For house hunting, everyone usually pays attention to the surrounding provided facilities, the usable area of ​​the unit, the layout and the natural lighting and so on. However, have you thought:every building has a certain amount of disturbances and damages to nature, such as emissions during construction (e.g. noise pollution and sewage discharge), massive use of natural resources for construction materials (e.g. wood and marble), heat island effect, and enormous water and energy consumption after occupation?

According to <<Hong Kong Climate Action Plan 2030 + >>, 70% of Hong Kong’s carbon emissions come from power generation while buildings consume 90% of Hong Kong’ s electricity.

The following are key milestones in global sustainable/green building development:

– In 1980: The World Conservation Organization put forward the slogan “sustainable development” for the first time. At the same time, the energy-saving building system was gradually improved and widely used in developed countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada.

– In 1990: The world’s first green building assessment tool was released in the UK.

– In 1993: The United States Green Building Association was established.

– In 1996: Hong Kong introduced green building assessment tool.

– In 2015: “Green Building Evaluation Standards” was implemented in China

What is the Green Building?

Green Building is also known as Sustainable Building. According to the Hong Kong Green Building Council (2021), the definition of green building is as follows:

“Green building is a practice of reducing the environmental impact of buildings and enhancing the health and wellbeing of building occupants by:

i) Planning throughout the life-cycle of a building or a community, from masterplanning and siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition with a focus on the impact to both the environment and people.

ii) Optimising efficient use of energy, water, and other resources to avoid overconsumption and adopting the use of renewable energy and eco-friendly materials to minimise carbon footprint and emission.

iii) Reducing the production of waste and preventing pollution of areas like water, air, noise and land.

iv) Enhancing indoor environmental quality through natural ventilation and lighting as well as good indoor air quality by design and other means.”

Discussion:

In your mind, what is green building? Welcome to leave a message.

References:

Webpages

HKGBC： https://www.hkgbc.org.hk/eng/

Wikipedia： https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building

Climate Action Plan 2030+：https://www.enb.gov.hk/sites/default/files/pdf/ClimateActionPlanEng.pdf