Starting this year, Zhuhai will fully enforce green building standards for all newly constructed civil buildings. According to the new regulations, 100% of new civil buildings in Zhuhai must comply with green building standards. This means that large public buildings and government-funded projects that do not meet these standards will fail the construction drawing review process.
Green buildings are becoming a driving trend in the construction industry. At the recent 12th International Conference on Green Building and Building Energy Efficiency and New Technology and Product Expo, Wang Qingqin, Vice President of the China Academy of Building Research, highlighted the rapid growth of green building projects in China. In 2009, there were only 20 green building projects, but by the end of 2015, this number had surged to 3,799 projects, covering a total area of 490 million square meters.
While green buildings have long been popular in Western countries, China is still at the early stages of exploring energy-saving, low-carbon, and even zero-carbon building designs. Numerous evaluation standards for green buildings have emerged recently, but widespread implementation is just beginning.
Timely Promotion
Building energy consumption has now become one of the three major energy consumers, alongside industry and transportation. The “2013-2017 Analysis Report on Market Prospects and Investment Strategy Planning of China’s Intelligent Building Industry” by the Forward-looking Industry Research Institute shows that building energy consumption in China continues to rise annually, reaching 27.45% of total energy use, and approaching 30%. With rapid urbanization and improving living standards, this figure is expected to climb to around 35%.
If this trend persists, by 2020, China’s building energy consumption will reach 108.9 billion tons of standard coal equivalent. The peak summer air conditioning load will match the full capacity of ten Three Gorges power stations—a staggering amount.
Currently, China’s construction industry still relies on traditional extensive production methods, making building energy consumption a critical weakness in the country’s economic development. This year’s government work report emphasizes active promotion of green buildings and green building materials. Addressing high energy consumption in construction is urgent, and green buildings hold promising market potential.
“Green and intelligent buildings are key to sustainable urban development,” said Shao Kangwen, General Manager of Siemens Building Technologies Group, in an interview with China Science Daily. “Future buildings won’t just meet people’s needs for comfort and economy—they will also maximize environmental friendliness, energy savings, and efficiency.”
“We should no longer pursue ‘eccentric’ or ‘high-profile’ buildings,” said Jiang Yi, Director of the Building Energy Efficiency Research Center at Tsinghua University and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Speaking at the 2016 Intelligent Building Industry Development Summit Forum, he emphasized that buildings should focus on green principles—saving energy, land, materials, and water while providing high-quality indoor environments.
True “greenness” in buildings goes beyond rooftop gardens or superficial landscaping. It involves integrating green concepts throughout the building design and operation to harmonize with the ecosystem. Such buildings minimize environmental harm, make full use of natural resources, and maintain ecological balance.
Since around 2008, China has developed green building evaluation systems and begun certifying projects that meet these standards. As this work deepens, more construction projects are being recognized as green buildings. Jiang Yi predicts that by 2020, half of all new urban constructions in China will be green buildings, with energy efficiency improvements exceeding 20%. The green building movement is clearly gaining momentum.
Achieving Green Goals
John S. Rahaim, Director of the San Francisco Department of Construction, shared that the U.S. government promotes green buildings through three main strategies: efficiency, regulation, and incentives. San Francisco’s experience in these areas offers valuable lessons.
In San Francisco, the government actively promotes renewable energy use in buildings, encourages green retrofits of existing structures, supports water recycling, and mandates green features or solar panels on all buildings.
Additionally, San Francisco enforces strict regulations on construction waste management, with 80% of local waste diverted from landfills. The city also uses incentive mechanisms to guide regional planning, favoring high-density developments in well-connected transit areas.
Looking ahead, Chen Yiming, Chief Engineer at China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, identified two key future priorities for China’s green building industry: developing a comprehensive theoretical framework for green buildings and fostering collaboration across the sector.
Chen noted that China has already established a robust green building evaluation system. Since 2015, the updated “Green Building Evaluation Standards” have been implemented nationwide, with provinces adopting standards aligned with the national framework. China has also built effective management mechanisms and significantly expanded its talent pool—from a few hundred professionals over a decade ago to tens of thousands today—covering consulting, design, construction, property management, and supervision.
Minister Chen Zhenggao emphasized that green development must focus on both construction and usage phases. During construction, this means applying green building materials and promoting prefabricated, factory-built components. Prefabrication saves energy, reduces pollution, and lowers costs. Chen projected breakthrough progress in promoting prefabricated buildings in 2016, aiming for full-scale adoption.
Shao Kangwen added that green development during building use involves energy analysis, system upgrades, and management to optimize energy efficiency, unlock savings potential, reduce costs, and achieve the best system performance and lifecycle cost-effectiveness.
Qiu Baoxing, Chairman of the China Urban Science Research Association, offered a practical suggestion: replace “shantytown renovation” with “green transformation.” This approach not only saves energy and cuts emissions but also improves residents’ quality of life.
Approximately half of China’s 40 billion square meters of existing urban buildings require green retrofits, including earthquake resistance, energy efficiency, aging adaptation, and water conservation. This will create new investment demand estimated at about 15 trillion yuan. Qiu said the future of green buildings will shift from individual structures to clusters, emphasizing durability, health, ultra-low energy consumption, aesthetics, and human-centered design.
Harnessing Big Data
As informatization, industrialization, urbanization, and traditional industries converge, the “intelligence” of green buildings is emerging. Integrating big data and other IT technologies into green buildings will enable more effective energy conservation.
In the U.S., innovative companies have created detailed energy consumption charts for buildings, displaying data hourly over a full year. These charts guide targeted energy-saving renovations. Many firms also use big data for remote energy analysis, allowing experts to diagnose buildings’ energy use without on-site visits.
Washington, D.C., was the first city to publicly disclose building energy consumption and publish real-time operational data for all government buildings, hospitals, prisons, schools, and more on its website. In contrast, most of China’s thousands of certified green buildings only have energy consumption data from the design stage, with little information on actual operational performance.
“Maximizing building efficiency throughout their service life is critical,” said Shao Kangwen, especially as China’s urbanization accelerates and many new buildings come online.
Jiang Yi explained that green buildings shouldn’t be judged solely based on design documents or reputation. Instead, after one or two years of operation, performance indicators such as electricity consumption and occupant comfort should be assessed to provide a clear evaluation. This approach will simplify green building certification and promote more energy-efficient buildings.
Previously, technological limitations made data collection and quantitative energy management difficult. Now, with advances in big data, buildings and cities can be digitized, enabling detailed analysis and management on digital platforms, making urban environments more efficient.
“We must leverage digital technologies to quantify city and building data for clearer management,” Jiang Yi stated. Industry experts also believe that integrating the Internet with traditional industries will foster innovative building energy conservation models. If the construction sector embraces Internet big data through data sharing and transparency, it will create significant breakthroughs.
During China’s 13th Five-Year Plan period, big data technologies will be increasingly applied to urban planning, management, and operations, focusing on data modeling, databases, and data mining.
Shao Kangwen also highlighted that building automation and intelligent technologies can upgrade energy systems, delivering substantial economic and environmental benefits in both new constructions and renovations, thereby supporting sustainable urban development.
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