In April 2012, The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) jointly released a document entitled, “Implementation of Opinions on Accelerating Promotion of Green Building Development,” which is the first time that the Chinese government has set green building goals. Their target is to have certified green building account for more than 30 percent of all new construction projects by 2020. In order to achieve that goal, the government is stepping up incentives for green buildings, improving industry standards and promoting technological improvements. In 2012, the subsidy for certified green buildings is 45 RMB per square meter for a 2-Star green building (under the China 3-Star certification system), and 80 RMB per square meter for a 3-Star green building.

In May 2012, MOHURD published the 12th Five-Year Plan on Building Energy Savings, which targets energy savings of 16 million tons of standard coal including 45 million tons from developing green buildings, 27 million tons from retrofitting existing buildings in Northern heating areas, 14 million tons from improving public building energy efficiency supervision systems, and 30 million tons in building-integrated photovoltaics.

Local governments have also published incentives and policies to promote green building and building energy savings. From Sep 2012, Shanghai started providing subsidies of 60 RMB per square meter for 2-Star certified green buildings and above, up to 6 million RMB ($944,286) for each construction project and 10 million RMB for each affordable housing project. In Xiamen and Fuzhou, the provincial government’s investments in affordable housing projects will fully implement green building standards starting from 2014.

“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” – Lord Kelvin

It has become more or less a general consensus that building energy efficiency is one of the best forms of renewable energy. Improvement of energy efficiency in buildings usually requires the following steps prior to any actual implementation works: measuring where a building stands in terms of energy efficiency, reporting measurement results using a recognized protocol, benchmarking performance against comparable buildings and assets, and setting realistic targets for improvement.

Measurement and reporting thus set the cornerstone for all other efforts that lead to the final realization of improved energy efficiency. Those who can foresee the benefits of efficiency gains may take initiatives, but not everyone has this foresight and not having a clear picture of the current status or how their buildings compare with the peer group usually means business as usual and missing opportunities with good payback.

Governments do have a role to play. Many governments and statutory boards across the region, such as Australia and Singapore, have been actively promoting measurement and reporting of building energy use and developing benchmarks for fair comparison. Once these first steps are done, whether voluntarily or as part of a mandatory requirement, there will be better visibility of what is achievable and building owners are more willing to adopt energy conservation initiatives.

Decoupling economic growth with increase of energy use has been a key problem China is trying to figure out a solution for, and new policies and standards rolled out in the first decade of this century have already seen good rewards. Two of the latest efforts to rein in the growth of building energy use are from the municipal governments of the largest cities in the country. The mechanisms are different in Beijing and Shanghai, but both schemes target the thousands of largest institutional and commercial buildings by setting up platforms and mandating facility and system level energy data reporting. It is also speculated by some that once they are up and running some form of energy/carbon trading scheme may follow that uses penalties collected from the worst performing buildings to reward the best performer, so as to create a self-sustained incentive for continuous improvement.

The LEED system was introduced into China in 2001, and has had a rapid increase in adoption in the last 5 years. However, LEED faces localization and policy challenges under the complexity of the real estate market in China. The China Green Building Label is gaining attention from clients and developers, Chinese professionals and researchers argue about the practical effects of LEED standards, and market noise about “Green” and “Certification” has caused some confusion. Meanwhile, due to the lack of data transparency and high standards in operations management, some LEED certified projects exhibit similar performance to projects without such certification. All of these factors could severely affect the future promotion of LEED in China.

On the other hand, Chinese government bodies have put an unprecedented emphasis on green building and energy saving developments in the 12^th-Five Year Plan. Considering the limited natural resources and huge population in China, the country could face a huge energy shortage in the future. Furthermore, changing consumption viewpoints and accumulated wealth will further stimulate and support the increasing demand for healthy and sustainable homes in China.

Therefore, it’s expected that we will see a market with two green building labels in China in a short period. The one which lasts longer will be the one which can capture the market trend and improve the system intrinsically.  Even though the government is controlling the housing market, green buildings could have a tax reduction or exemption from personal purchase limitations in order to promote this new strategic industry. The coming 18^th CPC National Congress will shed some light on the future roadmap.

In his opening address at the International Facility Management Association World Workplace Asia Conference, guest of honor Dr. Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Defense and National Development announced a new Singapore Government subsidy for retrofitting of buildings that are Green Mark compliant. Starting July 26th, the Government increased the subsidy from 35% to 50% of total capex cost for building retrofits, depending on the level of certification achieved. The Government will also co-fund those costs, including consulting costs and hard costs.

Singapore’s target is for 80% of total building stock to be Green Mark certified by 2030 – one of the more ambitious green building targets in the world. That target, along with previous Government regulations and initiatives, has made Singapore globally known as the leader in green building thought leadership.

With this new subsidy program, as well as some new regulations such for buildings to have three annual audits and a requirement for utility companies to submit building data, Singapore is quickly positioning itself as the trailblazer in green buildings in the world.

As China urbanizes at an unprecedented rate, the need for strong environmental and sustainability measures is at the forefront of urban planning. Throughout China, zero emission, low noise electric bicycles and scooters are enormously popular and inexpensive and a complete contrast to the noisy fume emitting and inefficient two-stroke pedicabs and motorbikes prevalent in most Asian cities.  Whilst the industry is heavily reliant on coal, residential consumption of coke for heating and cooking, a major contributor to poor urban air quality has dramatically reduced and low tech low cost biogas units are increasingly adopted by rural households.  Public and non-motorised transport usage is amongst the highest in the world, with efficient mass transit systems being rapidly rolled out across many of China’s cities from Chengduto Dalian. 

At the same time, local initiatives to create parklands, relocate industry, restore waterways with riverside parks and promenades, pedestrianize streets and revitalize heritage districts are popular features of cities from Shanghaito Tianjin, ChengdutoZhengzhou. Solar water-heating, solar street lighting and even solar kettles are ubiquitous in parts of China, with the country’s per capita residential energy consumption less than 30% of that the US and 35% of the UK’s.

Neighbourhood planning ensures that areas are well served by public transport and social infrastructure, with ample provision for local business and amenities. Initiatives ranging from electric capacitor buses to mandated low energy light bulbs are helping make Chinese cities sustainable from both an environmental and societal perspective. 

In many of these areas,China’s ability to innovate, improvise and particularly to implement is enabling it to respond to the unprecedented challenges of its relentless urbanization, building communities which are sustainable with Chinese characteristics.