Buildings, protective ofMother Earth now

From late September to mid-October, thousands of visitors from around the world thronged an exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan province, to make sense of a quiet revolution sweeping the global property construction industry.

The exhibition at Huashan 1914 Creative Park was hosted by TaipeiDelta Electronics Inc, which has constructed and donated some 20 green buildings over the past decade.

Bruce Cheng, founder of Delta, a power and thermal management solutions provider, is an avowed advocate of green buildings.

“If we do not do it now, it’ll become a regret in future,” he said, underlining the urgent need to make all buildings environmentally friendly.

So, the Delta Electronics Foundation, backed by him, launched a book in late September. In the book, Cheng and his colleagues discuss specific green buildings built or donated by Delta.

Their message is clear: green buildings are not expensive in terms of long-term benefits. Nor are they a luxury in the short term. They are affordable and comfortable constructions that sustain environment as well as users (like residents and office workers) in the long run.

Fittingly, Delta’s headquarters in Taipei are housed in a green building. There, use of power is 58 percent lower compared to conventional buildings. Specifically, lighting uses 74 percent less power; air conditioning uses 25 percent less power.

What’s more, structural and design alterations optimize use of natural light and air flow. Shades, energy recycling system used in elevators, and power and thermal management solutions developed by Delta make the building totally green.

Analysts said many global companies

Extent of energy savings at Delta’s green HQ in Taipei, Taiwan province

are aware of the rising demand for green building solutions. Architects, property consultancies, equipment makers and construction material suppliers are all looking at the development in this field. Microscopic efforts like training building users in “green behavior” are being planned.

“It is estimated that the market size of green building solutions for newly built properties in China could reach a level much surpassing a trillion yuan ($151 billion) by 2030, and materials and equipment are taking the most share,” said a research note by Essense Securities.

Demand for these solutions is also emerging from existing buildings going in for renovation to become green, said Qiu Baoxing, a Beijing-based housing expert and former vice-minister with theMinistry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Qiu said old buildings with built-up space of 20 billion square meters need to be renovated to make them environmentally friendly. That would entail investments of 1.5 trillion yuan.

A nationwide carbon trading system, which enables carbonemitting enterprises to trade their quota with property firms that cut carbon emissions and save energy in their construction, is expected to further encourage buildings to go green.

In 2013, a Beijing-based property developer renovated its old buildings, which helped it to sell off its carbon emission quota of 1,000 metric tons per year. Postrenovation, it could sell credits worth 2,000 tons of carbon emissions. Similar deals have since been reported from other cities.