Tommy Yap Chun-yin, James Khong Yew-yuen and Calvin Gan Jing-fang from the School of Energy and Environment (SEE) at the City University of Hong Kong led a team with four other students from local and overseas universities to participate in the World Sustainable Built Environment International Youth Competition, jointly organized by the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) in June 2017. They successfully won “The Most Innovative Urban Sustainability Award.”

Supervised by Prof. Michael Leung from SEE, Tommy and his team members designed a sustainable footbridge system called "Long for sustainability" (緣廊) for Yuen Long District in Hong Kong. The team presented their innovative ideas in the World Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2017.

The sustainable footbridge system aims to promote sustainable neighborhoods and to enhance quality of Hong Kong’s built environment. The footbridge system integrates renewable energy systems such as solar energy and piezoelectric energy to help reach energy-saving target in Hong Kong. The green compartment of the bridge is also a climate responsive architecture to further reduce carbon emission through greening. With this innovative and harmonic design, the heavy traffic in Yuen Long District could be mitigated through encouraging residents to walk more instead of using ground transportation.

Besides, Miss Zoe Lee Hei-yan, also a student from SEE, and her team won “The Most Holistic Super-High-Dense Neighbourhood Award” in the same competition with their project on “Kowloon City Castle 2.0”. By designing buildings for mixed-land use, her team dedicated to the idea in creating a sustainable neighborhood to enhance the quality of life under high population density.