CHINA ISSUES STANDARDS ON ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY BUILDINGS

Wednesday December 7, 2005, 6:39 pm BEIJING, Dec 7 Asia Pulse - China's Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Science and Technology have jointly issued the Directory Technical Rules on Environment-Friendly Buildings, aiming at directing, promoting and standardizing the development of such buildings. According to the rules, development of environment-friendly buildings shall follow the development mode of unified planning of urban and rural areas, and the concepts of circular economy, compact urban space.

They should also mobilize the whole society to explore the energy conservancy of buildings, land, water and materials, and balance the relations among conservation of energy, land, water, materials, and environmental protection.

The rules stress technical innovation, new industrialization form of low consumption of resources and less pollution, efficiency and cost of buildings. They also direct market development and demand, promote simplicity, and oppose luxuriousness, in accordance with local economic development.

The development of environment-friendly buildings should respect local culture, history and custom on the basis of local natural resources condition, economy and climate, and strengthen the protection and re-utilization of the local environment, history and cultural system.

The rules also call for attention to a building's lifetime, adaptability to natural conditions, protection of natural environment, and creating suitable and healthy environment.

Index system on environment-friendly buildings covers six parts of land saving and outdoor environment, energy saving and energy utilization, water saving and utilization of water resources, saving of materials and material resources, indoor environment quality, and operation management, which include various assessment indexes on planning, designing, construction, operation management and recycling.