Third Parties in the Implementation of Building Energy Codes in China
Publication Date:
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Summary:
In recent years, China has been adding 17.2 to 21.5 billion square feet (or 1.6 to 2.0 billion square meters) of new residential and commercial buildings each year, making it the largest market for new construction in the world. Though the enforcement of China’s building energy codes has been widely viewed as fraught with challenges, in recent years China has seemingly achieved unusual progress in improving its compliance rate at both design and construction stages. According to China’s annual national inspection of building energy efficiency in urban areas, the compliance rates with building energy codes at both design and construction stages in urban areas have improved from 53% (design) and 21% (construction) in 2005 to 99.5% and 95.4%, respectively, in 2010.
What is the definition of the compliance rate in China’s enforcement of building energy codes? If the improvement data are accurate, how is it that China has been able to bring about such impressive improvements in only five years? This paper will try to answer the above questions, with a focus on the role of third parties in the implementation of building energy codes. The paper concludes that strong governmental support and effective employment of third parties, coupled with strict quality control and supervision, are the key factors for China’s impressive improvement of compliance with building energy codes.
China, the world’s largest residential and commercial building market, has in recent years added 17.2 to 21.5 billion square feet (or 1.6 to 2.0 billion square meters) of new construction annually (Center of Science and Technology of Construction, 2011). In order to improve the energy efficiency of such a large stock of new buildings at the design and construction stages, since 2005 the Chinese government has launched a series of national policies and projects to promote the enforcement of building energy codes, including the release of new building energy codes (2005, 2007), the Energy Conservation Law (the second version published in 2007) and the Regulation of Energy Conservation in Civil Buildings (2008).
According to China’s annual national inspection of building energy efficiency, compliance rates have improved from 53% (design stage) and 21% (construction stage) in 2005 to 99.5% and 95.4%, respectively, in 2010. What is the definition of the compliance rate in China’s enforcement of building energy codes? If the improvement data are indeed accurate, how did China make it happen in only five years?
This report focuses on the introduction of third parties in the enforcement of compliance with building energy codes, including a brief introduction to China’s building energy codes (Section 2), the role of third parties in ensuring compliance with building energy codes (Section 3), the administration of third parties (Section 4), and the existing issues related to the management of third parties in China (Section 5).
