Drivers and pedestrians in Kowloon Bay can't help but notice the futuristic silhouette of the EMSD headquarters building, its light grey façade bedecked with sunshades. The sunshades minimise the amount of direct sunlight able to penetrate the building, thus reducing the energy consumed for summer-time air-conditioning. Approaching the building's main gate on Kai Shing Street, a visitor's eyes are drawn to five enormous silver ice storage tanks. Used in conjunction with the air-conditioning chiller plant, these slurry ice tanks are a key peak power shaving feature of the new headquarters. This is the general concept: Slurry ice is a good thermal medium and is produced during off-peak periods of electricity demand, and stored in the tanks. When electricity demand is high, the ice melts to absorb thermal heat, thus reducing the electricity consumed by the air-conditioning system during the peak hours.

Not far from the main gate stands Hong Kong's largest water-cooled air-conditioning ammonia chiller plant, another major environmental breakthrough. The chillers use ammonia as refrigerant which is much more efficient than other refrigerants, and so ammonia systems use less electricity, further boosting energy efficiency.