Policy Guidance and Corporate Participation in Green Buildings

Li Xun believes that the sound development of green buildings requires diverse forces. In addition to government guidance, necessary technical support from science and technology departments is needed, and more importantly, participation from the business community. Only when enterprises truly understand and participate in the greening process can green initiatives develop soundly. Market mechanisms should be used to develop green initiatives.

The Green Building System is Gradually Being Perfected

China has a green building evaluation standard that, throughout the building's entire life cycle, maximizes resource conservation, protects the environment, reduces pollution, and provides people with efficient and harmonious living spaces. Its core values include the concepts of conservation, environmental protection, and health. Since the State Council issued Document No. 1 in January 2013, the national top-level design for green buildings has been completed. The development goals, principles, main tasks, and policy standards to ensure implementation have been gradually improved and formed. Green buildings have completed a systematic design, including its target system, technology system, and policy system. Li Xun mentioned that green buildings becoming a national action plan is a first in the world.

China's green buildings have their own labeling system and professional organizations. In 2008, the Green Building and Energy Conservation Professional Committee of the Chinese Society for Urban Studies was established, with Wang Youwei, chief engineer consultant of the China Academy of Building Research and chief editor of the national evaluation standard, as its director. Green buildings also have related institutions. The Green Building and Energy Conservation Committee has more than 20 local institutional societies across the country. We also have international green building alliances, including the Green Building Alliance for Tropical and Subtropical Regions, the Green Building Alliance for Hot Summer and Cold Winter Regions, and the Green Building Alliance for Severe Cold and Cold Regions. Li Xun introduced that the evaluation of green building labels is currently delegated, and each province and city can conduct evaluations. Within the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development system, two entities can evaluate green building labels. One is the Science and Technology Development Promotion Center of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, where Director Song Ling is located; the other is the Green Building Evaluation Expert Committee under the Chinese Society for Urban Studies. The Green Building and Energy Conservation Committee conducts a series of professional activities, including the annual "International Conference on Green Building and Building Energy Efficiency and New Technology and Product Expo" held at the end of March in Beijing, hosted by the Chinese Society for Urban Studies and organized by "Green Building - China Building Energy Efficiency Network." This international conference has been successfully held for 10 sessions as of this year. This year's 10th Green Building Conference demonstrated that corporate support and participation in the green building cause have risen to a new level.

Rapid Development in the Number of Green Building Evaluations

In recent years, China's green buildings have developed rapidly, and the number of green building evaluation label projects has maintained strong growth. As of December 31, 2013, a total of 1,446 green building evaluation label projects were evaluated nationwide, with a total building area of 16,270 square meters. The number and area of green building labels in 2013 were 94.9% and 114.6% of the total for the five years from 2008 to 2012. It is only a matter of time before China becomes a world green power.

Increased Costs of Green Buildings

Li Xun mentioned that the Green Building Committee has also conducted statistics on the incremental cost of green buildings. The incremental cost for one-star projects is not high and easy to achieve; for two-star projects, with national financial subsidies and additional local subsidies and incentives such as urban construction supporting fee reductions, the incremental cost pressure is relatively low, which has stimulated developers' increasing implementation motivation; the incremental cost for three-star projects is higher, and developers can only achieve it through certain research and development efforts. The Green Building Committee preliminarily estimates that the incremental unit cost for one-star projects does not exceed 100 yuan/square meter, for two-star projects does not exceed 200 yuan/square meter, and for three-star projects generally does not exceed 300 yuan/square meter, with exceptions like the Shenzhen Vanke headquarters. Green buildings should not be high-cost technologies, nor should they be high-tech. The regions with better green building practices nationwide are Jiangsu, followed by Guangdong, Shandong, Shanghai, etc. Beijing and Shenzhen have announced that 100% of new buildings are green buildings.

Green building applications have received enthusiastic responses from the business community. Data shows that the companies with the most green labels are Wanda (public buildings), Vanke (residential), Greenland, Landsea, etc. In the national "12th Five-Year Plan," green buildings are also placed in the medium- and long-term development plan. In the national green building action plan, the guiding ideology and development goals for green buildings have been clarified. We need to complete the task of 1 billion square meters of green buildings during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, and our task is very arduous.

Green Buildings Show Momentum of Scaled Development

Green buildings are now trending towards larger scale. The national green building action plan states that 100 new urban areas (planned new districts, economic and technological development zones, high-tech industrial development zones, eco-industrial demonstration parks, etc.) must be planned, constructed, and operated entirely according to green ecological urban area standards. A basic indicator for green ecological urban areas is that 100% of the buildings must be green buildings.

Local Policy Incentives

Now all parts of the country have their own policies to encourage and promote green building development. In terms of development goals, 15 provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu have formulated their own green building action implementation plans, proposed overall development goals for green buildings, and clarified specific requirements for new green building area and the proportion of green buildings in new construction. In terms of financial rewards, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shaanxi, Xi'an, Qingdao, etc. have formulated local financial reward policies. In terms of technology promotion, Beijing has compiled green building design standards as technical support for promoting green buildings; Shenzhen issued the "Shenzhen Green Building Promotion Measures," which stipulates that new civil building design schemes must undergo review according to green building standards; Tianjin and Chongqing have incorporated green building requirements into building energy efficiency regulations for mandatory implementation. In terms of standard formulation, 22 provinces and cities nationwide have formulated local green building evaluation standards. According to comparative research by the Green Building Research Center of the Chinese Society for Urban Studies, compared with international green building evaluation standards, some local standards reflect local characteristics to some extent.

Updates on Standards and Specifications

Currently, the "Green Ecological Urban Area Evaluation Standard" and the "Green Campus Evaluation Standard" are in the drafting stage. The national standard "Green Building Evaluation Standard" GB50378 is being revised, and the draft for comments has been completed and is expected to be officially issued and implemented next year. The main contents of this revision involve applicable building types, evaluation stage division, evaluation grading methods, evaluation index system, and bonus item evaluation.

Problems in Green Building Evaluation

At present, there are still deviations in the understanding of the green building development concept, and green buildings have not yet departed from the mindset of focusing on high-precision and advanced technology applications. There are fewer projects using passive technologies and more using active technical measures, resulting in more active energy-saving measures, a tendency to pile up technologies, and higher incremental costs. Some projects barely obtain the corresponding star rating labels by clinging to evaluation standards, appearing "green" on the surface, but also causing higher green incremental costs. Some projects have insufficient consideration of green building technologies in the early design stage, and later passively adopt green building technologies, resulting in higher incremental costs. Various regions have issued local green building evaluation standards, but from actual implementation, local standards are not necessarily higher than national standards or more suitable for local realities, and local characteristics need further reflection.

Judgment on the Development Direction of Green Buildings

More and more cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen will gradually begin to fully implement green buildings in new construction. Government-invested public welfare buildings and affordable housing will be mandatory green buildings. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, new buildings are expected to be mandatory to meet at least one-star green building standards. Green buildings are developing from individual buildings to regions; from cities to villages and towns; from products to industries.

From Green Buildings to Ecological Cities

Green ecological cities are the inevitable result of the scaled development of green buildings, and green buildings are the best starting point for the development of green ecological cities. Currently, China's green ecological city development is still in its infancy. Although some achievements have been made, many problems have also emerged. The development of green ecological cities requires systematic design—building target, technology, policy, and demonstration systems. At this stage, the Chinese government has also introduced some favorable policies for the development of green ecological cities from the financial policy aspect. For example, the solar rooftop plan: key equipment is subsidized proportionally, and other costs are subsidized at fixed amounts; existing building energy efficiency renovation subsidies: 55 yuan/square meter in severe cold regions, 45 yuan/square meter in cold regions; energy efficiency renovation and monitoring of large public buildings: 20 yuan/square meter; smart city pilots: the Ministry of Construction and the China Development Bank cooperated to invest a total of 80 billion yuan over three years, etc.

Reflections on Green Development Principles

Finally, Li Xun talked about reflections on green development. He believes that green development is both a goal and a process. In green development, concepts are more important than technology, mechanisms are more important than goals, and standards are more important than models. Green development is a systematic project that requires the support of complex ecology theory. Green development should be based on the principles of localization, forward-lookingness, and operability. Green development requires the joint promotion of multiple subjects. Green development requires timely evaluation to avoid losing more than gaining and going against one's wishes.