The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) of Hong Kong will spend about HK$270million on green upgrades for Wan Chai's Lee Tung Street and Kwun Tong town center.

The green initiative is to encourage developers and the community to adopt more environment-friendly practices, authority chairman Barry Cheung Chun- yuen said Sunday.

The government's new policy on environmental sustainability covers designs and devices to improve energy efficiency, water conservation and recycling. It promotes the use of eco- friendly building materials and reducing construction waste, and will be applied to future urban renewal initiatives and be binding on prospective developers.

The environmental add-ons will be piloted at the Lee Tung Street development, which will receive HK$20 million to serve as a landmark and testbed for the new policy. Eco-upgrades to the HK$30 billion Kwun Tong town center project are expected to cost HK$250 million.

Project add-ons include sun-shading for windows, energy efficient lighting, lifts and escalators, and water-cooled air- conditioning and heat recovery systems.

Lower lighting power and densities will be explored through light emitting diode (LED) fixtures, along with more efficient air-conditioning devices including carbon dioxide detectors to regulate the amount of fresh air drawn.

The upgrades will reduce carbon emissions by up to 23 percent, or the carbon-saving equivalent of about 17 percent of the one million trees planted by the government annually, said Cheung.

Cheung said he hopes growing awareness will lead to an industry-wide shift to developers and buyers shouldering the costs of going green.