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Finding Ways For Future Sustainable Development of Residential Buildings in China

Zonghao (Iven) Wu

Community, Environment & Planning

May 26, 2016

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Acknowledgement
I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my mentor for this project, James
Connelly, who is the marketing director for the Living Future Institute. He guided me through the
project from the beginning till the end, provide huge help to me so that I can finish my work
smoothly. Without his kindness, the presentation of this product would not be possible.
I would like to thank all three of my interviewees, Professor Dan Abramson, Jianxin Man
and Fengwei Pan. Their willingness to sacrifice their own time and their generous to help cannot be
simply appreciated by word.
In addition, I want to give a big thanks to my professor and faculties from the CEP program:
Christopher Campbell, Kelly Hostetler and Nico Martinucci. They are the ones guided me and
inspire me to explore my interest on this topic, also support and provide feedback whenever I
needed. The CEP community is an amazing family that everyone of us is always being responsive
and supportive to each other. I want to thank everyone who had helped me physically and mentally
throughout the process of this project. Every help moves myself forward until I reach my
destination.

Table of Contents
Project Abstract..............................................................................5
Product and Significance..................................................................6
Context and Background..................................................................7
Urbanization and Urban Transition..........................................................................7
Energy Consumption............................................................................................... 8
Housing Condition................................................................................................. 10
Climate Zones....................................................................................................... 12

Methodology.................................................................................15
Research................................................................................................................ 15
Interview............................................................................................................... 16

Literature Review & Analysis..........................................................17

Literature Review Methods.................................................................................... 17
Drivers For Energy Consumption Growth...............................................................18
Energy Consumption Under Different Climate Conditions.....................................20
Lifestyle with Behavioral Conservation..................................................................24
Codes & Regulation..............................................................................27
Existing Codes and Regulations.............................................................................27
Green Building Rating Systems..............................................................28
LEED and 3-Star.................................................................................................... 28
The Two Definitions of a Green Building................................................................30

Recommendations.........................................................................32

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Resource List/ Bibliography (Appendix One)....................................34
Bibliography.................................................................................. 34
Timeline (Appendix Two)................................................................36
Interview Questions (Appendix Three)............................................37
Interview Record: Jianxin Man (Appendix Four)................................38
Interview Record: Fengwei Pan (Appendix Five)...............................40
Interview Record: Dan Abramson (Appendix Six).............................43

Project Abstract
Rapid Chinese urbanization has led to huge increases in the number of supply of residential
buildings. In the past, governments have prioritized GDP growth over environmental health, and it
is reflected in the residential housing market. Residential buildings are constructed without adhering
sustainable concepts, and are thus less energy efficient and provide less indoor comfort. Looking
forward, this report researches methods to minimize the energy consumption growth while
increasing living quality for residents in future development. I seek to answer this question through
a systematic analysis from three different angles: economical, social and political. I study how the
economic development patterns based on investment contribute to energy consumption. To
understand the social influence, I study how different behaviors from China and the US impact
residents consumption on energy. Finally, I examine the effectiveness of existing codes and
regulations for green buildings development and identify potential political improvements. I
compare Chinas two major green building rating systems LEED and 3-Star to see which system is
better equipped to promote sustainability in China. Z-Home, the first net-zero community in the
United States, is used as a case study to further develop this comparison. The results show that
current economic development contributes significantly to Chinas growing energy consumption.
Behavioral saving on energy is being emphasized as a good lifestyle and can be promoted through
public education. Strengthen governmental regulation enforcement would be a powerful tool to
promote sustainable development. I conclude that the 3-star building rating system is better at
promoting green development in China due to its adaption to the geographic and climate
differences. However, a system that adjusts its measures to local conditions would be the ideal
approach to define a green building.

Product and Significance

Since the economic reform back in 1978, China has created a tremendous economic growth,
and its urban development is heavily rely on the rate of construction. Other than a GDP boost, the
side effect of that is the high production of energy consumption and green house gas(GHG)
emission. As a result, residents in China has suffered from the worsen environment, including the
poor air quality, climate and weather change. Buildings in China account for 28% of the national
energy consumption, and this share is likely to grow. (IEA 2009) With the expectation that the
construction rate is not going to slow down in the near future, the capacity of the future
environment is highly concerned. The World Bank estimates that half of all new global construction
through 2020 will be in China. Therefore, to some degree, the future development of buildings in
China not only play an important role in its future sustainable urban development, it also play an
important role in helping define the global energy and emission trends. Under the current market
trend, there are some misconceptions about building and living style in China. People tend to
advocate an imitation of the western standard both on the architectural appearance and building
technology. Metropolitan areas in China are quickly replaced by a cluster of world class buildings
that are designed by architects from the other part of the world, and the newest building
technologies are being introduced at the same time. This transforms residents mindset, which
creates a misconception that western lifestyle is always better and could be a good fit for China. In
my study, I am also proving to oppose that mindset. My study uses a systematic approach to address
the problem of future residential housing development, focuses on reducing future energy
consumption and enhancing living comfort. As the product, I am having a report with a list of
recommendation for future development on housing sector. Sustainable development is without a

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doubt the future trend of development, and my research grounds this concept to actual feasible
measurements. There are many companies and researchers constantly looking for more advance
construction technologies. However, there are not many reports use a systematic approach from a
development standpoint to elevate future development strategies, and this paper will fill this gap. As
a general guideline, this report would provide general ideas on how to build green and live green for
the general public. It would especially helpful for those who seize the most power in the context of
urban development, including the government and developers in China.

Context and Background

Urbanization and Urban Transition
China has the fastest urbanization speed in the world. Urbanization rate increased from less than
20% in 1980 to 45% in 2008. (Wang) That means, there were more than ten million new urban
dwellers were added annually in the past decades. Currently, China has 665 million urban residents,
up from 191 million just 30 years ago. (The World Bank) With such rapid urbanization rate, there
are also significant pressure to provide jobs and economic opportunities, housing, public services
and improved quality of life. One of the biggest challenges is how to accommodate the 350 million
new urban residents expected to migrate to cities in the coming 20 years. (The World Bank) Since
the economic reform in late 1970s, land has been the one of the most essential elements in this
urbanization process. The Chinese government has its fiscal dependence on land-based income. The
government has the monopoly power in land supply since it owns all the urban lands; its cheap
access of land drives a strong incentive to earn revenue through land sales. On top of that, the
accompanying land development after the land sales lead to a strong force in GDP growth, which is
the most important metric measuring Chinas economic performance. In 2010, China completed the

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construction of 2.8 billion square meters of new buildings, which was roughly 3.44 times the total
area built in 2000 (Figure 1). It is estimated that China will add another 10 to 15 billion square
meters of residential buildings in urban areas, and an additional 10 billion square meters of public
buildings by 2020 (CSTC 2011).

Energy Consumption
With much attention on the economic growth, the environmental problem in China has
become a real problem. With the rapid development, China is now the number one energy consumer
in the world, as well as the biggest CO2 emitter. The dust that created from massive number of
construction, the huge CO2 emission from electrical power plants had contributed much of the
worsen environment. Coal supplied the nearly 66% of Chinas total energy consumption today, and
is the main source for the electricity of the housing sector (U.S. Energy Information Administratoin)
Coal energy commits the most of Chinas carbon emission. Building itself accounts for a big part of
the overall energy consumption in China. On the building sector, China is also the second largest

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building energy user in the world, ranked 1st in residential energy consumption and 3rd in
commercial energy consumption (Eom, LE and Kim).
The energy consumption of buildings in China grew by about 7.7% per year from 1998 to
2012. (Hojjati) The International Energy Agencys reference scenario in the 2010 World Energy
Outlook , which assumes continuation of current policies and no major technological
breakthroughs, indicates a 46 percent increase in building energy consumption, from 426 million
tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2007 to 622 Mtoe in 2035 (IEA 2010). As shown in the graph,
residential housing accounts for most of the building energy consumption. With the expectation that
the urbanization speed will continue to grow at a fast rate in the future, it is very necessary to find a
sustainable way in future residential building construction and development. The increasing burden
on the environment had triggered Chinese governments ambition on green development. With the
urgent to clean up the environment, the Chinese government has set a goal to reach 40-45%
reduction in CO2 emissions per unit of GDP from 2005 level by 2020 (Eom, LE and Kim). Also, on
Jan 6th in year 2013, the Chinese State Council had announced the target to complete one billion m2
of new green buildings under the 12th five-year plan, and 20% of the new constructions within cities
qualify the standard of green constructions at the end of year 2015 (Zhang, Tong and Zi).

Figure 1: China's Buidling Energy Consumption 1998-2012

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Housing Condition
Housing in Asia, typically in China, has its very unique form. Because of the great density
of population, a typical residential housing in urban China is a high-rise residential building. In
contrary to the western housing market, instead of developing several units of single or multi-level
residential buildings, housings are developed and built as a group of high-rise buildings that
constitutes a community. This could be understood as a closed community, where a housing
community has a standardized style and shares the common amenities. A housing community in
China is required to have its own landscape and street system. With the unique social context in
China, different from the western world where homeowners are the power holders to determine
their plan of actions, developers and government are the main drivers to enforce social changes in
the housing market. Therefore, China should find its unique way to address these problems under its
unique social context.
Compare to other developed countries, buildings in China has lower quality in general.
Chinese buildings on average have less stringent building codes, which as a result have lower

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construction quality. Construction wise, there are less insulation with leakier windows and doors,
leaving a high air infiltration rate. Technology wise, Chinese building especially residential
buildings have less advanced heating and cooling systems. In all, more than 90% of the current
existing buildings are high-energy consumption buildings, along with more than of the new
constructions are high-energy consumption buildings (Chu).

Figure 2: A Group of Typical Chinese Residential Building

Climate Zones
China is the worlds second largest state by land area, and the third by total area. With such
huge span of territory, there are vast geological differences and different climate conditions. There
are five different climate zones in China: Severe Cold, Cold, Hot Summer Cold Winter (HSCW),
Hot Summer Warm Winter (HSWW) and Temperate(Figure 3). According to the World Banks
report, there are about 550 million people live in Chinas cold and severe-cold zones with about
43% of the urban residential and commercial stock; about 500 million people live in the hotsummer and cold-winter zone with about 42% of the urban stock; and about 160 million people live

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in the hot-summer and warm-winter zone with about 12% of the urban stock. About 3% of the
residential building stock is found in the temperate-zone. Building energy consumption patterns are
heavily influenced by climate conditions due to the different demand for heating and cooling. A
table of mean temperature in different climate zones has been given to provide an idea of what the
weathers are like in different climate zones throughout the year (Figure 4). In the Severe Colde and
Cold zones, which are located in the Northern part of China, space heating is the predominant end
use for buildings. The HSCW zone requires both space heating and cooling for comfort in
buildings. However, in the southern part of China, which mostly in the HSWW zone, there is not
much heating provided in the winter, but cooling in summers has seen with an increasing demand.

Figure 4: Table of Mean Temperature in Different Climate Zones

Figure : Map of China's Climate Zones

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Methodology
I am applying a systematic approach to analyze the problem since the project itself is focus
on a broad scale. Breaking down the topic into different aspects, my study strives to understand the
big picture of the future sustainable development trend. A combination of different methodologies
including research and interview will be utilized to deliver these different angles. Different
methodologies have different purposes, and some methodologies will specifically focus on one
aspect.
Research
Research is the primary method of my entire project. However, my research is done with a
step-by-step process, and each process fulfills different needs throughout my project. First stage is a
context and background research. The purpose of this stage of researching is to understand the
general context of my project topic, understanding things like how China is having a transition on
building style and building technology towards a higher standard, as well as the relationship
between building style and energy consumption. The second step is data collection, including
qualitative and quantitative data. Again, because my project is looking at a broad scale, it is not
realistic for me as a researcher to do actual data collection. Instead, I collected data through online
databases and reports, and it helps me with a more solid understanding on the general context in a
quantitative way. Also, some of the data I gathered at this stage are useful for further use. For
example, the quantitative data about average energy consumption of individual American and
Chinese not only allows me to see how residents from two different country demand different level
of energy, but also allows me to do further comparison on their consuming behavior and further
analyze the impact on different living styles. Third stage of my research progress is the literature

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review, and this is the heaviest section of my research. Literature review can also be regarded as
qualitative data collection, and the overall goal is to establish strong background of knowledge on
related topics. The literature review puts together different viewpoints that are potentially against
each other on certain questions, which allows me to do critical analysis on each specific topic and
establish my personal viewpoint base on the knowledge of understanding. My literature review
starts from looking at different prediction on future energy consumption growth rate on residential
building sector in China, which involves the idea of climate condition effect and geometric
diversification. Second sub-topic of the literature tries to unwrap some popular viewpoints on how
to improve energy efficiency, including enhancing political regulation, public education,
technological innovation and even constructional enhancement. The relationship between lifestyle
and energy consumption is the topic for the third part of my literature review, and it is surprising to
see how strong the two are correlated. Lastly, a study of both LEED and 3-star green building rating
system is conducted, followed by a close comparison in order to see which system is better to
promote future sustainability in China.

Interview
Interview is a good way to improve my research in various ways. The main purpose of
doing interview is to learn first hand experience and expertized opinions to get my initial results
approved. Three experts were interviewed during the study, and they are all professionals who are
working in related fields or familiar with my research topic. Two interviews were taken in Beijing,
China. Jianxin Man is the Mechanics Chief Engineer at the China Construction Engineering Design
Group Corporation Ltd,. he is a senior engineer who won the National Certified Equipment
Engineer title. More proudly, he is one of the engineer designers for 7 of the 13 new built Beijing

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Olympic Games facilities back in 2008. Jianwei Pan, who is the Deputy General Manager at First
MOMA Human Environment Technology (Beijing) Co., Lim, also contributed his ideas in the
second interview. MOMA is one of the top two popular green building developers in China, they
have built over 60 million square feet of award-winning green buildings in numerous communities
internationally. My last interviewee is professor Dan Abramson from University of Washington, he
is within the Urban Planning department and specialized in China urbanization. Base on the topics
involved in my research, a list of proposed questions will be asked. However, results might be
differed upon each persons background.

Literature Review & Analysis

Literature Review Methods
By studying various relevant literature, this literature review should not only serves as a web
of technical knowledge to get to familiar with the project insights, but also provides possible
solutions to address the project problem. Given the background that China is rapidly growing its
energy consumption, I am going to exam what are the main drivers for such a growth in order to
find out how to reduce that in the future. Firstly, I take a look at the relationship between energy
consumption, urbanization and economic growth, and try to understand how each of the factors are
correlated. Secondly, I also did some researches on the impacts of energy consumption levels base
on different climate zones. Provided by the enormous difference of climate conditions of the North
and the South, it turned out that heating is the main drivers creating the energy consumption gap.
Next, we shift our focus to look at the relationship between the lifestyle and energy consumption
level from a cultural perspective. As a result it suggests that lifestyle do have a huge impact on

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energy consumption. Codes and regulation represent themselves as one of the big sessions in the
literature review and analysis. With an understanding on existing codes and regulations, it guides
me for further steps on analyzing which are effective and which need improvement on. As part of
the codes, I am also doing an analysis on the two major green building rating systems that are
current exist in China, which are the LEED standard that developed in the US and a Chinese
initiated 3-star system. A comparison of the two system will help to see which rating system is more
suitable in the urban context of China to promote sustainable development on buildings. As an
alternative, I am also providing different viewpoints on how to define a green building, and relate
them back to the green building system as an inspiration of recommendations.

Drivers For Energy Consumption Growth

To find out how can China bring down the future energy consumption and be more sustainable,
we should first understand what are the factors that drives the energy consumption grow so fast.
The rise of Chinas economic power is obviously accompanied by the rapid urbanization. A
question here to ask is how does this growing economic power related to energy consumption
during this urbanization process. According to Wang, In theory, the connection between
urbanization and rising energy consumption appears obvious. (Wang) Urbanization-driven
development has been the central policy to Chinas economic policy since the economic reform in
1980s. To accommodate that, the government had standardized its evaluation of economic success
by GDP growth, and developed its system of rewarding local governor based on their contributions
on GDP growth. As a result, this system creates a strong incentive for local government to lease out
the land to developers to support constructional development. In this way the local government
generates governmental fiscal income from land leasing, and contribute to the GDP growth from

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constructions. Professor Abramson critiques this form of development as a very inefficient form of
development, as he said, This is very short-term system maintaining public finance. (Appendix
Six) Complying with that policy, the other important policy is to support the manufacturing industry
since Chinas economy is heavily rely on its export business, well known as the world factory. To
promote this mode of development, the Chinese government also utilized its ability to provide
cheap but effective environmental and social cost on mobilizing rural population to work in
laboring factory. It is interesting to see how these two policies work together so effectively. On one
hand, with rapid urban development, rural lands or undeveloped lands are turned into industrial and
urban lands. On the other hand, the appearance of numerous factories suck the strong labor force
from the rural area to urban cities. A cycle therefore is formed. The more dense population in cities
require more constructions to provide shelters for the strong labor force, and pushes the cities edges
wider and wider to consume more peri-urban and rural lands.
As people shift from rural lifestyles to high-density, multistory urban dwellings, demand for
energy-intensive climate control and extensive lighting should surge. So, too, should demand for
energy-intensive appliances, automobiles, and the extensive long-distance transportation networks
needed to channel goods into urban markets. Urban lifestyles presumably also generate demands for
entirely new, and decidedly energy-intensive, production systems, such as the refrigerated food
supply chain, from upstream industrial-scale preparation to supermarket retailing. (Wang) As we
approach, it becomes clear to us that the main driver of the energy consumption is economic
development. The urbanization does not merely change the appearance of the city, but also created
many physical changes on peoples behavior. It does not only transform the land, but also the
people. However, there is a terrifying statement saying that Chinas soaring energy consumption
have not yet reflected these new drivers of energy demand. That is, the long-term consumption

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ramifications of urbanized lifestyles have not yet begun to kick in. (Rosen and Houser 2007;
Zheng 2007) Chinese per capita energy consumption remains well below levels found in advanced
industrial societies, and this has much to do with residents behavior and lifestyles, which I will
discuss further in detail later in the chapter.
A study also proves the relationship between economic and energy consumption from an
individual level. A residential consumption survey in Shanghai shows that residential electricity
varies significantly depending on household income and home size, with higher income households
and larger apartments consuming over twice as much as lower income families in smaller houses
(Li & Colombier, 2009). As the survey concluded, The growth of urban energy consumption has
much to do with income growth and the improvement of life quality. Average income in China is
still comparatively low to many other developed countries, therefore utility bill is much larger of a
proportion of peoples income. For the majority of the residents in China, who are still below
wealthy level, would definitely pay bigger attention on their electricity bills. However, to people
who has higher household income, utility bill is for sure not part of their concerns.

Energy Consumption Under Different Climate Conditions

Climate conditions are a basic factor that influences building energy consumption. China
has a big variety of climate conditions around the country due to its vast geometrical boundary.
According to Xu in the ERI report:
China covers multi-climate zones, experiencing cold temperate to equatorial
monsoon zones. In the far reaches of northeastern China, the annual accumulated
temperature is less than 1600C and the average temperature during the coldest
month is lower than -30C. In contrast, on islands in the South China Sea, annual

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accumulated temperature is over 9000C and the average annual temperature is
higher than 26C.
However, geometrically China is subdivided into two regions, the northern and southern
regions, along an arbitrary line so called Huai River-Qin Mountain Line. The northern
region is usually much colder than the southern region, where most of the northern part is
required to provide district heating in the winter and the southern part not necessarily has
heating. As Chmutina stated: The climate determines the amount of solar radiation and
outside temperature that a building is exposed to; it also influences the amount of energy
that is used for the heating and cooling of a building, and the amount of energy used for
lighting. As a result, northern region of China usually consume more energy than the
south in winter and less in summer in regards of heating and cooling. According to
Connelly in his research, the northern region consumes up to nine times more energy per
square meter than the southern region (Connelly, Building Energy Data). While part of
the difference can be explained by the warmer winter climate in southern China, more
critically the lower consumption levels are driven by a lower temperature set point and
intermittent operation imposed by Southern residents themselves in order to conserve
energy and save money (around 14-16C 57-61 F).
The following graph is a chart from Chmutias report showing the recent and
future energy consumption predicted till 2020 by a group of Chinese experts (figure 2).

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Figure 3: Intensity of energy services

As mentioned in Chmutias report, Chinese experts expect that with the decline of winter-time
heating intensity due to temperature rises and buildings have better thermal performance, the
summer time cooling intensity will rise. As China continues to grow, we could definitely see a
higher demand of energy. Therefore, more efficient equipment and systems become more and more
important. However, contrary to the viewpoint from the Chinese experts, Connelly argues that the
assumption showed in the graph is not necessarily the case. He argues: While this might be
possible in the North of China (which as I stated earlier already employs a full-time full-space
heating method) by increasing building thermal performance, and increasing the efficiency of
heating systems, I think its highly unlikely that heating intensity will decrease in the South if the
country transitions to more Developed country design modes, since heating consumption is already
extremely low. (Connelly, Building Energy Data) As I mentioned, the majority of households in

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southern region of China do not equip any heating system for winter. However, the temperature in
most of the south in winter is still cold enough to require heating system to improve comfort. To me
personally, I agree with what Connelly suggested, because there is an obvious need for installation
of heating systems in the south in the future as individuals are seeking for better living quality. As a
result, the demand for energy of heating would rather go up than slightly decrease as showed in the
figure. While Chmutias report showed a slightly increase in cooling intensity, Connelly argues that
the report underestimates the impact of the switch from decentralized AC to centralized mechanical
systems. In responding to Chmutias report saying that China should speed up the adoption of
energy efficient systems, like increasing the use of geo-thermal heat pumps and enforce more
stringent building codes, Connelly argues that the point Chmutia is making does not take the
fundamental shift in architectural and system design strategy into account. It is more important to
consider such shifts associated impact on peoples lifestyles and energy usage than simply applying
more efficient technologies. So the question is, does lifestyle really making that much of an impact
on energy consumption? To find out the answer, we have to do further research.

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Lifestyle with Behavioral Conservation

Figure 4: Building Energy Consumption Per Capita Among Different Countries

(Source: Tsing Hua University building energy annual report 2010)

While lots of researches focus so much on the building technology and policy regulation,
Connellys report shifts his focus on the residents lifestyle. In James report, he pointed out that
although buildings in China generally have lower standard of insulation, a high air infiltration rate,
low efficiency heating and cooling equipment when compared to Developed country standards,
however, Chinas urban buildings consumes significantly less energy. Chinas urban buildings
consume roughly less than half the energy per unit of floor area and 10 times less per person than
the US (Figure 6). As he stated, this is mainly because China has a different system design, building
operation and occupant behavior from the US, where Chinese buildings operate at a part-time partspace mode, and the US buildings typically operate at the full-time full-space mode. In a typical
Chinese building, only occupied spaces during occupied time are conditioned, for example like
lighting and air conditioning. On the system design, it is very common that most of the buildings

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are designed and operated with decentralized systems, including split unit air conditioners and point
source heating to allow individual control, where in the US it is very commonly applied with
centralized systems. Although individual split units are relatively inefficient, but it allows occupants
to control the system individually and actively to reduce energy consumption. In his report, he says
that: In fact, A Tsinghua University report shows intermittent operation combined with a lower
set point can reduce energy consumption by seven times, without changing anything about the
climate, the system efficiency, or the thermal performance of a building. On the other hand, not
that just the intermittent operation help reduces energy consumption, it is also a culture in China to
save energy and water. Because a comparatively lower income level in China, residents generally
have a greater incentive to save their utility bills. Also, residents usually have greater tolerance of
range of indoor temperature. This phenomenon is particularly prominent in the Southern part of
China. As Southern China is generally hotter than the North, people do not even realize their
necessity on heating during winter time. From south of the Huai River-Qin Mountain Line, it is
not required to have district heating by the government. Historically, residents in the south do not
use heating because there was technologically unavailable and economically unaffordable.
Therefore people have developed a mindset that the southern residents do not need heating in
winter. It is still common to see people wear numbers of thick layers inside their homes and offices
when the indoor temperature is below 10C. As concluded by James: what I hope the
discussion above has shown is that a high energy consumption lifestyle is dependent on people's
interaction with their built environment and building systems, as well as their incentives to save.
A study from Zhejiang University in China has proved the same point that is made by
Connelly. In this study, surveys are conducted to find out the relationship between household
lifestyles and energy consumption of residential buildings in China. The results of the survey show

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that household lifestyles are closely related to energy consumption, and that some rational measures
can be applied to daily life for energy saving. (Jin-long, Gao and Luo) With this relationship
proven, by relating back to the point of view from Glicksmans report that residents need education,
we could see a big opportunity in improving energy efficiency by educating residents an efficient
way of living. However, this way of living should aim not only the efficiency but convenience as
well. As mentioned in the same study, that Occupants will try to implement energy saving
measures into their daily life, but if those measures are implemented too much as to lead some
inconvenience into life, they will compromise to gain well-balanced life.( (Jin-long, Gao and Luo)
The relationship of how household lifestyle changes energy consumption is the key factor
revealing why Chinese residential building has lower energy consumption level while having lower
efficiency units comparing to the US buildings. Especially at the current stage in China that citizens
are attracted towards a westernized lifestyle with much higher individual energy consumption,
promoting such a lifestyle could be the key measure in the future development. This idea would
also be the core component throughout my project in finding out the best way to address the energy
consumption issue specifically for China. Considering the Chinese household lifestyle should be the
primary consideration for whatever types of advanced building technology and equipment applied
in the future.

Codes & Regulation

Existing Codes and Regulations
Looking at a holistic scale, codes and regulations by government play an important role to
regulate the future green development without any doubt. This standpoint is particularly prominent

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in China, given that the central government of China has such a dominating political power. To
date, China has released three national building energy standard for residential buildings that cover
three different climate zones: the severe cold and cold zones, the HSCS zone and the HSWW zone.
These building energy standards focus heavily on the thermal performance requirements for
building envelopes and the requirements for HVAC equipment and systems. They include a mixture
of prescriptive requirements and performance-based approaches. All three standards apply to the
energy efficient design of new construction, additions and retrofit of existing residential buildings
(B Shui). Since mid-2005, a revised national energy design standard for residential buildings that
combines the three previous regional standards had been under development. The 1986 and 1995
versions required residential buildings to be approximately 30% and 50% more efficient than
residential buildings that were built in the early 1980s. In November 2008, a revised version was
submitted for review, which targets a 65% improvement in energy efficiency compared to buildings
built in the early 1980s. (CABR 2008) In 2007, China issued the Code of Acceptance of Energy
Efficient Building Construction, also known as the Acceptance Codes. The Acceptance Codes
address compliance with building energy codes at the construction stage and include specific
provisions for construction practices to comply with building energy codes related to walls, curtain
walls, doors and windows, roofing, flooring, HVAC, power distribution, lighting, monitoring and
quality control. (Shui Bin) However, with codes provided to the market, there seemed no much
effectiveness of these codes by looking at the compliance rate back at times. Government
inspections indicate that in a few dozen large cities, the compliance rate was only 6 percent in 2000
(Liu, Meyer, and Hogan). This was due to a lack of inspection and supervision. Inspection and
supervision are critical components in the enforcement of building energy codes. With an increasing
attention on sustainable development, the strengthened governmental inspection did really improve

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the compliance rate over the years. According to Chinas official inspection data, the compliance
rates at both design and construction stages have improved from 53% (design) and 21%
(construction) in 2005 to 100% and 95.5%, respectively, in 2011.

Green Building Rating Systems

As another type of the code, green building rating system does contribute a huge part in
future sustainable urban development in the building sector. In China, consistent with improved
government incentives, practitioners knowledge, as well as acceptance of sustainability among the
public, a growing number of construction projects are incorporating sustainability principles (Qin).
As defined by the Chinas Ministry of Construction (MOC), green building is the practice of
creating structures to provide a healthy, applicable and effective environment, and at the same time
to conserve resources (energy, land, water and materials), protect the environment and reduce
pollutions as much as possible. (MOC) In China, much of the green building sector activities are
centered on labeling programs, such as the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED)
and the 3-star rating system.

28
LEED and 3-Star

29
Currently, LEED and 3-star are the two major green building rating systems in China. LEED is a
rating system that was established by the U.S. Green Building Council, and being considered as an
important international benchmark and has been applied in China. A separate entity, the Green
Building Certification Institute was set up as a third party to handle all professional credentialing
and project certification for LEED. (Nina Khanna) 3-Star is a Chinese government lead program
that was launched in 2006. 3-Star grants two different certifications, design label and operation
label. Design label is a pre-certification that can be granted to allow the project to market itself as a
green building. Operation label is final certification that is grated after controlling the energy
performance of the building after one year. (Geng) In comparison, 3-Star is administered by central
and provincial government agencies, specifically the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Development (MOHURD)s Building Energy Efficiency and Technology Division. (Nina Khanna)
The two programs both have six categories of rating criteria, five of which are share in common:
land, energy, water, water, resource/ material efficiency, and indoor environmental quality. Despite
the fact that they are similar in categories of rating criteria, however they do differ in weighting of
each criterion (Figure 7). One key difference between the two is in how a buildings specific rating
level is determined. Under 3-Star, the final rating is determined by meeting the minimum rating or
credits within each category, whereas a LEED rating is determined by the total points summed over
all categories. To interpret that, a building can gain its certification from LEED by heavily relying
on few rating criteria, whereas it is not the case for 3-Star. During interview, both of my
interviewees from China endorsed 3-Star over LEED when they were asked which system they
think would promote future sustainable development better in China. The main reason is that 3-Star
differentiate different climate zones with different standards, and that fits the climate context better.
Also, one complaint about LEED is that many credits are based on energy savings predicted by

30
energy modeling, rather than actual certified energy savings. And 3-Star do complement that with
its operation label.

Figure 5: Comparison of Three Star and LEED Rating Criteria and Weight Factors

31

The Two Definitions of a Green Building

From my interview, I found two distinct viewpoints on how to define a green building, and
these two viewpoints are quite representative. One is from Fengwei Pan, the deputy manager at first
MOMA. As part of green building developing company, his speaks for his company, and that
viewpoint represents for the current green developing industry. MOMA adopts the western standard
on a green building, which is usually a sealed building with high efficiency. To ensure indoor
comfort is our first priority. We think that a centralized system can ensure a 24-hour indoor comfort,
and we try to conserve energy on top of that by applying innovative technologies. For example, we
use better external wall infiltration system, better quality window to reduce air infiltration, and as a
result save energy. We also maximize the use of renewable energy, heat pump, solar energy, etc. to
minimize our energy output. As Pan said, And this is a way that fits the international requirement
and trend on green building development. Which being said, he thinks that the most important
feature to define a green building is to provide 24/7 indoor comfort. Indoor comfort, as he explains
in detail, is constant temperature and humidity. There are three indicators for humans comfort:
humidity, temperature and air speed. These are the three most sensitive indicators to human body,
despite the fact the air quality cannot normally being notice unless it is really bad. Therefore,
technically, centralized HVAC system becomes the core of a green building. In conclusion, to my
understanding, Pans point of view on green building is a type of building that based on a
compilation of advance technologies, with the goal to maximize indoor comfort while seeking for
higher efficiency and sustainability. In reaching that goal, a standard is being set and applied to
every project in every location. This method can be very cost-effective once MOMA can

32
standardize their production line, as a result expand their business performance. On the other hand,
once the standard being set, it could also be efficient in green building promotion.
However, my other interviewee, Jianxin Man, would argue that Pans green building is not
the ideal green building. For Man, he thinks that an ideal green building should utilize itself to local
condition, and bring itself closer to the nature. As he argued, many people misunderstand the idea of
green building at the beginning since it was first introduced by the western countries. When
talking about green building, people inherit the western idea as granted, and associate that with a
building compiled with advance technologies. Therefore it became a fancy term to talk about. As
he pointed out, And that is basically what MOMA doing, which I dont think a constant humidity
and temperature is an ideal environment to live in. The true green buildings with low energy
consumption are ancient buildings, where they also did very well in air ventilation, rainwater
collection and many other aspects by utilizing limited resources. The root of a green building
should be people oriented, adjust features and utilize to local condition. To this extend, it is not
suitable to standardize one single measurement given that different location has different
conditions. China has such huge geographical span and enormous difference in weather condition
across the nation, it is improper to apply single index to define every building from Mans
perspective. Interestingly, Mans understanding on a green building parallelized with my mentor,
James Connellys idea. Connelly thinks that a performance-base form of evaluation on a green
building should be promoted rather than a prescriptive-base form like LEED. As the goal for a
green building, the end result of the performance should be the index in defining whether the
building actually save energy and perform to the standard of sustainability. And to reach that goal,
the utilization of many of the local condition therefore would be considered and implemented
during the design process. For example the Bullit Center in Seattle, which is a net-zero building in

33
achieving the Living Building Challenge. It is designed to adapt the local weather condition in
order to achieve its goal in zero energy output. And I personally support the idea that an ideal green
building should adjust its features to adapt local conditions.

Recommendations
Economic

Focus on real needs and improve sufficiency

Promote a new way of economic performance measurement, in a way that is more
sustainable

Social Behaviors

Increase public awareness of sustainability through education

Promote and reserve the current lifestyle
Encourage use of advance technology

Codes& Regulation

Develop a long-term roadmap

More transparent evaluating process
Provide more incentive program

Green Building Rating System

Performance base
Introduce the concept of nature into rating criteria

34

Resource List/ Bibliography (Appendix One)

Bibliography
Abramson, Daniel Benjamin. Periurbanization and the politics of developmentas-city-building in China. University of Washington. Seattle: Elsevier, n.d.
B Shui, M Evans, H Lin, W Jiang, B Liu, Bo Song. U.S. Department of Energy,
2009.
CHMUTINA, Ksenia. Building Energy Consumption And Its Regulations in China.
Discussion Paper. China Policy Institute. Nottingham: The Univeristy of
Nottingham, 2010.
Chu, Haiyan. Economic Thinking to Promote the Development of Green
Building. Jiangsu Research Institue of Building Science Co., Ltd. Nanjin, 2014.
Connelly, James. A fallacy of steel and glass. 31 05 2012. 4 1 2016
<https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4950-A-fallacy-of-steeland-glass>.
. "Building Energy Data." 26 10 2011. 4 1 2016
<http://cargocollective.com/chinabuildsgreen/10-26-11-Building-Energy-Data>.
. "China's 3-star Rating System." 10 01 2012. China Builds Green. 4 1 2016
<http://cargocollective.com/chinabuildsgreen/1-10-12-China-s-3-Star-RatingSystem>.
. "China's Building Transition." 21 11 2011. 4 1 2016
<http://cargocollective.com/chinabuildsgreen/11-21-11-China-s-BuildingTransition>.
Eom, J, et al. "Chinas Building Energy Use: A Long-Term Perspective based on a
Detailed Assessment." U.S. Department of Energy, 2012.
Geng, Yong. "An Overview of Chinese Green Building Standards." 2012.
Glicksman, Leon R., Leslie K. Norford and Lara V. Grenden. ENERGY
CONSERVATION IN CHINESE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS: Progress and
Opportunities in Design and Policy. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cambridge: Annual Review, 2001.
Hojjati, Behjat. "Chinese Policies Aim to Increase Energy Efficiency in
Buildings." U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2015.

35

IEA. Energy Balance f Non-OECD Countries 1971-2007. Report. International

Energy Agency. Paris, 2009.
Jin-long, Ouyang, et al. "A study on the Relationship Between Household
Lifestyle and Energy Consumption of Residential Buildings in China." Journal of
South China University of Technology 35 (2007).
Lang, Siwei. "Progree in Energy-efficiency Standards for Residential Buildings in
China." Energy and Buildings 36.12 (2004): 1191-196.
M Evans, B Shui. "Enforcing Building Energy Codes in China: Progress and
Comparative Lessons." n.d.
MOC. The Chinese Green Building Evaluation System. Beijing, 2006.
Ni, Yu Zhang. . : , 2015.
Nina Khanna, John Romankiewicz, Wei Feng, Nan Zhou, Qing Ye. "Comparative
Policy Study of Green Buildings in U.S. and China." Shenzhen Institute of
Building Research, 2014.
Qin, Yalan. "Green Building Industry in China." International City/ County
Management Association, 2015.
Shui Bin, Li Jun. "Building Energy Efficiency POlicies in China." 2012.
Shui Bin, Steven Nadel, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
"How Does China Achieve a 95% Compliance Rate for Building Energy Codes?:
A Discussion about Chinas Inspection System and Compliance Rates." 2012.
The World Bank. "Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development in China." The
World Bank, 2012.
U.S. Energy Information Administratoin. "International Energy Data And
Analysis - China." 2015.
Varodompun, Jatuwat and Mojtaba Navvab. "HVAC VENTILATION STRATEGIES:
THE CONTRIBUTION FOR THERMAL COMFORT, ENERGY EFFICIENCY, AND
INDOOR AIR QUALITY." n.d.
Wang, Rui. Sustainable Urban Development in China . UCLA. LA, 2009.
Zhang, Zhe-yi, et al. Present Development and Economics of Green Building
under the 12th Five-year Plan . Xuzhou Institute of Technology. Xuzhou, n.d.

36
Zhao, Xiaoli, Na Li and Chunbo Ma. Residential Energy Consumption in Urban
China. Working Paper. North China Electric Power University, The University of
Western Australia . Beiijing, Crawley, 2011.
Zhou, Yang. " Comparison of Chinese Green Building Standard with Western
Green Building standards ." KTH Industrial Engineering and Management, 2014.

Timeline (Appendix Two)

Iven Wu

ProjectProposal
Initial Idea
Develop question
Define project scope
Write abstract
Updated Abstract and Part one Write-up draft
Updated Abstract and Part one Write-up final
Final Abstract
Final Proposal Submission
LiteratureReview
Gather sources(try30)
Annotated bibliography
Synthesize ideas
Literature review write-out
Submission
Methodology
Mentor seeking
Menor Confirmed and Signed
Researching
Interviewing(Developersand Professions)
MethodologyDraft
Refine methods
Test methodology
Submission
Research
Gather Data
Analyze data
Synthesize results
Communicate results
Submission
SeniorProjectNight
Refine abstract
Presentation
11x17Project Poster
Final Project Poster
Other
MaryGatesProposal
MaryGatesSymposium
Bullit Center Visiting
6Slides/ 5MinutesPresentation
Senior Project Due

Autumn Quarter

Winter Quarter

SpringQuarter

9-Mar
30-Mar
27-Apr

9-Dec
finish 12

finish 30

3-Feb

13-Jan

24-Feb

13-May

11-Mar
25-May

37

Interview Questions (Appendix Three)

1. What is your general impression on American building comparing to a Chinese residential
building? (For American interviewees, order of this question will be flipped)
2. Where do you think the industry, or the urban development in China going?
3. How do you foresee Chinas energy consumption in buildings, specifically on residential
buildings? Why do you think so?
4. What are the advantages of the buildings from each country (including engineering
advances, lifestyle, operating systems)? What can each country learn form each other?
5. Green building system: Which system do you think can promote a sustainable development
in China, the LEED or the 3-star?
6. What do you think are some most effective measures to promote a more sustainable urban
development, especially on eliminating energy consumption growth?
7. Green factors usually increase overall cost to a building, which de-incentivize developers
from developing green buildings. What is your take on that? And how do you prevent this
form occurring?
8. From my research, I read some articles saying that the government is lacking
implementation or inspection to enforce regulations that target on reducing energy
consumption and sustainability. Do you think that is true?
9. Centralized operating system is regarded as efficient system that could lower energy
consumption. However, it turned out that individual split units allow users to turn on and off
whenever necessary and as a result consuming much less energy, for example in China.
What is your viewpoint on that? Which kind of system do you think is more effective in
saving energy?

Interview Record: Jianxin Man (Appendix Four)

38

HVAC

LEED

HVAC

LEED

LEED

LEED 09
LEED

80
75%

LEED
08

MOMA

MOMA

39

40

Interview Record: Fengwei Pan (Appendix Five)

22 20%30%
15 10 10

1/5 1/4.

8 10
56 23

HVAC

41

24

LEED

LEED LEED

1
2

3 LEED 09

2 1 8

42

43

Interview Record: Dan Abramson (Appendix Six)

1. What is your general impression on American building comparing to a
Chinese residential building? (For American interviewees, order of this
question will be flipped)
American: Lower density, takes up more land, lower building. But much
less durable, American building mostly just wood(woods, studs, fiber
glass, composite material), many layers. Not very thick and not very
durable. Although I live in a house, which is built in 1920s, like many
other inner city suburban in Seattle are, and its very durable. Because
the woods are larger timbers, theres plasters. Surfaces would finished
better
Chinese: A lot of housings are pretty new, hard to find a historic
buildings, building built at 1920s these days. However, materials are
quite durable, they are concrete, but fairly simple. Simply concrete with
steels, and maybe tiles on the outside, there is no real installation
materials. Windows are usually poorly installed. Poorly constructed even
they have more durable material. I have seen buildings that whose
finished surfaces, that the surfaces take a lot of wear, surfaces that
would normally finished fairly well in US, but in China within a year it
would fall apart. Maintenance is bad. It reflects not so much technological
problem, but organizational and economic problem. The interest and
responsibilities that people involves in the constructions and
maintanence of the building is very different, an that has so more to do
with the Legal infrastructure. Here if some pieces of the building fall
apart, some body could be sued. In China is very difficult to find someone
take responsibility.
Less efficient? In terms of cost, it is very hard to compare. Because the
cost in China is relatively low. Little training, worse quality, lower cost,
lower labor, less institutional oversight, insurance, all these things higher
the cost of construction in the States. In terms of resource and energy
consumption, the amount of time you can use of the building after it
built, probably American construction is better. The fact that American
constructions are more expensive in some extends reflects the
environmental and energy consumption cost, that is simply because that
is a more transparent system. Everything in China is so cheap is because
many of the external cost are not being considered.
2. Where do you think the industry, or the urban development in China
going?
Much of the urban development that has happened in the recent decade
and a half is driven by the local governmental finance system, which is
also a system of rewarding local governor in particular way, inefficient

44
form of development, very construction based form of development.
There is no property tax, municipal revenue is obtained by the least of
land right, not the long term value of the land overtime. When a
developer obtains the land to develop, city has very strong incentives to
take rural land and find ways to least out to developers, because thats
how they get revenue. That is very short-term system maintaining public
finance. The second factor, the central party reward the local
government for contribution to GDP growth, and its by far the dominant
criteria to see how does the government performs. It is an efficient or
effective way to increase GDP by building things, so thats drving a lot of
construction. This has coming to a halt for couple of different reasons.
The change really started from 2008. Macroeconomic background:
Chinas ability to spend money is based on export manufacturing, cheap
and effective, environmental and social cost of mobilizing rural
population to work in laboring factory has been kept low in variety ways,
so they can compete with the world. When 2008 financial crisis, the
market of these export goods weaken. Much of where China is getting its
money and piling up the foreign currency reserves was no longer so
much in wealth. Less demanding on Chinese manufacturing. Government
starts to look at different way of development, turn into internal
consumption. Start putting the money to major domestic infrastructure
development projects, airport expansions big constructions. And that
urban expansion even boom more and the housing prices goes up more.
It became obvious that there is a bubble, that there was over capacity. So
now I think urban development is going to slow down, there has been
effort in expansion that out to the country side, , all the new
village construction projects. But that is too demanding, and also not
serving a real need of the real population, so I dont think that is going to
continue much, and in Chengdu it has come to a halt. I dont really know.
Government may find a way to keep on building. My hope is that more
governmental resources go into education and social service, and the
public will start to spend their money less tangible. People will spend
more money on foods, tourism than housing and cars. A lot more
spending on cultural activity. Soft power that is more balance between
country and cities. In the community
bigger investment in educations, make those places more connected, a
lot had to be done to the environment
3. How do you foresee Chinas energy consumption in buildings, specifically
on residential buildings? Why do you think so?
There are architects who doing beautiful but low impact buildings in the
country side. One of the problem the have when James go to China and
find out whether the living future challenge can be implemented in
China, they always go to big city. The city is just too big to build that kind
of building everywhere except the edge. Because that kind of building

45
has very low density with only 5 story. But there are rural towns, resorts,
small places of country where that size of buildings are appropriate.
When I talk to architect in China to see whether that could be
implemented, when they asked me how much that cost, and that is much
much higher than their expectation. The main structural frame is
designed to last 150 years or so.
In the old days, it was the actual technology, that buildings were
frequently taken apart and put back together. So the actual houses did
not last a long time but the pieces of them did. That is a very sustainable
approach. The goal I think is to undertand how energy is embody in the
building can be conserved while keeping the building very modern and
up to date.
It doesnt necessary mean high industrial technology.
4. What are the advantages of the buildings from each country (including
engineering advances, lifestyle, operating systems)? What can each
country learn form each other?
5. Green building system: Which system do you think can promote a
sustainable development in China, the LEED or the 3-star?
I dont think there is a single system that is so efficient could be applied
everywhere. There has to be local systems. But some of the principles
can be applied. The climate, water system is different. And China is huge.
Its interesting that LEED system doesnt do a good job in taking local
conditions into account, and in fact American systems in general pretty
bad about that, they succeed in standardizing the system over a large
territory. But one of the things that LEED want to do is to become
regional so it can adapt to different climatic zones. Im not really familiar
with the 3-star system. LEED is different from most systems that it is very
American , it works as a marketing tool with the check list, it does not
attempt to integrate different elements much. It works here because the
power of consumer to drive the market.
6. What do you think are some most effective measures to promote a more
sustainable urban development, especially on eliminating energy
consumption growth?
As we discussed today, the principle is very important; this is not
only a technical principle (about materials, climate, etc.) but also a
social, political and cultural one. In other words, it is important that local
communities develop sense of self-determination and responsibility for
the future of their environment.
7. Green factors usually increase overall cost to a building, which deincentivize developers from developing green buildings. What is your

46
take on that? And how do you prevent this form occurring?
Somehow the long-term costs of building construction and operation
must be incorporated into rents, prices, taxes and fees, so that everyone
is accountable. This will take some of the burden off developers, and
increase demand for more efficient buildings
8. From my research, I read some articles saying that the government is
lacking implementation or inspection to enforce regulations that target
on reducing energy consumption and sustainability. Do you think that is
true?
Very true, theres a bottom up movement in China that people dont
actually trust the government but develop their own organization.
9. Centralized operating system is regarded as efficient system that could
lower energy consumption. However, it turned out that individual split
units allow users to turn on and off whenever necessary and as a result
consuming much less energy, for example in China. What is your
viewpoint on that? Which kind of system do you think is more effective in
saving energy?
I am not expert in this, but I am sure the answer is it depends. I doubt
that either system is always more efficient than the other; I just cant tell
you what factors make the difference.