Old buildings need sound green standard to boost energy efficiency

An environmental official has called for the introduction of a sound green-building standard and incorporating it into the ongoing innovation of the country's old residential communities in the urban areas to enhance energy efficiency.

Ren Yong, head of Environmental Development Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, made the comment on Friday while speaking at a policy studies release of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a high-level international advisory body, on Friday.

Statistics show that housing and residential expenditures account for 23.5 percent of residents' consumption in China, and energy consumption in buildings makes up over one-third of China's total energy consumption, he said.

Currently, the total floor area of buildings in China has reached 60 billion square meters. Over 95 percent of the buildings are those with high energy consumption, he noted.

Only 5 percent of the country's construction waste is recircled as resources, compared with 90 percent in the developed countries, according to Special Policy Study on Green Transition and Sustainable Social Governance, which was conducted by a team co-chaired by Ren.

According to the report, current prediction shows that the floor area of old residential communities will "accelerate significantly" in the next decade. Study of the research team shows that a moderate increase in investment into green renovation and construction of green buildings will have positive effects on economic growth, employment, resource use and environmental conditions in the short term.

While new buildings must follow green building standards, such standards should also be promoted in the renovation of the country's old residential communities, Ren said.

Vice-Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Huang Yan said in a news conference in May that the country plans to renovate 39,000 aging urban residential communities, majorly those built before the end of 2000, across the country this year.

She told another news briefing last year that local governments had reported 170,000 urban communities that needed renovation by the end of May 2019.