Developer Vanke joins key global carbon reduction project

China Vanke Co Ltd, the country's largest residential developer, has become the first real estate company in the world to join the carbon reduction project known as Climate Savers, which was launched in November by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

WWF founded Climate Savers in 1999 to encourage companies to set ambitious, voluntary and creative targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the use of renewable energy and promote sustainable business models.

Thirty world-famous enterprises have joined the project, including Volvo Car Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Johnson & Johnson, Svenska Kullager-fabriken AB, The Coca-Cola Co and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd.

As the first real estate company in the world to openly state carbon reduction goals, Vanke has promised that by 2018, it will eliminate 1.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The company aims to integrate production, supply, sale and services by linking housing design, manufacture, assembly, construction and management. This approach requires high levels of standardization throughout the construction process and closer cooperation among suppliers, architects and real estate companies.

It transforms production into a mechanized, continuously flowing process of the assembly and installation of buildings and structures made of prefabricated assemblies and parts.

Other goals set by Vanke include ensuring that the area of its "green" structures will be at least 13.5 million square meters and the area equipped with its solar-powered water supply system will exceed 560,000 sq m. Both targets will reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The company has also promised to share its patents for these process with other companies in the real estate industry.

"We have made commitments for detailed measures, which can be quantified, to cope with climate change," said Mao Daqing, the company's vice-president.

Wang Shi, chairman of Vanke and an adventure travel enthusiast, cited what he witnessed on visits to the Antarctic and Lop Nor, the second-largest inland lake in China, to underline the severity of global warming.

Wang said: "Cold places are not that cold anymore. Hot places are getting increasingly hotter. The world will become inhabitable if the climate keeps changing like this."

The climate deterioration is closely associated with real estate developers, Wang added. About 70 percent of the wood from illegal logging worldwide has been exported to China. In turn, 70 percent has gone into construction, and 70 percent of that portion was used in residential buildings.

"Vanke's entry into Climate Savers has broken the misunderstanding that the carbon reduction project will harm the growth of enterprises," said LiLin, WWF China's executive director.

"It shows that commercial growth and carbon reduction are not mutually exclusive", said Li.

By 2018, Vanke aims to have persuaded 12 suppliers to adopt the GB/T23331 energy management system, which was issued by the Chinese government in 2009 to standardize low-energy production processes.

Vanke is not the only Chinese property developer that has made a commitment to green efforts.

China Merchants Property Development Co Ltd, a Shenzhen-based real estate company, named a chief sustainability officer last year, becoming the first real estate company to have such a post. Hu Jianxin, the company's former deputy general manager, took the position.

Hu said that the company has set up a green development center and designated a manager in each branch who is committed to environmentally friendly efforts.

Over the past 11 years, the company has held international forum with the United Nations each year on how to improve the green efforts of the real estate sector.