Source: umagazine

Environmental protection and green living has become a focus of interest for communities around the world. It is no exception for the University of Macau’s (UM) new campus, which is itself a small learning and residential community. During the construction of the new campus, UM has followed the “people-oriented” and “environmentally-friendly” principles, in order to build a green, healthy and safe campus with a functional layout that is conducive to the implementation of the “4-in-1” mode of education. This education model consists of discipline-specific education, general education, research and internship education, as well as community and peer education.

Environmentally-friendly Design

The design of the new campus reflects the university’s belief that environment plays an important role in education and that humans and nature should coexist in harmony. The new campus has more than 60 buildings, none of which is particularly ornamental or grand. The design places less emphasis on impressive appearance and more emphasis on facilitating teacher-student interaction and cross-disciplinary communication; one way to achieve that purpose is construction of many covered walkways and open spaces. “The new campus is divided into four parts—east, south, west, and north, with each part having a different main function,” explains Gordon Song Kit Io, director of the Campus Development Office (CDO). “Different core areas are within walking distance of each other. It takes about five minutes to walk from one area to the next. Besides, the different buildings are connected by covered walkways, which are breezy even in hot days. These help to create an environment in which teachers and students can comfortably walk about the campus and communicate with each other.”

Campus-wide Energy-efficient Systems

How does the university achieve environmental protection and energy efficiency with the increased facilities and space on the new campus? Mr. Song explains the artificial lake and other scenic bodies of water on the campus will source recycled rainwater, and a district cooling system is used for buildings in the north area to save the construction of an air conditioning system control room. Environmentally-friendly photovoltaic systems are used in the Sports Complex and the Student Activity Centre. A central solar water heating system provides hot water to all the Postgraduate Houses and residential colleges. “Building materials, equipment, and ventilation systems in the Student Activity Centre all meet environmental standards, and we have applied for the three-star rating for green buildings. All the buildings are south-facing for better ventilation and less direct sunlight. Glass walls are avoided where possible to reduce the energy consumption of the cooling system. Also, there is a water reuse system on the campus. All wastewater from the campus is treated by a wastewater treatment plant in Taipa to become reclaimed water which is then reused on the campus for irrigation, road and car cleaning, toilet flushing, and other purposes.”

To reduce carbon emission, only authorised vehicles are allowed to travel on the campus, and biking is encouraged. “In the first year after we move to the new campus, the university will provide bike rental service to cultivate a culture of biking,” says Linda Chan Lai Fan, acting director of Campus Management Office (CMO). “As for energy-saving, we are studying the possibility of launching an energy management plan. We’ve already started implementing some of the measures, including delamping extra lights in offices and corridors and installing motion detector lighting systems in washrooms. We hope these measures can help build a green campus.”

Various Sports Facilities to Foster a Culture of Health and Fitness

The new campus boasts a greater variety of sports facilities than the old campus, including a Sports Complex and various outdoor sports facilities. The Sports Complex includes a sports pavilion, indoor swimming pool, fitness room, training hall, table tennis room, badminton hall, squash courts, dance room, classrooms, multi-purpose room, and physical fitness laboratory, which is a new addition where students and staff from the Faculty of Education may conduct research. In the future, the sports pavilion will be able to host basketball, volleyball, handball, korfball and 5-a-side futsal competitions.

Not only is there more variety in sports facilities, there is a significant increase in quantity as well. For instance, there are 14 basketball courts and 10.5 tennis courts (0.5 being the training court) on the new campus, compared to 1 and 2 respectively on the old campus. Fitness equipment is also of much higher quality. There is also an Olympic-standard 50-metre heated indoor swimming pool and a beach court. “The sports facilities on our new campus are first-rate in the Greater China region,” says Dr. Patrick Chan Ping Cheung, director of the Office of Sports Affairs. “If we look at universities in the United States, Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, perhaps UM is one of the few universities where you can play beach volleyball, beach soccer, beach handball, and beach korfball on the campus.”

Environmental awareness is evident in many aspects of the design, including the outdoor sports facilities. For instance, the soccer pitch uses natural grass instead of artificial turf, which is not only more environmentally-friendly, but also helps to reduce the severity of sports-related injuries. The ubiquitous sports facilities may also help to foster a culture of health and fitness. Dr. Chan says his office hopes to encourage more students to participate in sports so they can stay fit and healthy, improve willpower, and develop team spirit. “We sincerely hope that more and more people will participate in sports, because only through everyone’s participation can we truly foster a culture of health and fitness,” Dr. Chan says. “Sports are important to our physical and psychological wellbeing, and if everyone is healthy and happy, it would benefit the university’s development in the long run.”

Safe Campus for More Comfortable Learning and Living

All the buildings on the new campus have been constructed to meet strict safety and usability standards, to make sure that more than 10,000 students and staff can work, study and live in a safe and healthy environment. “Should we use wood flooring inside the sports venues? Is the ground level? What’s the flooring density? These are some of the questions we needed to consider carefully,” Dr. Chan says. “We use ozone disinfection for the heated swimming pool to minimise harm to the human body. The quality of water and the oxygen content must meet safety standards; the poolside environment and the environment at the bottom of the pool must also be safe.” The Office of Health, Safety and Environmental Affairs (HSEO) conducts two kinds of testing after each building is handed over to the university. One is air quality testing. This is to test the air changes per hour and the concentration of formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds to make sure they are within the safe range. The other is water quality monitoring to make sure water quality meets safety standards.

The new campus has an advanced scientific research base, with various kinds of lab equipment and hazardous substances. Michael Leung Chiu Ming, head of HSEO, says: “We’ve already bought system software for managing chemicals and we are in the process of testing it. All the chemicals we buy in the future will go through checking by this software, and the main purpose is to make sure the total quantity of hazardous substances is not too high.”

There is a medical centre on the campus, and HSEO is responsible for its day-to-day operation. “We are considering the possibility of extending the service hours until about eight o’clock in the evening, and we are also hoping to recruit more staff to work in the medical centre,” says Mr. Leung. “We will also organise more talks on nutrition and physical and emotional health, to help our students and colleagues stay healthy.”

Mosquito Control

There is an artificial lake and a variety of green landscapes on the campus, with a total area of 540,000 square metres. The artificial lake and the green landscapes help absorb carbon dioxide, reduce the heat island effect, increase ecological habitats, and create a natural, environmentally-friendly, green residential community for the students and staff. However, the increased area of lake water and green spaces also provides fertile breeding ground for mosquitos. Ms. Chan admits that water management and water quality monitoring are a great challenge for her office. “This is the first time we need to manage an artificial lake of this size, and we don’t have any prior experience to draw on,” Ms. Chan says. “We visited several places to learn from their experience in monitoring the quality of water. For mosquito control, we have set up several test spots on the campus to collect samples and data. We are installing more than 200 mosquito killers across the campus, and we are closely monitoring the situation.”

Introduce New Technologies to Increase the Level of Service

The new campus is an open campus, and will likely become a Macao landmark in the future. To make sure the campus maintains an atmosphere of peace and tranquility while staying open to the public, CMO has implemented a series of measures, including closely liaising with the Macao Customs and the Macao Public Security Police Force, establishing rules on the use of public areas, and zone management with central monitoring. Closed circuit TV surveillance systems have been installed in various spots on the campus, and new security booths have been added in the west and south areas. Ms. Chan says that to save internal manpower, her office has outsourced integrated facility management service to a facility management company, and in the future new technologies and knowledge will be introduced to increase the quality of campus management service.

As a member of the Asia-Pacific Network of Healthy Universities since 2007, UM is committed to building a healthy, safe and environmentally-friendly campus to provide an excellent environment for learning, research and work. In the future, UM will encourage its students and staff to work together to build a peaceful, low-carbon, barrier-free, and sustainable campus with low vehicle traffic, so as to become a regional role model in environmental protection.