By Jiang Jinsheng, Expert of the Construction Engineering Technology Expert Committee of the China Construction Industry Association, and Chief Engineer of Zhongtian Construction Group Co., Ltd.

Green construction requires construction enterprises to achieve energy saving, material saving, water saving, land saving and environmental protection during the construction process. Zhongtian Construction Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongtian Construction Group") promotes green construction through various measures and has achieved technological innovation on the basis of engineering practice experience. While promoting green construction, Zhongtian Construction not only helps the enterprise improve construction quality and save costs, but also wins customers, driving the rapid and sustainable development of the enterprise.
Green construction refers to construction engineering activities that, on the premise of ensuring basic requirements such as quality and safety, maximize resource conservation and reduce negative impacts on the environment through scientific management and technological progress, thereby achieving "four savings and one protection" (energy saving, material saving, water saving, land saving and environmental protection). As can be seen from the definition, the ultimate goal of green construction is to achieve energy saving, material saving, water saving, land saving and environmental protection. In market competition, scientifically and rationally saving resources and effectively controlling costs are the core competitiveness of an enterprise. "Environmental protection" is the guarantee of sustainable economic development and a social responsibility of construction enterprises. An enterprise that can well fulfill this social responsibility will surely gain the support and care of all sectors of society, thereby providing more opportunities for its development.
In recent years, Zhongtian Construction Group has vigorously promoted green construction, saved resources and controlled costs, and has been widely and highly recognized by all sectors of society, achieving Zhongtian's rapid and sustainable development.
Multiple measures promote green construction
Green construction is incorporated into the implementation of the three management systems. In 2006, Zhongtian Construction Group compiled the "Zhongtian Green Construction Site Standard," which became the guiding document for the company's green construction and was implemented as an attachment to Zhongtian Construction Group's three-system documents. Through the effective application of the three systems, Zhongtian's green construction management has become more scientific and standardized.
Promoting green construction through on-site observation. Every year, Zhongtian Construction Group organizes the entire group to carry out an "Engineering Management On-site Observation Meeting." The main purpose of the on-site meeting is to concentrate the excellent green construction practices and technological innovations of the group's projects under construction into several projects for implementation and application as benchmarks, and to organize the group's key leaders, engineering management and technical personnel, project managers, etc. to attend, observe and evaluate on site. Practices with good implementation results are further optimized and then promoted throughout the company, enabling Zhongtian's green construction to reach a new level every year.
Establishing the "Green Energy-Saving Building Research Institute." The "Zhongtian Green Energy-Saving Building Research Institute" mainly focuses on digesting, absorbing, promoting and applying new green energy-saving technologies, new materials and new processes, providing technical support for green energy-saving buildings, building the company's green energy-saving information exchange platform, researching and developing "green energy-saving" building patented technologies, and producing green products with independent intellectual property rights. Building energy conservation research focuses on simulation-based optimization design technology, technical products for improving the thermal performance of building envelopes (high-performance walls, external windows, profiles, glass, etc.), natural ventilators, intelligently adjustable curtain walls, fresh air heat recovery, renewable energy (solar energy, wind energy), etc. Through technological leadership, the company is at the forefront of the industry.
Implementing regional project management standardization. Zhongtian Construction Group attaches importance to standardization construction. According to the goal of "one standard, one process, one level, one result," it establishes and improves a standardized system for project management and promotes the intensive development of enterprise project management. The standardization of project management aims to replicate successful project management practices and experience within the same or similar management modules, enabling project management to shift from extensive methods to institutionalized, standardized and normalized methods. Its essence is to summarize successful practices and experience in project management, proceduralize complex issues, concretize vague issues, integrate scattered issues, replicate successful practices, build a resource-sharing platform for project management, continuously innovate project management methods, improve enterprise management level, and provide guarantees for implementing large-scale construction tasks and ensuring project quality.
Green construction "feeds back" into technological innovation
Zhongtian Construction vigorously promotes green construction on engineering projects and, through the accumulation of practical experience, has also achieved some technological innovations in green construction.
Aluminum alloy formwork and its construction technology. The initial investment cost of aluminum alloy formwork is 20 times that of ordinary wooden formwork, and professional detailed design and professional personnel are required for construction to ensure its quality and safety. Due to China's lack of experience in using aluminum alloy formwork, assembly speed is slow and the visual quality of walls is poor, so it is difficult to promote and apply in construction.
In order to promote green construction, Zhongtian Construction promoted and applied aluminum alloy formwork in more than 10 project departments, including Guangzhou Lishui Vanke (see Figure 1), and conducted research on it. Through comparative analysis, it was found that the average turnover frequency of aluminum alloy formwork can reach 200 times, 40 times that of ordinary wooden formwork; the average cost per square meter of aluminum alloy formwork, including detailed design and construction worker training, is about 35 yuan, while that of wooden formwork reaches 50 yuan. It can be seen that the promotion and application of aluminum alloy formwork not only saves materials but also greatly reduces personnel consumption costs, achieving good economic results.
Super high-rise circulating water pump-washing water-saving system. The Wuxi Suning Plaza project uses water collection pipes, connecting water pipes, drainage pipes, submersible pumps, etc. to connect the concrete wastewater collection tank, sedimentation tank and storage tank, forming a super high-rise circulating water pump-washing water-saving system for cleaning concrete pump trucks (see Figure 2), reducing the consumption of water resources and energy. The water consumption required for one pump washing of a concrete pump truck is about 15 cubic meters. The number of concrete pouring times per floor of the structure is 6, and the cumulative water saving can reach 5,500 cubic meters.
Prefabricated combined riser installation technology. For example, the Shanghai World Financial Center adopted the prefabricated combined riser construction process (see Figure 3), realizing factory-based on-site operations and centralized decentralized operations, reducing a large number of on-site tower crane lifting operations, improving worker welding efficiency and installation efficiency, ensuring welding quality and installation accuracy, and achieving green effects such as energy saving, material saving, land saving and environmental protection. According to statistics, if traditional methods were adopted, the estimated labor would be 62,000 person-times, while the actual labor used in prefabricated riser construction was 34,100 person-times, saving 27,900 person-times (about 840,000 yuan) and improving work efficiency by 45%; if traditional methods were adopted, the estimated machinery and measure costs would be 920,000 yuan, while the actual cost was 610,000 yuan, saving 310,000 yuan; if traditional methods were adopted, the estimated material cost would be 4.6 million yuan, while factory-based construction with prefabricated combined risers saved 8% of materials and 360,000 yuan in costs.
"Zoned metering and strict indicator control" for domestic energy use. Changsha Poly International Plaza adopted the method of "zoned metering and strict indicator control" for domestic energy use, selecting energy-saving materials and energy-saving appliances to save energy. The power density of energy-saving lighting appliances in offices is strictly controlled at ≤11 watts/square meter, dormitories ≤8 watts/square meter, warehouse lighting ≤6 watts/square meter; all staff dormitories in the living area use 36-volt voltage and are issued low-voltage chargers; temporary facilities use energy-saving and fireproof materials, walls and roofs use materials with good thermal insulation performance, and the second-floor color steel houses are installed with suspended ceilings to reduce the use time and energy consumption of air conditioners in summer and heating equipment in winter; the use period of air conditioners is strictly controlled during employees' rest periods and used in different periods and at different times. These measures have achieved good energy-saving effects.
"Interleaving method" organization and management technology. The "interleaving method" organization and management technology is a management method integrating multiple technologies and coordinated organization and application. According to the analysis of the application in the Guangzhou Vanke Donghuicheng project, using the "interleaving method," the main structure, secondary structure, exterior wall surface, and plastering and decoration of a 1-8 story small high-rise residential building followed in sequence, accelerating reasonable overlap, increasing production efficiency by 40%-55%, and increasing equipment turnover rate by 60%.
Standardized, tool-based and normalized. Standardized, tool-based and normalized means that the company configures production and living supplies according to the actual needs of each project department and in accordance with the company's unified standards, and the company makes overall arrangements for distribution and overall planning for project use. After a project is completed, the company uniformly recycles these supplies, and after maintenance, puts them back into use in new projects.
Standardized. For example, standardized protective sheds are set up in formwork processing areas, steel bar processing areas, concrete mixing areas, ground pump areas, passages and other locations, and standardized steel frames are installed in material stacking areas, clothes-drying areas and other locations.
Tool-based. For example, tool-based equipment is used for various opening protection, mobile toilets, water sprinkler trucks, garbage recycling stations, plate-type wheel washing machines, three-stage sedimentation tanks, grease traps, etc.
Normalized. Project departments uniformly adopt the enterprise's CI standards and uniformly configure air conditioners, heating, dormitories, signs and slogans, etc.
Promoting green construction not only improves construction quality but also saves costs and wins customers, thereby driving the rapid and sustainable development of the enterprise. The author believes that green construction is not only an important part of implementing the sustainable development strategy in the construction industry, but also the key to driving the rapid development of enterprises. Green construction will have great prospects.