Improvements to Sustainable Development of Residential Buildings in China: Sustainable Building Guide

Abstract

The depletion of nonrenewable resources and global climate change is currently challenging human life. In the wake of sustainable built environments becoming an irreplaceable tendency worldwide, China has been encouraging green building design, construction, and operation in recent years. The Evaluation Standard for Green Building, as first national green building assessment tool, was introduced in 2006. Although this rating tool is a benchmark for sustainable development of the building sector in China, there are deficiencies that hinder genuinely sustainable development. This research evaluates the existing Chinese green building rating system, identifies beneficial strategies from best practice examples of green building assessment systems worldwide and formulates a new sustainable building guide for China. The new guide could contribute to the basis of the second generation of green building assessment tools in China. In addition, this research introduces the concept of net Positive Development that promotes ecologically and socially value-added development.