Abstract
Low carbon policies, including those aimed at increasing water efficiency, have been adopted as a crucial strategy for combating global warming and climate change. The green building evaluation system used in Taiwan was first applied in 1999 and initially utilized a building’s water efficiency as the threshold index for determining the building’s environmental impact. Since 1999, more than a thousand buildings have been certified as green buildings using this evaluation system. The quantitative effects of water conservation efforts should be provided to policy makers as a form of positive feedback. To that end, the present study offers a calculation process for estimating the quantitative volume of water saved by practical green buildings. The baseline water usage for all kinds of buildings was determined to serve as the criterion for determining the water-saving efficiency of individual buildings. An investigation of the average water-saving rate from 2000 to 2013 for 1320 buildings certified as green buildings was also conducted to validate the estimation results and found that these green buildings saved an average of approximately 37.6% compared to the baseline water usage rate for all buildings. Water savings will inevitably follow from the use of water-saving appliances or water-saving designs for buildings. The proposed calculation process can be used to clarify the relationships between specific water-saving concepts and the real water usage efficiency of green buildings.
Highlights
The mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions and other goals of sustainable development have become important issues for many countries around the world [1,2,3]
This study focused on the water conservation measures for green buildings in Taiwan with the aim of providing a quantitative procedure for proving water-saving efficiency [7]
A quantitative estimation model for water savings was established in order to evaluate the water efficiency performance of the green building certification system in Taiwan
Summary
The mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions and other goals of sustainable development have become important issues for many countries around the world [1,2,3]. Amongst the various environmental issues, water conservation is one of the most critical global problems and one which is only increasing in importance with continuing population growth and the effects of global warming [4]. Water shortages have recently become a critical problem during the dry season. The heavy demand for domestic water use in municipal areas, as well as the difficulties associated with building new reservoirs, are critical factors [5]. Given such challenges, various government agencies in countries around the world are endeavoring to spread the concept of water conservation among their populaces
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