Creating Green Boutique Buildings
Create a healthy living environment decoration
BLOG
Green regulations achieve green buildings
2019-11-26
Determining whether a building is a green building and whether it is energy-saving and environmentally friendly is not up to you or me; it requires certain standards for judgment. Currently, the country has issued a series of policy standards for the development of green buildings. However, whether these policies and standards can comprehensively and accurately determine green buildings, and whether all aspects are complete, requires our in-depth discussion.
Determining whether a building is a green building and whether it is energy-saving and environmentally friendly is not up to you or me; it requires certain standards for judgment. Currently, the country has issued a series of policy standards for the development of green buildings. However, whether these policies and standards can comprehensively and accurately determine green buildings and whether all aspects are complete requires in-depth discussion.
At present, China is in a historical period of rapid industrialization, urbanization, and new rural construction. Deepening building energy conservation and accelerating the development of green buildings face a rare historical opportunity. To this end, the country has issued a series of policies and regulations to vigorously promote the development of green buildings in China. However, the growth mode of urban and rural construction in China is still extensive, with low development quality and efficiency. The problems of high energy consumption and low utilization efficiency during building construction and use are prominent, and the development of green buildings still faces various difficulties.
In the relevant national policies and standards, clear regulations have been made on the tasks and target parameters for green buildings at various stages. However, during the actual implementation process, many problems have arisen: some developers falsify information to meet green building rating requirements; others mismanage during actual operation, causing green buildings to no longer be "green." Numerous violations have challenged the authority of green building standards.
The "Invisible Killer" Under the Standards
The "Green Building Evaluation Standard" (hereinafter referred to as the "Standard") defines green buildings as buildings that, throughout their entire life cycle, maximize resource savings (energy, land, water, materials), protect the environment and reduce pollution, provide healthy, suitable, and efficient use spaces for people, and coexist harmoniously with nature.
The green building evaluation indicator system established in the "Standard" consists of six categories: land saving and outdoor environment, energy saving and energy utilization, water saving and water resource utilization, material saving and material resource utilization, indoor environmental quality, and operation management (for residential buildings) or comprehensive life cycle performance (for public buildings). Each category includes control items, general items, and preferred items. Green buildings are classified into levels based on the number of items achieved.
The "Standard" provides very detailed classifications for green building levels, but in practice, some developers falsify information to obtain higher ratings and attempt to pass by deception. When constructing buildings, developers add some unnecessary items to meet the number of projects required for the evaluation level. For example, a building that does not involve the use of wind energy or other renewable energy technologies may include this item during construction to achieve or obtain a higher evaluation level. However, in actual use, this technology is rarely or never used, which is a significant waste and contradicts the original intention of green buildings.
On May 6, 2012, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Green Buildings in China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), clearly stating that through establishing financial incentive mechanisms, improving standards and evaluation labeling systems, promoting related technological progress and industrial development, green buildings should account for more than 30% of new buildings by 2020. The "Opinions" also proposed that by 2020, building energy consumption levels should be raised to near or reach the current levels of developed countries, guiding the priority development of green buildings in affordable housing and public welfare sectors. It aimed for all government-invested public welfare buildings and affordable housing to fully implement green building standards by 2014, and for the newly added green building area to exceed 100 million square meters by 2015.
Currently, China has more than 3 billion square meters of new and ongoing construction projects annually. To build each project, building complex, and urban cluster well, good overall planning and architectural schemes are necessary, along with strong policy support. The issuance of the "Opinions" is precisely the policy that guarantees the achievement of these goals. We believe the goals proposed in the "Opinions" can be fully achieved. However, we should not only look at the surface but also focus on quality and pay attention to whether the buildings constructed are green buildings at the initial completion stage or throughout their entire life cycle.
Academician Jiang Yi of the Chinese Academy of Engineering has repeatedly criticized "pseudo-green buildings." He stated that many buildings in China that use a large number of energy-saving technologies are not energy-saving; their energy consumption is even higher than the average level. He pointed out a major misconception in the building energy-saving market: using energy-saving technology does not necessarily save energy. In fact, different usage patterns require different building technologies. Energy-saving buildings may not save energy due to improper operation and maintenance, and in fact, improper operation and management are common in China's green buildings. According to relevant sources, only 6% of buildings with green building labels in China have truly achieved green operation, which is a serious problem.
These violations are like "invisible killers" hidden under the standards, inadvertently damaging the fairness and authority of the standards and affecting the healthy development of China's green building market.
Multiple Policies Safeguard Green Buildings
Since the introduction of the concept of green buildings, relevant laws and policies have laid the foundation for green building standards. The preliminary establishment of the legal and regulatory system includes the successive introduction and implementation of laws and regulations such as the "Energy Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China," "Regulations on Energy Conservation in Civil Buildings," and "Regulations on Energy Conservation in Public Institutions," providing legal protection for the development of green buildings.
At the same time, the green building standard system was initially established. Technical standards and specifications such as the "Green Building Technical Guidelines," "Construction Quality Acceptance Specifications for Building Energy Conservation Projects," "Green Building Evaluation Standard," "Management Measures for Green Building Evaluation Labels," "Technical Rules for Green Building Evaluation," "Supplementary Instructions for Technical Rules for Green Building Evaluation (Planning and Design Part)," and "Supplementary Instructions for Technical Rules for Green Building Evaluation (Operation and Use Part)" were successively issued. The green building evaluation labeling system was established, and green building evaluation work was officially launched, ending the history of relying on foreign standards for green building evaluation in China.
Since 2005, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, together with relevant ministries, has held the International Green Building and Building Energy Conservation Conference and New Technologies and Products Expo annually to exchange and showcase the latest achievements, development trends, and successful cases of green buildings and building energy conservation at home and abroad. The conference discusses green building and building energy conservation technical standards, policy measures, evaluation systems, and testing labels, shares new experiences in developing green buildings and building energy conservation internationally and domestically, and promotes the in-depth development of green buildings and building energy conservation in China. The conference has become a platform for promoting green building development, disseminating and exchanging new technologies, products, and experiences, and strengthening international cooperation.
The release of the "Opinions" will play a greater positive role in the development of green buildings in China. It can be said that it points the way for the development of China's green building market.
With the guarantee of policies and standards, facing various problems in the development of the green building market, what we need to do is to find the root causes of the problems, strengthen supervision, further improve relevant policies and standards, expose violations, and bring them under legal scrutiny. This requires joint efforts from all parties.
First, relevant ministries and commissions should continue to improve relevant policies and standards, reflecting the vigorous development of green buildings, making supplementary requirements for building energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, and environmental protection, and adding provisions for rewards and punishments. The enforcement of energy-saving standards for new buildings should be strengthened. Government-invested buildings that meet certain conditions should be required to comply with green building evaluation standards to play a demonstrative role for the government, enhance the social influence of green buildings, and provide better leadership.
In addition, establishing effective incentive policies is also an important part. It is urgent to improve various fiscal and tax incentive policies. Local governments should also improve local green building standards systems according to their actual conditions, adapting standards to local characteristics.
Besides government departments, industry associations and energy-saving service companies should also fully play their roles, supervising violations or behaviors that do not meet relevant construction standards in the green building market, ensuring that green buildings meet green standards, and promoting the rapid and healthy development of the green building market.
Although there are various shortcomings in the green building market, they cannot hinder the overall trend of its forward development. In the development process of the green building market, policies and standards have played an important role and are key factors in ensuring the orderly development of the green building market. Therefore, in the future, we hope that relevant standards can play a greater role, allowing green regulations to foster the green building market.
