While green building is taking off in North America and Europe, the world’s busiest construction centres in Asia are neglecting to implement any eco-friendly practices. China is reportedly responsible for half of the world’s new buildings, but theirs consume 2-3 times as much energy per unit of floor space than a new building in a Western country.
In Europe, there is a deadline in place where all buildings have to produce as much energy as they consume by 2019. But to implement the same kind of deadline in Asia would be near impossible, because all that matters is the bottom line. They don’t care about the money they would save over time through green practices.
If office buildings make up 30% of an average country’s total energy consumption, how much worse is China’s dirty coal consumption going to get while more and more inefficient buildings are being erected. According to the UN’s Environmental program, green buildings could save 1.8 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted every year.
So why isn’t there anything being done to enforce any of these green building rules?
Photo Credit: Jerome B Photography
