Implementation Path and Development Trend of Green Buildings Based on Life Cycle Management

Ying YU, Qingkun YIN

College of City Construction, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China

Abstract In response to the Beautiful China development strategy, in accordance with the "applicable, economical, green and beautiful" architectural policy of the new era, green buildings have been continuously optimized and popularized. Based on the life cycle theory, from the multi-dimensional perspectives of policy, building materials, construction, design, evaluation standards, operation, etc., this paper studied the implementation path and development trend of green buildings. It discussed the main implementation paths and restrictive factors of green buildings, and provided solutions and development directions. It mainly elaborated the influencing factors and development direction of green buildings, in order to provide a documentary support for the development of green building industry, and provide a certain reference for the ecological civilization construction of beautiful China.

Key words Green buildings, Full life cycle, Implementation path, Development trend

1 Introduction

Green buildings are buildings based on the theory of full life cycle, providing people with comfortable and environmentally friendly use space through constantly pursuing saving resources and protecting the environment in the process of implementation, to realize the harmonious symbiosis of man and nature. The construction and use of traditional buildings need to consume a lot of natural resources, and at the same time increase the environmental load, and the social benefits are not high, so green buildings take shape. After the 18National Congress of the Communist Party of China vigorously carried out the construction of ecological civilization, green buildings ushered in a good opportunity for development and formally entered the historical stage of the construction industry, especially after being included in the architectural guidelines for the new era of beautiful China, green building has already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. As a discipline that integrates people’s comfort needs with the optimal configuration of energy, environment, and economy, green building is worthy of our continuous discussion and vigorous development. At present, the domestic green building technology started later than European and American countries, and the promotion of green development concepts was also later. However, there are rules to follow, coupled with the vigorous development of the construction industry, the development of green buildings is becoming more mature, the academic literature is constantly updated, and various technologies are emerging constantly. We need to think about the following questions. How can green buildings gain a higher market share? Can the limited building materials meet the development of green buildings to a higher level? How to better integrate traditional construction structure design and green building? How to extend green from design to construction and operation stages? All of these may become the factors restricting the development of green buildings. In this paper, we would discuss and solve these problems.

2 Green buildings and policies and regulations

2.1 Relevant policies and regulations

In the

Report

of

the

Fifth

Plenary

Session

of

the

Fourteenth

Central

Committee

of

the

Communist

Party

of

China

, it clearly proposed the implementation of a sustainable development strategy for the first time and since then, it has been repeatedly mentioned and given the content of the new era. The

Twelfth

Five

-

Year

Plan

clearly stated for the first time that the construction industry should improve the energy-saving performance of buildings, vigorously promote energy-saving technologies for new buildings, promote green buildings and green construction, create advanced construction, materials, Internet + industry optimized structure and service models, which set an overall tone for the development of green buildings. In response to the development of green buildings, China has formulated a number of laws and regulations (Table 1).

Table 1 List of laws and regulations related to green buildings and their significance

It needs to continue to regulate and adjust the regulations on green buildings and formulate the feasible and reasonable standards for green buildings. There are quite a few of laws abroad that can be used as a reference. For example, the international law-

EU

Energy

Performance

of

Building

Directive

, the British laws-

Energy

Performance

of

Buildings

Regulations

and

Net

Zero

Carbon

Building

Standards

all have a good implementation effect. Multi-angle incentive policies can be adopted, such as the government subsidies, tax reductions and special funds,

etc.

that are popular worldwide. Adequate incentive policies are bound to drive the enthusiasm of the industry, lead the industry to "green" transformation, solve the considerations of many enterprises for internal economy, and promote the broader development of the industry. It also needs to continuously strengthen the publicity of green buildings. China’s green building industry is still in its infancy, and people’s inadequate understanding of green buildings has also become an important factor restricting the development of green buildings. Only by intensifying the publicity of the concept of practicing green city and green country and organizing related public welfare activities, can the concept of green and sustainable buildings be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

3 Green buildings and building materials

3.1 Green building materials

Green building materials refer to the building materials that have good usability and are environmentally friendly. They are known as the soul cornerstone for the development of green buildings and are active in the vision of the full cycle of green buildings. A good green building has extremely high requirements for green building materials. Looking at the development history of green building materials, it is the history of the continuous enhancement, continuous cost reduction, and continuous reuse of natural materials. However, the current major green building materials have the problems such as high cost, complex construction technology, and difficulty of reuse, which still cannot be popularized on a large scale. This has become a major factor restricting the green building industry. They are extremely unfriendly to the ecological environment. Its reform is also most in line with the concept of green buildings. At the same time, the building material industry, as an industry with high energy consumption, high resource utilization rate, and high land use rate, is extremely unfriendly to the ecological environment. Its reform is also most in line with the concept of green buildings.

3.2 Development trend of green building materials

It is necessary to increase the research and development of new technologies and synthetic materials, strengthen the investment in scientific research, continue to promote the development from natural materials to synthetic materials, and enhance the performance of green building materials to develop them into low-cost and high-strength materials. Related organizations should enlighten the recycling performance of materials, constantly try more cheap materials that can be recycled, and form a good situation where building materials can be used continuously and the use of natural materials can be reduced. It is necessary to adjust the structure of the building materials industry, promote the manufacture of new green materials, reduce pollution emissions, promote the intensive development of factories, and optimize the environmentally friendly performance of the building materials industry.

The continuous improvement and optimization of the green building materials industry will certainly contribute to the vigorous development of the green construction industry; the building materials industry that continues to reduce emissions and continuously upgrades will definitely contribute more to the construction of a beautiful China.

4 Green building and construction

4.1 Green construction and construction measures

Green construction is not a brand-new construction method, but to increase the requirements for environmental protection and resource conservation in the traditional construction technology, which is a particularly important step in the implementation of green buildings. At present, the construction requirements of "four conservations and one protection" in the new era are mainly implemented, and are widely used in prefabricated buildings. New construction technologies are widely adopted in green construction, which not only increases the efficiency of construction, but also reduces the emission of pollutants. However, in the Chinese market, it has shown the constraints such as insufficient equipment and insufficient personnel experience, and it has not been widely used yet.

Green construction measures aim to improve the harmony between the construction site and the surrounding environment. Through the implementation of dust reduction, noise reduction, and aesthetics, it reduces the impact on nature and creates a comfortable and good construction surrounding environment. The current prefabricated construction method coincides with the concept of green buildings.

4.2 Green construction and construction technology design

Green construction technology is an important manifestation of green buildings and provides a strong guarantee for green construction. Currently, the widely used technological measures include: the use of groundwater HVAC engineering for creating a comfortable indoor environment; the use of heat and sound insulation materials in building walls and the use of water in buildings for achieving the purpose of energy conservation and environmental protection; the preferential use of renewable resources for achieving the purpose of protecting resources; the design of roof greening for saving land,

etc.

4.3 Development trend of green construction

It is necessary to implement the new green construction technology, practice the low-carbon concept, fully develop the application market for prefabricated buildings, promote the industrialization and automation of the building industry, and gradually phase out traditional construction practices; it is necessary to promote the concept of green construction, and improve the professional requirements of construction operation personnel for green construction; it is necessary to promote the use of green construction equipment, apply the theory of full life cycle, and learn the advanced technology of green construction, in order to provide better protection for construction and the environment; it is necessary to formulate the regulations on the construction of green buildings and the standards for the grade of buildings, quantify indicators, point out the direction of reform, and promote the standardized development of the industry.

The emergence and application of more and more new construction technologies and new construction facilities will surely lead the continuous optimization and transformation of construction, make the concept of green buildings more popular, and provide a practical guarantee for the development of green buildings.

5 Green buildings and evaluation standards

5.1 Domestic and international evaluation standards for green buildings

The current evaluation system for green buildings mainly follows the

Evaluation

Standard

for

Green

Buildings

(2014 and 2018 version) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. The new version of the

Evaluation

Standard

for

Green

Buildings

(ESGB) puts forward higher requirements on the performance of green buildings, and it is more difficult to obtain star ratings. This indicates that China’s green buildings are constantly moving towards high standardization and strict requirements. On the one hand, it effectively protects the reputation of green buildings, and on the other hand, it also puts forward higher requirements for the design of green buildings. At present, the most widely used evaluation standards for green buildings in the world are LEED in the United States and BREEA in the United Kingdom. The comparison between the ESGB in China and them is shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Comparison between domestic and international evaluation standards for green buildings

5.2 Development trend of domestic evaluation standards for green buildings

Compared with the evaluation standards for green buildings in the United Kingdom and the United States, which are relatively complete, extremely practical, and in line with national conditions, China is still in the initial and long-term exploration stage. It is foreseeable that the development of China’s evaluation standards for green buildings is a process of continuously experimenting with advanced standards and continuously integrating China’s national conditions. Firstly, it is necessary to increase the enthusiasm of all parties to jointly explore simpler, faster and more rigorous and standardized standards, and correspondingly expand to practice standards, construction standards, and so on. From top to bottom, optimization should be started from government departments and professionals to increase the attention degree of construction companies and effectively ensure the implementation of standards. Secondly, it is necessary to expand the cycle of green buildings. At present, the domestic concept of green buildings is only limited to architectural design and construction. It is necessary to promote the application of the theory of full life cycle in the building industry and continuously add the difficulty degree of maintenance, function expansibility, environmental friendliness and other indicators during the operation period, in order to promote the omni-directional and full-process standardized management of green buildings. Thirdly, it is necessary to establish a departmental coordination mechanism. The work of construction, land, environment, and other departments in China is not well coordinated, and even different departments have different standards. China’s integration of departments of power and responsibility and unification of standards are a good direction. For green buildings, the coordination of various departments should be higher, and a unified evaluation system and scientific supervision during the full life cycle should be established. Fourthly, it is necessary to find ways to improve social supervision. Through establishing a publicity platform for green evaluation indicators of buildings, it is necessary to allow the public to participate with the identity of inspectors, take the greenness of buildings as an important basis for buying houses, urge the government to take the lead, strictly control the corporate environment, gradually achieve the popularization of green building concept and create higher social benefits.

6 Green buildings and operation management

6.1 Current situations of management of domestic green building during operation period

By the end of March 2016, China has obtained 4 195 green building identification projects, with a construction area of 487.28 million m, but only 245 of them are operating identification projects, accounting for about 6% of the total. That is, more than 90% of green buildings have not reached the green operation standard. This reflects that China’s green building industry generally does not have the concept of operation and management, and related documents are also very scarce. The operation and management of green buildings in China does not have sufficient professionals and implementation conditions. At present, the domestic management awareness of green building operation period is very weak, the enthusiasm is not high, and only pursuing the reputation of green building, the ineffective management is serious.

6.2 Management development trend of domestic green building operation period

In future, it is necessary to establish a normalized whole-life-cycle green building evaluation system, and the evaluation of green buildings should reflect operational management indicators. The government should encourage green buildings on the one hand, but also take strict requirements on the other hand. For example, tax incentives should be given to good construction companies, and everyone needs to be encouraged to pay attention to green buildings. Buildings that fail to meet operating management should be punished, and companies should be strictly required to carry out green standard in a strict manner. In addition, it is required to strengthen the connection between green building design and operation, the design plan should reflect the operation content, and treat the green building design, green construction organization measures and green building operation management schemes equally.

7 Conclusions

(i) Green building is an industry that implements the national development strategy and promotes the sustainable development of the construction industry. However, China’s green building market is still at the starting stage, and relevant laws and regulations are not well established yet. We can learn from relevant foreign laws to improve them. At the same time, it is recommended to take incentive policies to promote the enthusiasm of the industry and increase the publicity of the concept of green cities.

(ii) Green materials are the foundation of green buildings, but their development is subject to many restrictions. It is necessary to increase investment in scientific and technological research and development to transform new materials with low cost, high strength, and recyclability. At the same time, it is required to standardize the environmental protection requirements of the building materials industry and promote the reform and upgrading of building materials factories.

(iii) Green construction is the most critical implementation path for green buildings, and the selection of many construction techniques have contributed to green buildings. Green construction should be reformed focusing on "energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving and environmental protection", and relevant standards should be formulated to regulate. The design of construction technology is embodied in specific measures to create a comfortable and environmentally friendly humanistic environment, which is currently the biggest highlight of green buildings.

(iv) Green building evaluation standards are a powerful guarantee for green buildings. However, the current domestic evaluation standards are not comprehensive and the evaluation indicators are relatively cumbersome, and other problems are prominent, and it is still necessary to make a long-term exploration. In the future development, the reform should be concentrated on improving the evaluation dimension, promoting the enthusiasm of all parties to participate, and improving social benefits.

(v) The management of green buildings during the operation period is the ultimate destination of green buildings. However, the current domestic operation and management awareness is still very weak and the enthusiasm is also not high, and the green standard is not implemented in a strict manner. It is recommended to introduce operation management indicators into the green building evaluation system, treat green building design, construction and operation equally, strengthen the practitioner’s life cycle concept, and make green standard truly beneficial to the whole society.

(vi) In the context of beautiful China strategy, the government, enterprises, and society should cooperate closely to establish a sound operating mechanism, practice the life cycle management of green buildings, and promote the sound development of green buildings, so as to obtain more social benefits and social wealth, and seek harmonious coexistence between man and nature.