Chinese Green Building Research Articles

BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON GREEN BUILDING ASSESSMENT METHOD BY CITESPACE AND HISTCITE

Numerous qualitative review studies have been conducted to enhance the understanding of current research status of green buildings (GBs). Green building assessment methods (GBAMs) are crucial to the development of GBs and relevant research works has received wide attention. However, there are very few reviews to quantitively explore these studies. Therefore, this paper aims to systematically review literatures on GBAMs, and visually analyzes them through CiteSpace and HistCite. The article identified the most influential journals, contributors, representative institutions and regions. The knowledge bases of this area focus on “triple bottom line”, “indicator”, “building design”, “life cycle costing”, “life cycle sustainability assessment”, “tropical climate”, “building information modelling” and “Chinese green building label”. Through citation analysis, “updating existing GBAMs by scheme comparison”, “updating existing GBAMs by GB case analysis”, “establishment of new GBAMs” and “incorporation of BIM in GBAMs” were found as the main research themes. “Design”, “LCA”, “model”, “energy”, “management”, “residential buildings” and “office buildings” are high-frequency keywords. Future research directions were finally proposed as “more investigation on the other types of GBs”, “incorporation of cost-related criteria”, “enhancing health-related indicators” and“integrating with BIM technology”. The results could provide a useful reference to industry practitioners and scholars interested in GBAMs.

A comparative analysis of Chinese green building policies from the central and local perspectives using LDA and SNA

ABSTRACT China’s construction, energy consumption, and emissions are the world’s largest, making green building (GB) crucial for sustainable development and climate action. GB policies play a crucial role in promoting sustainable development and mitigating environmental impacts. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of China’s GB policies at both central and local levels using natural language processing (NLP), Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and semantic network analysis (SNA). It also integrates three theoretical frameworks: Policy Implementation Theory, Sustainable Development Theory, and Innovation Diffusion Theory. The study aims to: (1) compare the characteristics of central and local GB policies; (2) identify problems and propose solutions to improve policy effects and impacts. The results show that both levels of policies cover various sustainability aspects but with different focuses. The SNA reveals the semantic relationships and differences within the policy documents. The study suggests several strategies to enhance GB policy effectiveness and sustainability, based on the three theoretical frameworks. These strategies include providing more specific guidance, enhancing financial support and incentives, promoting technological advancements, strengthening monitoring and evaluation, adopting a more systematic approach, democratizing policy formulation, identifying key stakeholders and influencers, and considering innovation characteristics. This study contributes to the GB policy research and practice in China. It is also the first study to use NLP, LDA, and SNA to comprehensively analyze China’s GB policies, and the first study to apply the three theoretical frameworks to GB policy analysis.

Obstacles to green building accreditation during operating phases: identifying Challenges and solutions for sustainable development

ABSTRACT Due to environmental benefits, green architecture has become increasingly popular, but many green building assessment systems predominantly evaluate design and construction rather than operational stage. This study seeks to identify the impediments to green building accreditation during the operational phases and investigate potential solutions to these issues. To reach this objective, the study compared international green building standards such as LEED, BREEAM, and Green Star with Chinese green building evaluation guidelines. The study also included functional case studies of certified buildings in order to investigate the obstacles encountered by green building initiatives in greater depth. According to the study, the greatest obstacles to green building accreditation during operating phases are inconsistencies in government regulations, market constraints that impede the developers’ interests, and difficulties in meeting technological criteria. These findings emphasize the imperative need for policymakers, market participants, and technology developers to collaborate and resolve the identified challenges in order to ensure the longevity of green buildings. Overall, this study contributes to the expanding corpus of knowledge on green building practices and offers stakeholders insights to facilitate the development of sustainable structures. By addressing the identified obstacles, the study can maximize the benefits of green buildings and promote eco-friendly building practices.

A BIM–LCA Approach for the Whole Design Process of Green Buildings in the Chinese Context

The integrated description of the building geometry and the element attributes of the building information model (BIM) can reduce the effort needed to acquire data for life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) at each design stage while supporting their potential for analyzing life cycle performances and feeding back to the design process. To support this, several methods and tools have been proposed that aim to obtain the life cycle performances of buildings following the level of model fidelity with the life cycle inventory (LCI) database at different scales. However, inconsistencies in decision-making caused by regional differences in LCA/LCC data sources, benchmarks, and building standards cannot be ignored. In this study, a scalable LCA/LCC method integrated with the BIM platform is proposed for the whole green building design process in the Chinese context, and it is implemented with a developed tool based on Revit. A national-/regional-specified database of building elements and materials is established. Referring to China’s carbon-neutral target and relevant standards for green buildings, the baseline values are deduced, and a reference building is defined accordingly to facilitate the evaluation and improvement of the design scheme. According to the Assessment Standard for Green Building (GB50378-2019) and the survey of architectural design practices in China, the key parameters at different design stages are defined. The method and tool are demonstrated using the case study of a school building, analyzing its life cycle carbon emissions and life cycle costs throughout the design process. The results show that the proposed method can facilitate the improvement of the scheme at different design stages and that it can cope with different data accuracies and different LODs in the building information model in the Chinese green building design process. Lastly, the uncertainties raised by the data quality and time-associated factors are discussed.

Internationalisation of Chinese green buildings: Review and prospect

<p indent="0mm">The internationalisation of Chinese green buildings is still in its early stages, with a scarcity of relevant research, academic outcomes and engineering practices. This paper aims to review and summarise the situation in China’s green building sector, propose the topic of “internationalisation of Chinese green buildings”, investigate its definition, sort out its causes, analyse the significance and inevitability, and provide theoretical foundations and recommendations for future development. Following a review, the exploration of the internationalisation of China’s green buildings has yielded certain results, and the conditions are favourable. There have been four overseas projects for certification and implementation of Chinese green building standards. China’s Green Building standards are world-leading. Research institutions collaborate extensively with foreign countries and export Chinese solutions. The domestic business environment is being optimised for green buildings, resulting in a booming local market. Moreover, the internationalisation work of China’s construction industry in the 13th Five-Year Summary concludes that international science and technology cooperation has been steadily promoted, the ‘Belt and Road’ science and technology innovation cooperation has been effective, and the internationalisation of China’s engineering construction standards has been promoted. The maturity of the conditions for China’s green building industry to expand internationally includes the perfection of the policy environment, the advantages of industrial scale, and the completion of domestic goals. It also includes the industry’s predicament and the inevitability of internationalisation. The first reason is that domestic opportunities have diminished, and challenges have increased. The second reason is a decrease in domestic real estate market demand. The third reason is the depletion of the supply-side technology and innovation model. The world’s green building market is large in scale and high in growth rate. China’s engineering enterprises can take advantage of the massive radiation effect of the “Belt and Road” initiative to enter the market covered, and these regions generally have low urbanisation rates and high construction potential. The global efforts to improve human settlements and mitigate climate change are also favourable factors. After discussion, internationalisation appears to be the most promising opportunity for the future of China’s construction industry, both in high-quality development and business growth. The internationalisation model of the Chinese green building industry is the sum of the globalisation of domestic green building companies and the greening of Chinese construction and engineering companies that are already overseas. It will emerge from a development model with Chinese characteristics via a model that combines local and overseas. The path to the internationalisation of Chinese green buildings may be as follows: Combining domestic and overseas engineering and technical strength, relying on the massive domestic market to form a huge industrial scale and robust productivity, undertaking the “Belt and Road” countries’ urbanisation needs, and then promoting the development of international standards through the “go out and bring in” formation of multilateralism transnational cooperation, and ultimately driving the entire industry chain.

The Green Building Development and Assessment Method – Energy and Cost Analysis in China

With the aggravation of global warming in the world, China is a country that produces a large amount of carbon dioxide every year. The development of green buildings is a primal aspect that the Chinese government has worked for many decades to build a healthy environment. This study explores three major Chinese green building assessment methods and compares the Evaluation Standard for Green buildings (three-star standard) with other countries’ representative assessment methods, which indicates that the three-star standard puts more attention on qualitative indicators. So, many buildings which receive that certification does not really have much sustainable equipment or save much energy. Also, this paper researches the status of green buildings in China. There are not many developers investing in green buildings, due to the price of green building construction is much more expensive than conventional buildings. That is because those green buildings equip many sustainable technologies and equipment. To encourage the construction of green buildings, the government can enact regulations and incentives to encourage more companies and developers to build green buildings.

The impact of psychological capital on green and organizational performance: Empirical research measuring psychological and subjective health of green building industries.

Green building (GB) technologies have been introduced to reduce the negative effect of the building and construction industry on the economy, the ecosystem, and society. A more thorough and accurate knowledge of the factors for implementation is required to stimulate the wider adoption of GB technologies. The theoretical framework for this study is developed using psychological capital (PC), self-determination theory (SDT), and green theory. The study addresses gaps in the research in this field. The effect of PC on psychological health (PH), green innovation ambidexterity (GIA), and subjective health (SH), and the impact of GIA on green performance (GP) are determined. The effect of PH and SH on organizational performance (OP) is also determined. The information for this study is collected from a variety of sources in the Chinese GB industry. The subjects for this study are Chinese employees of GB-based companies. Using a convenience sampling method, a total of 504 employees were selected. The employees' answers to a restricted, self-administered survey are used to generate the data. Data from this study shows that PC has a significant effect on GIA, SH, and PH and that GIA has a substantial impact on GP. Both SH and PH significantly affect OP. This study encourages managers in the green building industry to support fresh concepts in order to gain a competitive edge by implementing and promoting innovative cultures, especially in terms of service delivery and customer understanding, because innovation plays a critical role in these industries.

Comparative Analysis of German Dgnb and Chinese Green Building Evaluation Standards

With the concept of sustainable development being promoted all over the world, green building, as one of the necessary ways to achieve sustainable development, has been carried out by more and more countries, and a series of evaluation standards related to green building have been introduced. This paper makes a brief introduction and comparative analysis of some typical green building evaluation codes in the world. On the basis of the German DGNB algorithm on the full life cycle cost of green buildings, combined with the actual situation of China, this paper puts forward the algorithm of the full life cycle cost of green buildings suitable for China, and carries out analysis and verification, so as to provide reference for improving the evaluation criterion of green buildings in China.

RESALE OF GREEN HOUSING COMPENSATES FOR ITS PREMIUM PRICING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF CHINA

ABSTRACT Green housing reduces resource consumption and protects the ecological environment. Sustainable buildings and construction have gained increasing attention in the last decade. Many empirical studies have confirmed that green housing imposes a price premium at the presale stage. The high price could be a concern that prevents homebuyers from purchasing green buildings. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on whether the premium pricing could be compensated for by the resale price. To address this gap, this study establishes a hedonic regression model to estimate the price premium of green housing at the resale stage. The results show that green housing certified with the Chinese Green Building Label (CGBL) offers a 6% price premium compared with non-green housing at the resale stage. The results also show that green housing with a higher level of green certification, e.g., the 3-star CGBL, provides a greater price premium at resale. The findings indicate that home-buyers can obtain financial compensation for the high cost when purchasing a green home. Our findings also indicate that the price premium for reselling a green home is not always enough to compensate for the purchase cost in different cities. Policy recommendations for government promotion of green housing are also discussed.

Competing or complementary labels? Estimating spillovers in Chinese green building certification

AbstractResearch summaryMany markets have multiple voluntary certification programs that sellers use to signal product or organizational quality. We argue that there can be positive spillovers in adoption of “competing” certifications and propose a framework for understanding how such spillovers arise through three channels: suppliers, adopters, and users of various labels. Our empirical analysis demonstrates these effects in the context of Chinese green‐building certification. Specifically, we measure spillovers from adoption of the Chinese Green Building Evaluation Label (GBEL) to adoption of the alternative LEED standard within the same city. To isolate the causal impact of GBEL on LEED adoption, we use local government subsidies as an instrumental variable. We find evidence of market‐level spillovers through the supplier and user channels, but little evidence of building‐level scope economies.Managerial summaryMany markets have several voluntary certification programs that sellers can use to signal product or organizational quality. Although many scholars emphasize the potential for competition between labels, we argue that there can be positive spillovers in adoption of “competing” certification schemes and propose a framework for understanding how those spillovers arise through three channels: suppliers, adopters, and audience. Managers of nascent certification programs can use this framework as a roadmap for attracting various stakeholder groups. We use our framework to analyze the diffusion of Chinese green‐building labels and find evidence of large positive spillovers through the supplier and audience channels. These results suggest that the risks of tipping toward a single standard may be small in practice.

Impacts of supply-sided and demand-sided policies on innovation in green building technologies: A case study of China

It is universal that the government widely adopts policy incentives to promote green building innovation. Comprehensively evaluating the effect of green building innovation policies is of great significance to green buildings’ development. But there seem to be no studies developing quantitative models to explain the effects of different types of policies on green building innovation. This research sorts out the Chinese provincial green building policies and divides these policies into supply-sided and demand-sided to fill this gap. The difference-in-differences method is constructed to explore the innovative effects of different policies using China’s provincial panel data from 2010 to 2018. This study found that: (1) supply-sided policies can promote the innovation and development of green building technology; (2) demand-sided policies have not significantly stimulated innovation; and (3) infrastructure fee and priority in building award boost technology innovation hugely. This study verifies the difference in the impact of supply-sided and demand-sided green building policies on technological innovation and points out the two most significant supply-sided policies with the best incentive effects. These findings can help the government choose effective incentive policies and promote green buildings and sustainability in the construction industry.

Performance evaluation of climate-adaptive natural ventilation design: A case study of semi-open public cultural building

Naturally ventilated buildings play a vital role in mitigating climate change since they produce lower CO2 emissions compared to mechanically ventilated alternatives. Also, occupants have better experiences in naturally ventilated buildings than in mechanically ventilated buildings. However, the application of natural ventilation design is often hindered by extreme weather conditions. To cope with such problems, this paper proposes climate adaptive natural ventilation designs which utilize and adapt to the local climate. The ventilation performance of this design is quantitatively evaluated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The CFD simulation is first validated against experiments and then utilized to reproduce the wind flow inside the building for all four seasons. The evaluation parameters include air changes per hour (ACH), wind speed at the pedestrian level and wind flow patterns indoors. Results showed that this climate adaptive natural ventilation meets the requirements of the Chinese green building assessment standards (GB/T50378-2019) with the highest ACH value of up to 15.8 times per hour. Furthermore, the wind speed at pedestrian level varies from 0.08 m/s to 0.39 m/s. The practice and findings reported in this paper can be useful for future development of sustainable, climate-adaptive buildings.

Review of Indoor Environmental Quality Evaluation Index Based on Regional Climate Connected Green Building

This article will review and analyses the indoor environment quality indicators in the existing green building rating system, both foreign and Chinese green building standards. Based on the relevance of ‘human climate architecture’, the indoor environment quality indicators which are intuitively perceivable, health related and connected to regions and climates will be sorted out, to establish the foundation for further indoor environmental quality index classification research.

Current Situation and Development of Green Building Rating System in Myanmar

Since 2016 Myanmar has undergone political and economic reforms. A movement to develop the country with economic growth is a significant matter for the country. In Myanmar, the construction sector is a main driving force for the country’s economy in terms of investments and job opportunities of citizens. Electricity used for the construction industry leads to the insufficient energy output of the country. Moreover, waste and pollution are inevitable as a result of Myanmar’s economic growth. Green building development in Myanmar is in its initial stage but currently lacks governmental, or voluntary support to devise appropriate rules and regulations for green construction. In particular, the lack of awareness among developers, stakeholders, architects, engineers, contractors, employees and the public about green building has worsened the development progress. This paper reveals why green building development is needed in Myanmar and provides an overview of the current level of green growth in Myanmar. In addition, this paper compares widely used seven existing environmental assessment tools around the world – LEED, BREEAM, Green Mark, Green Star, Three Star – Chinese Green Building Label-3, CASBEE, and HQE as references for the development of green building rating tool with the view to identify aspects that are compatible with the local conditions of Myanmar.

Indoor thermal environmental evaluation of Chinese green building based on new index OTCP and subjective satisfaction

Abstract Due to energy crisis and phenomenon of global warming, green buildings have been undergoing vigorous development in China, and people are paying increasing attention to the actual operational effect of green buildings rather than the design. In this paper, 12 high-star green buildings (3 LEED Gold buildings, 1 operation Two-Star building, 1 operation Three-Star building, 1 design Two-Star building, and 6 design Three-Star buildings) in the cold region and hot summer and warm winter region (HSWW region) were taken as the research objects to evaluate their indoor thermal comfort. First, from December 2016 to March 2018, this paper conducted a continuous collection of indoor objective thermal environment data of green buildings to obtain the actual thermal environment distribution, and proposed new indexes to evaluate indoor thermal environment of green buildings, namely, OTCD (Over Thermal Comfort Distance) and OTCP (Over Thermal Comfort Percentage). It was found that indoor temperature and humidity of most buildings didn't reach the standard. The new evaluation indexes clearly showed the percentage of the indoor temperature and humidity of each green building away from the comfort zone under different standards in mathematical form, which is convenient for comparison. Second, a questionnaire survey on people's subjective satisfaction of indoor thermal comfort in green buildings was carried out at the same time, wherein 1400 valid questionnaires were recovered. Based on the different evaluation results of subjective and objective thermal comfort, the operative comfort temperature/humidity and thermal/humid comfort zone of different building climate zones were obtained by cluster and linear regression analysis. The results showed that there are differences between thermal/humid comfort zone of different building climate zones and it is helpful for the research on thermal comfort of green buildings in China and the development of relevant codes.

Study on Spatial Evolution of Chinese Green Building

Green building is an important part of ecological civilization construction in China, which is also a significant reflection of national developing under a new type of urbanization [1]. Since 2006, the number and total gross floor area of green building has achieved major development with the promulgation and implement of national and local standards and promotions of green building. However, this rapid development shows an obvious regional difference and imbalance. This paper conducts a quantitative study by using geospatial statistics theory and geographic information system technique. It aims to explore characteristics and the driven factor of green buildings’ spatial evolution so that the development level of green building could be evaluated based on much more scientific and reasonable method. It also aims at providing theory supporting as well as reference for policy making to stimulate green building development in a more balanced way.

Investigation of temperature regulation effects on indoor thermal comfort, air quality, and energy savings toward green residential buildings

To create healthy indoor environments, Chinese green building evaluation standards recommend monitoring and control of CO2 concentration in residential buildings. Regulations of building airtightness levels and indoor temperature will improve thermal comfort and energy efficiency. However, indoor air quality (IAQ; e.g., CO2 concentration) may suffer, which adversely affects indoor occupants’ health and productivity. To counteract these negative effects, this work investigated indoor temperature regulation effects on IAQ and energy consumption considering a well-insulated full-scale room with a top-wall-mounted ventilation heating system. First, a series of experiments were conducted with five indoor temperatures (in winter) and constant CO2 sources. Next, corresponding simulations were carried out (air changes per hour, ACHs equal to 4 and 12). It was found that the higher the supplied air temperature, the stronger the negative effects of thermal buoyancy, leading to weaker turbulent diffusion and higher levels of indoor CO2 concentration. A 1 °C increase would cause around 1.2% increase of CO2 concentration along with 8.3% more energy consumption. Moreover, the influence of indoor temperature on CO2 dispersion is more significant when ACH is relatively small. Relevant findings will further facilitate the design and regulation of green buildings in the perspectives of indoor heath and energy efficiency.

Promoting Strategy of Chinese Green Building Industry: An Evolutionary Analysis Based on the Social Network Theory

Developing green building industry (GBI) is an effective way to promote sustainable economic development, realize energy savings, and reduce emissions. In this paper, an evolutionary game model is developed to examine the interactions between technology, knowledge transfer, and enterprises' behaviors in innovation networks. Through analysis of the evolutionary trend of the game, the cost of cooperative innovation is found to be an important factor that determines the evolutionary stable state or strategy (ESS). The government grant and financial support are deemed critical to promote the development of green building products (GBP). The government supervision, government procurement, and R&D are important for the GBI.

Occupant satisfaction in Three-Star-certified office buildings based on comparative study using LEED and BREEAM

There is still a gap in research on the impact of Chinese Green Building Three-Star evaluation standard on occupant satisfaction. This paper reports the results of a preliminary comparative analysis of the satisfaction levels of occupants in relation to the building overall, building performance and several indoor environment quality (IEQ) parameters in different seasons for Three-Star certified and non-certified office buildings in the cold zone, hot summer-cold winter zone, and hot summer-warm winter zone. In addition, in light of previous research on occupants' satisfaction with LEED and BREEAM certified buildings, a further comparative analysis was performed to explore the difference in the impacts of different rating tools on occupant satisfaction. It was found that Three-Star building users were more satisfied than the users of non-certified buildings, with significant differences for all the parameters investigated without exception. In addition, in the relation to the air freshness in the transition season, air cleanliness in the transition season, humidity in winter, air cleanliness in winter, natural lighting in winter, acoustic environment in winter, colors & textures, IEQ control, building cleanliness, building maintenance, and building overall, Three-Star certification had a relatively small effect on occupant satisfaction in all three climate zones. The results of the comparative analysis seemed to show that the effects of LEED or BREEAM certification on occupants' satisfaction were not as marked as that of Three-Star certification. However, the reason behind this could be the difference in the performance of non-certified buildings, not the assessment methods.

Comparative analysis of environmental performance of an office building using BREEAM and GBL

With rapid economic growth and urban expansion in China, the Chinese building sector is now facing the huge challenge of balancing its energy demand and pollution. In order to minimize the environmental impact, the Ministry of Housing Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) has set an ambitious energy reduction target requiring that 30% of all new constructions to be green by 2020. This paper presents comparative analysis of two environmental rating systems: the latest version of Chinese Green Building Label (GBL 2014) released by the MOHURD in order to promote the market transformation of green buildings and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM 2014), the widely recognised environmental assessment methodology in the global construction industry. To compare the two environment assessment standards, a public office building currently under construction in Fujian (China) has been used as a case-study to rate its environmental credentials using both BREEAM and GBL. Results have shown that although both standards use a similar methodology, they require different levels of input data and may result in different ratings for the same building.