LCMP FAQ

Companies belonging to the industry categories listed in the table below, with manufacturing plant(s) in Hong Kong or the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, are eligible to join. We are gathering information from companies in other sectors and locations to analyse market demand in order to cater to all companies interested in the programme. Please email us for more information.

Industry number	Description of the industries
4	Wearing apparel manufacturing
7	Textile industries
15	Plastic products manufacturing
18	Fabricated metal products manufacturing
19	Office, accounting and computing machinery manufacturing
20	Radio, televison and communications equipment and apparatus manufacturing
21	Machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components manufacturing
23	Electronic parts and components manufacturing
24	Electrical appliances, housewares and electronic toy manufacturing
25	Professional and scientific, measuring and controlling equipment, and photographic and optical goods manufacturing

* Industry number shown on the application form

We are privileged to receive funding from our founding sponsor, the Green Dragon Fund, and the British Consulate-General Hong Kong to cover the initial cost of starting the programme. In addition, these organisations have committed to continued funding to expand to other industry sectors. The fee provided by participating companies will cover administrative costs and system maintenance costs relating to the programme.

Fee Structure Breakdown

Fee Schedule

Fee Category	Fee Amount
Administrative Fees
Application Fee Biannual Renewal Fee (accreditation level)	HK$1,000 per application HK$500 per application
LCMP Participation Fee
Preparatory Level	HK$12,000 per factory site per year
Accredited Level with certified LCMP Label	HK$25,000 per factory site per year
Appeal (1) (If required)
Appeal Processing Fee	HK$3,000

Independent Third-Party Verification Fee⁽²⁾

Fee Category	SMEs	Establishments other than SMEs
**Below amount is a reference for LCMP participants and is an estimated amount from the Qualified Independent Third-Party Verifier Organizations**
On-site Verification Fee(2) **Applies for the Biannual Renewal-On-Site Verification Fee**	HK$15000 (for 2 mandays)	HK$30,000 - 45,000 (for 4 to 6 mandays)
Appeal Verification Re-evaluation Fee(2)(3) (50% refundable if the appeal is allowed)	HK$7,500	HK$15,000

By providing manufacturers with a tool to measure carbon emissions and to help them strive towards best practice, the LCMP ensures low-carbon manufacturing practices are properly learned and implemented along the supply chain, which is in line with mainland China’s national energy saving plan and carbon emissions reduction target.

Companies joining the LCMP enjoy the following advantages:

Improved energy efficiency, saving money in the long run
Implementation of LCMP measures will raise the energy efficiency standard to the best practice level and uncover operational inefficiencies; which is a simple and effective method of saving money in the long run.

Easy implementation – low or even no investment cost
Most of the measures suggested in the LCMP pilot phase involved low investment cost, or even no investment cost. The average payback period ranges from one to three years. It is relatively easy for companies with an existing ISO system to follow the guidance of the LCMP tools and incorporate GHG management into their existing system.

Attract new customers and retain existing customers
Nowadays, consumers across the world pay attention not only to the price and quality of products, but also to a brand’s transparency and its efforts to control carbon emissions. Showing that a business is in control of its carbon emissions is an excellent way to help retain customers and attract new customers.

Stand out in global competition
By joining the LCMP, companies can build up a solid carbon management framework effectively. By cooperating with WWF, a leading global conservation organisation, companies can benchmark themselves against other global competitors, and stand out amongst their competitors.

Prepared for future global regulatory challenges
Carbon tax is an inevitable regulation, one which will soon be in force around the world. By joining the LCMP, companies will be well-prepared for a new legislative environment and new regulations on carbon emission control and data disclosure rules which may be drafted within any country at any time - including countries forming a company’s supply chain.

Demonstrate vision to shareholders and investors
Companies joining the LCMP make obvious their management’s vision in meeting global requirements on carbon emissions. When a LCMP company is compared with a company that simply meets individual customer’s expectations on an ad-hoc basis, it is quite clear that LCMP membership is a distinct highlight for both shareholders and investors.

To be awarded with LCMP labels, companies must have undertaken independent third-party on-site assessment by qualified verifiers. There are three assessment criteria: (1) carbon intensity reduction, (2) greenhouse gas (GHG) management practice and (3) energy efficiency of processes and operations. The sum of scores attained in each criterion, assessed by the online carbon accounting system or against the best practice checklists, will define the label category to be accredited.
The details of the criteria are as follows:

(1) Carbon intensity reduction
The carbon emissions intensity data of the assessment year and the baseline year are gathered from the online carbon accounting system. The data of the assessment year is then compared with that of the baseline year to obtain the percentage of change in carbon emissions intensity. This criterion contributes to 25% of the maximum label score.

(2) Greenhouse gas management (GHG) practice
To institutionalize a management system within manufacturing companies and assure continuous effort in reducing carbon emissions, a GHG management best practice checklist is used to assess the performance of companies. This criterion contributes to 35% of the maximum label score.

(3) Energy efficiency of processes and operations
The distance to best practice in terms of energy efficiency of processes and operations is assessed against a series of best practice checklists focusing on factory general utilities or industry-specific manufacturing processes. This criterion contributes to 40% (20% in factory general utilities and 20% on manufacturing technology processes) of the maximum label score.

Label	Total score
Platinum	Equal to or greater than 80
Gold	From 60 to less than 80
Silver	From 40 to less than 60
Certified	From 20 to less than 40
Preparatory	Less than 20 / has not yet undertaken any third-party verification

Computime (electronics)
could reach cost savings of 2.62 million RMB per year by implementing 20 measures with a payback time of less than 1.5 years.

ITEM (plastics)
could reach cost savings of about 895,000 RMB per year by implementing 16 measures, with a payback time up to 3 years.

Lever Style (garments)
could reach cost savings of 2.16 million RMB per year by implementing 15 measures with payback time of less than 1.5 years.

Data will not be disclosed to any agencies or the public but we do encourage participating factories to openly share data to demonstrate their awareness of the issues of environmental sustainability.

In 2008, the LCMP system was tested on three pilot companies in the Pearl River Delta in the electronics, plastics and textiles / garments sectors. The potential GHG emissions reductions identified ranged from 12 % to 24% per year, with a total reduction of 4,053 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2eq.) - 19% of total GHG emissions of all three companies.

74 million tCO2eq. reduction per year is potentially achievable when such measures are extrapolated to all 55,000 Hong Kong-owned factories in the PRD. This GHG mitigation potential is comparable to most Nordic countries' total national GHG emissions.

According to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol)*, activities in scopes 1, 2, 3 can be defined as follows:

Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions
Direct emissions from stationary or mobile combustion sources in the manufacturing factory. For example, fuel consumption in boilers or furnaces, emissions from company vehicles, etc.

Scope 2: Indirect GHG emissions
Indirect emissions from generation of purchased electricity, steam or heat.
For example, electricity consumed in factory that is supplied via the power grid.

Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions
Other indirect emissions. For example, emissions resulting from business travel in non-company owned vehicles, third-party outsourced activities, etc.
*The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol), developed by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, is the most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions.

No, it includes all the related activities in the factory, e.g. canteen and dormitory, etc. However, only the activities in Scopes 1 and 2 are mandatory to report. It is optional for the factory to report the data in Scope 3.

The unit should match the unit given in the carbon accounting software.

No, the figure should be exactly the same as the figure in supporting document or evidence.

No, the data of other activities should be input separately even if they use the same fuel.

No. Direct CO2 emissions from biological fuels (such as wood) will be reported separately and will not count towards the overall emissions of the factory.

Data should be input based on the actual fuel usage in a particular month. If there are no records of actual fuel usage, data can be entered according to the purchase date records. This is acceptable, provided that the records are distinct for each individual activity. However, the purchase records should contain the data for the whole year, i.e. January first to December 31st of each year.

We suggest that a factory should input data once a month for each activity.

The user account will be locked if incorrect password is entered 5 times consecutively.

To ensure that the system displays properly on web browsers, we recommend that users use Internet Explorer 7.0 or above.