acoustics, but it does not mean it is not affecting us. We know that noise is bad for health. Noise can cause elevated heart rate and blood pressure. Noise can alter our immunity system too. It is common for us to experience sleep disturbance with significant problems. To the extreme, we would lose our hearings to a substantial noise level. In this way, it is no doubt to say acoustics is about our health and safety. Human beings must stay healthy to contribute to the economy and society.
While innovative acoustic development has inspired us a lot, the role of acoustics in SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) should not be purely about our health. Let’s take an example of one of the marvellous acoustic instruments, the Acoustic Camera. It helps us detect noise in a complex environment. In our exceptional case, an acoustic camera was used to detect the faulty rail wheels to avoid causing significant casualties to the public. The potential utilisation in preventing problems do us great help. Health and safety are social issues.
Photo above: Acoustic Camera as maintenance and quality control solutions
On the other hand, city planning also involves soundscape—the acoustic ecosystem can be designed through analysis of the big sound data and seamless integration with the city planners, architects, environmental consultants, landscape architects, and psychologists. The city design via big sound data analysis facilitates our achievement toward sustainable cities.
Photo Above: Soundscape for urban design
We do not see much mention of acoustics in any SDGs. However, the real-world practice shows us acoustics is part of the sustainable movement, helping people maintain health and safety (SDG 3) and develop sustainable, liveable cities (SDG 11) via the benefit of big sound data and innovative technology.
(2) What are the challenges facing the acousticians?
There is a quote, “If a craftsman wants to do good work, he must first sharpen his tools.” We do not witness noise by eyes. And noise is omnidirectional; it is hard for human ears to find noise direction. That is why we need tools to assist us in doing our job. Acousticians’ best handy tools are unquestionably additional pair of ears—sound level meter, noise compass, acoustic camera. These tools are innovative in their invention and highly useful too. Reliable tools improve our work efficiency. The experience of the acousticians also defines the work quality and accuracy. If you have experience in measuring noise, you will know what to be aware of—the surroundings, the background noise, the obstacles, and the position.
Acousticians tend to be very technical people. It can be challenging to explain to others what they find out from the equation. Conventionally, the noise model can be descriptive type, full of text and numbers.
(3) How shall we equip our young acousticians?
Young acousticians learn acoustics concepts and theory in school, practise noise measurement in their first job, and accumulate analytical skills over time. Nowadays, we are experiencing the metaverse—a virtual world network. Could we make good use of this incredible technology with acoustics? We find that acoustics are very traditional in the presentation in some countries. The report is wordy and full of technical data that non-specialists find impossible to understand on their read. If the acousticians contribute by participating in the development of acoustical 3-dimension (3D)/4-dimension (4D), acoustics has a new way to go to the future. In Asia, especially when talking about Hong Kong, they have been developing a 3D Environmental Assessment for over ten years. Noise is envisioned in a 3D/4D model for public engagement and education purposes. The visualisation brings the information inside out. It enhances the ability to decide on project commencement by revealing the noise mitigation effect before and after.
Photo Above: 3D Environmental Impact Assessment
(4) Where can talents acquire such skills?
Universities and institutions are prone to support and succeed in passing down knowledge. They will help you master the fundamentals of acoustics. In contrast, the market development is diverse and fast. Talent’s experience also depends on the culture of the organisation they work for—whether the organisation is innovative or sticks to the conventional. Acousticians could learn more by expanding their horizons from the projects they handle.
As acousticians, their minds are full of acoustic equations and numbers. They even may not realise the actual impact of their calculations. Impressively, we had a project helping acousticians realise the result of acoustic products. We utilised 4D virtual reality to visualise and illustrate the effectiveness of the acoustic window product. It was an exciting project, seeing young professionals engaging so much in learning the acoustic window effectiveness.
Photo Above: Applying 3D/4D and acoustics to education acousticians
(5) What can we do to create more positive impacts?
The rise of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) brings us together. We can share and express without boundary limitations, and we learn openly. We believe that incorporating environmental knowledge with another discipline (today, we talked about information technology) accelerates innovation in sustainability.
By: ANewR Consulting Limited, a digital environmental consultant headquartered in Hong Kong since 2008. Our expertise has grown into the context of air and water qualities, noise, green building, waste management, and remediation. With extensive know-how in environmental planning and assessment, feasibility study and policy review, ecological design, monitoring, and audit (EM&A), ANewR has matured to be a leading management consultancy. Standing in the digital transformation reign, ANewR has participated in various environmental digital projects – interactive 3D visualisation, immersive automation virtual environment, Virtual reality, automation system, and monitoring platforms. (Website: https://anewr.com, LinkedIn: ANewR Consulting Group, Twitter: ANewR – Everyday Newer,YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnpvmxnR9hbNxytSfBdfV8Q/videos)
Redevelopment is typical in Hong Kong. According to the Urban Renewal Authority, they have launched over 60 redevelopment projects. New construction takes up the used land for a new purpose. The new definition revitalises the land – from contaminated land to sustainable urban development. In redevelopment, we need to care about how the land was operated. How it was operated underlies the potential adversely impact the surrounding neighbourhoods and threaten human health and the environment in the new development.
Diagram above: What sites should consider land contamination assessment?
Land contamination happens at old abandoned gas stations, for example. Places utilised for boat/shipbuilding or repairing, chemical manufacturing/processing, concrete and asphalt production, motor vehicle repair, petrol filling stations, oil storage installations, metal scrap yards are likely contaminated. Oil installations demolition, improper waste disposal and discharge of waste or polluting matter into the inland waters or water bodies are some causes of land contamination. Land polluted by hazardous substances because of industrial or commercial operations is contaminated land, defined by the Environmental Protection Department of HKSAR.
In Hong Kong, the four types of land – urban residential, rural residential, industrial and public parks – are under the scope of risk-based assessment. The assessment is based on the nature and extent of the potential risks posed to human receptors. In the US, the determining factors are founded on the release volume, total population exposed, proximity or impact to groundwater aquifers, drinking water wells contaminated, source water protection areas, unique exposure pathways, or environmental justice communities.
Globally, the United Nations regarding the land (soil) contamination has no border – as the contaminants penetrate everywhere without a trace. Such pollution degrades humans’ quality of living, causing poverty (against SDG 1 No Poverty) and bad health (against SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being). Companies and organisations that set corporate targets based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should have known better than anyone. Addressing corporate environmental issues in achieving SDGs is essential to themselves and the communities. The scientific-based approach to environmental performance is embedded in the laws that lead to regulated daily operation, reflected in the environmental performance or ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) report.
At the beginning of 2021, BBC News reported that the oil giant was sued for polluting the community. The news illustrates the corporate effort in maintaining good health in the operating area concerning its reputation. The neglect would cause the lawsuit and cost penalty for the improper supply chain management. (ref: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56041189)
It is critical to comply with the regulations of the operation, for corporate reputation, for community relations, for the environment, for avoiding penalties, for complying with the regulations. The industries likely/potentially causing land pollution are suggested to hire a professional environmental consultant to assure the function required for regulation-complied.
By: ANewR Consulting Limited, a digital environmental consultant headquartered in Hong Kong since 2008. Our expertise has grown into the context of air and water qualities, noise, green building, waste management, and remediation. With extensive know-how in environmental planning and assessment, feasibility study and policy review, ecological design, monitoring, and audit (EM&A), ANewR has matured to be a leading management consultancy. Standing in the digital transformation reign, ANewR has participated in various environmental digital projects – interactive 3D visualisation, immersive automation virtual environment, Virtual reality, automation system, and monitoring platforms. (Website: https://anewr.com, LinkedIn: ANewR Consulting Group, Twitter: ANewR – Everyday Newer,YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnpvmxnR9hbNxytSfBdfV8Q/videos)
Ethics rule our behaviours. We see ethical marketing, ethical company governance, ethical issues at the workplace, and many more in the community. As an environmental consultant, what are our ethical practices to ensure things go the right way?
According to the National Association of Environmental Professionals, integrity is one of the keystones of being a professional environmentalist, from collecting environmental data, interpreting the data, presenting the data in reports, and engaging scientific methods in research, planning, design, management, and review of activities.
Why do we pick data to tie integrity and the environment? Data integrity represents the overall data accuracy, completeness, and consistency during its lifecycle. Data authenticity, entirety, and transparency matter when there is an unauthorised data alteration in the database. The inaccurate data shifts the decision makers’ thinking path, causing poor judgment.
As the environmental protection trend goes, infrastructure project proponents, including the builders, the operators are obliged to monitor and manage the environment where the facilities are sitting. The environmental ordinance has pre-set scopes and parameters as a benchmark to scrutinise the impacts. The facility nature defines which regulation the facility should comply with. In Hong Kong, we have diverse environmental ordinances to fulfil – air, water, waste, noise, hazardous chemicals, ozone layer, mercury and more. The environmentalists will scientifically conduct the measurement by collecting environmental data to analyse the facilities’ environmental performance and test whether they comply with the regulation.
That is how we connect the relationship between data integrity and environmental protection.
The need for integrated environmental monitoring boosts the use of data management platforms. The data management platforms incorporate the Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensory device to receive real-time environmental data and synchronise the data to the online platform through the Internet. The IT security secures the network from illegal penetration. The data is untouched by third-party through the control-centre monitoring – this is the main reason why the data remains a virtue.
One of the environmental IoT development is the noise compass. The three-dimensional Noise Compass can alert the project staff by selecting alarms for combinations of sound pressure levels and incident angles. Thus, we can exclude sections of the measurement when the source location is outside the interest region. For example, when Leq is above 75 dB, and the sound is coming from the construction site, excluding the parts of a measurement contaminated by railway noise from the LDEN calculation.
The integrated environmental monitoring platform is the communication bridge between the IoT device and the project stakeholders. The system tracks the critical events. The project proponent applies rules to alert key stakeholders if over the limit. The platform can also be enhanced with visualisation. The visualisation further streamlines the environmental monitoring works with modules of site overview visualisation, CCTV Livestream, various ecological tracking and project management.
On the one hand, it manages spatial data, non-structured data, structure data, IoT data, CCTV streaming data, and analyse data. On the other hand, it aids the project stakeholders by viewing the project through the interactive chart and map, dual charts and maps comparison, 2D Drones Orthophoto, time-varied Animation, geo-tag information input and Photo gallery. Customised dashboard and back-end analysis is a plus to the users to diagnose the data for reporting. None of the above environmental visualisations and reports would be correctly built without proper data import.
Images Above: How do we tie data, integrity, and the environment
ANewR Consulting Limited is exhilarated to be commissioned to design, develop, and maintain a one-stop 3D visualisation platform for IWMF, Hong Kong’s flagship waste management facilities – The Integrated Waste Management Facilities. The Integrated Waste Management Facilities (IWMF), the municipal waste incineration plant, is located at Shek Kwu Chau. IWMF will be built on an artificial island, which means reclamation is inevitable. Besides the terrestrial ecology of Shek Kwu Chau, Shek Kwu Chau is inhabited by about 300 rehabilitators and staff of the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts (SARDA). Comprehensive environmental monitoring is imperative for the project’s hit without adversely impacting the ecology and the inhabitants. And, this is why we encourage integrated environmental monitoring practice.
By: ANewR Consulting Limited, a digital environmental consultant headquartered in Hong Kong since 2008. Our expertise has grown into the context of air and water qualities, noise, green building, waste management, and remediation. With extensive know-how in environmental planning and assessment, feasibility study and policy review, ecological design, monitoring, and audit (EM&A), ANewR has matured to be a leading management consultancy. Standing in the digital transformation reign, ANewR has participated in various environmental digital projects – interactive 3D visualisation, immersive automation virtual environment, Virtual reality, automation system, and monitoring platforms. (Website: https://anewr.com, LinkedIn: ANewR Consulting Group, Twitter: ANewR – Everyday Newer,YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnpvmxnR9hbNxytSfBdfV8Q/videos)
At the beginning of 2021, BBC News reported that the oil giant was sued for polluting the community. The news illustrates the corporate effort in maintaining good health in the operating area concerning its reputation. The neglect would cause the lawsuit and cost penalty for the improper supply chain management. It is wrong to think local community and regulations are not under the corporate scope. Apart from achieving Sustainable Development Goals and avoiding penalties, health and safety are other critical reasons to pre-assess the land condition before the development.
Redeveloping a place is typical worldwide. New construction taking up the used ground for a new purpose revitalises the land – from contaminated land to sustainable urban development. In the US, the determining factors are founded on the release volume, total population exposed, proximity or impact to groundwater aquifers, drinking water wells contaminated, source water protection areas, unique exposure pathways, or environmental justice communities.
Because of the land limitation, urban residential redevelopment is the most cases in Hong Kong. We have regulations assessing the land for reuse, changing the land use, especially from industrial to residential use. For business continuity, another spot required by law for regular checkups is the petrol filling station. Petroleum leakage and seeping would likely cause pollution, impacting the local ecosystem significantly.
Environmental consultants support the clients in site appraisal, investigation, and remediation suggestions in the land contamination assessment. Taking petrol filling station as an example, the checkups of leaks from pipework, tanks and offset fill pipes, the operations such as spills during customer refuelling, filling underground storage tanks and overfilling portable containers are the conceivable reason for land contamination. You can picture how it was operated underlies the potential adverse impact on the future redevelopments.
Key Chemicals of Concern (COCs) are the parameters that environmental consultants would look at from the laboratory analytical results. The environmental consultants interpret the results for the clients, let them understand the issue, recommend remediation action, evaluate remediation alternatives, design and operation of remediation, implement and monitor the programme. In this case, independent consultants are essential to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the reports.
Learn with us for more.
By: ANewR Consulting Limited, a digital environmental consultant headquartered in Hong Kong since 2008. Our expertise has grown into the context of air and water qualities, noise, green building, waste management, and remediation. With extensive know-how in environmental planning and assessment, feasibility study and policy review, ecological design, monitoring, and audit (EM&A), ANewR has matured to be a leading management consultancy. Standing in the digital transformation reign, ANewR has participated in various environmental digital projects – interactive 3D visualisation, immersive automation virtual environment, Virtual reality, automation system, and monitoring platforms. (Website: https://anewr.com, LinkedIn: ANewR Consulting Group, Twitter: ANewR – Everyday Newer,YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnpvmxnR9hbNxytSfBdfV8Q/videos)
For the past 30 years, Ms. Richey has lived in Hong Kong and worked for a wide variety of corporate and NGO entities. Since 2015, she has worked and volunteered for the Hong Kong Shark Foundation in many capacities, most recently as the Executive Director raising awareness about shark conservation and educating people to stop eating shark fin soup and all shark products.
Shark fin soup has long been consumed, dating all the way back to the Song Dynasty. The massive decline in the shark population in recent years brings to light the importance of saving sharks.
In this lecture, we have invited Ms Andrea Rickey, also known as the Shark Lady, to share her passion in being part of the Hong Kong Shark Foundation. Learn about how sharks benefit the ocean, why we need to protect sharks, and what we can do to save them in this lecture.
An SME’s Dive into ESG-Stephen Au Founder of Diving Adventure
Stephen Au is a diving training director with more than ten years of experience in training divers and instructors of all levels. Experienced in training thousands of divers, Stephen has organized diving groups worldwide, including Maldives, Red Sea, Palau, South America, Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Indonesia, etc. His diving enthusiasm has even extended to travel to Antarctica and ice diving in Hokkaido, Japan. In addition to diving teaching, Stephen also actively promotes marine conservation, encouraging the public to establish an environmentally friendly and healthy lifestyle and appreciate the beauty of the ocean together.
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) is no longer just a hot topic for multinational companies. In fact, an SME from a very niche industry has been awarded for their efforts in ESG. Mr. Stephen Au, an experienced diver and the Founder of Diving Adventure will share with us about his green initiative, how he brought people with disabilities into the action and his ESG initiative as an SME in Hong Kong.
By: ANewR Consulting Limited, a digital environmental consultant headquartered in Hong Kong since 2008. Our expertise has grown into the context of air and water qualities, noise, green building, waste management, and remediation. With extensive know-how in environmental planning and assessment, feasibility study and policy review, ecological design, monitoring, and audit (EM&A), ANewR has matured to be a leading management consultancy. Standing in the digital transformation reign, ANewR has participated in various environmental digital projects – interactive 3D visualisation, immersive automation virtual environment, Virtual reality, automation system, and monitoring platforms. (Website: https://anewr.com, LinkedIn: ANewR Consulting Group, Twitter: ANewR – Everyday Newer,YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnpvmxnR9hbNxytSfBdfV8Q/videos)
深明顧問有限公司 Environmental and Digital Tech Consultants 