How to realize low-carbon economy from the perspective of intelligent building equipment and facilities; The Role of Property Management in Developing Low-carbon Economy

How does "low-carbon real estate" change from a gimmick to a reality?

Let real estate "pay the bill" for economic transformation

When all eyes are on housing prices, few people pay attention to the transformation of the real estate industry. In fact, whether the real estate industry can adapt to the general trend of low-carbon economy and embark on a development path with low energy consumption and low emissions may determine the prospects of this industry to a greater extent.

The real estate industry is the pillar industry of the national economy, and it is also a large household with high energy consumption and high emissions. From the production and transportation of building materials to the construction, maintenance and demolition in the process of building construction, as well as the lighting, heating and the use of household appliances in the process of residential operation, a lot of energy is consumed. According to the data, with the acceleration of urbanization, it is estimated that by 2020, the energy consumption of houses in the process of construction and use will account for 40% of the total energy consumption of society and become the largest energy consumer.

According to estimates, if the energy consumption in the process of building construction and use is converted into carbon emissions, the newly-built 1 m2 building will emit about 0.8 tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to an annual increase of1.60 billion tons of carbon emissions based on the current construction of 2 billion square meters of housing in China. The carbon emission of the whole construction industry accounts for almost 50% of the total carbon emission in China, which is much higher than that of transportation and industry. The real estate industry with an annual completion area of more than 700 million square meters is undoubtedly a major carbon emitter in the construction industry.

The reality of high energy consumption and high emissions in the real estate industry also means that the real estate industry has great potential and broad space to save energy and reduce emissions and take the road of "low-carbon real estate".

"Many people are saying that China's economic development should be' de-real estate'. In fact, it means that China's economic development cannot be driven by real estate investment alone. " Gu Yunchang, vice president of China Real Estate and Housing Research Association, said that low-carbon real estate is an opportunity for the transformation of the real estate industry, which can not only give full play to the advantages of the real estate industry in stimulating economic growth, but also has the characteristics of low energy consumption and low emissions.

Nie Meisheng, president of the Real Estate Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, believes that developing low-carbon real estate means using low-carbon building materials, low-carbon construction methods, low-carbon decoration and household appliances. Therefore, this will not only promote the energy saving and emission reduction of the real estate industry itself, but also drive dozens of related industries in the upstream and downstream to increase energy saving and emission reduction, thus opening up a very important transformation path for industrial restructuring.

"In the past, we thought that the real estate industry was low in science and technology and could not contribute to economic transformation. This understanding is wrong. For upstream and downstream related industries, the real estate industry is a' buyer', and what kind of road real estate takes determines what kind of road these related industries take. " Nie Meisheng said, "We should strive to make real estate pay for the transformation of China's economy, not for the vicious expansion of China's economy."

"Low carbon" needs quantifiable assessment.

"Low-carbon real estate" is not a new concept. Similar expressions such as "green house" and "low-carbon community" have become a common practice in the real estate market in recent years.

However, most of the so-called low-carbon projects on the market at present only use low-carbon as a gimmick to promote sales or raise prices by gold plating. Awards issued by various institutions also make low-carbon real estate gradually become a tool of "low-carbon speculation".

The industry generally believes that the lack of authoritative, quantifiable and operational standards is the biggest problem facing the development of low-carbon real estate. This leads to the lack of guidance for developers, lack of reference for buyers, and low-carbon real estate stays in concept for a long time, which is difficult to evaluate.

In view of this situation, the Real Estate Chamber of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, based on the practice of promoting "ecological residential areas" in recent 10 years, compiled the Framework System of Carbon Reduction Technology Assessment for Green Low-carbon Residential Areas in China, which has been submitted to relevant departments for approval.

It is understood that the "Assessment System" refers to the most extensive and authoritative energy-saving certification standard system in the world-the American green building standard LEED, and establishes a calculation method for residential carbon emissions. The energy saved by the four systems of building energy saving, water saving, greening and low-carbon transportation will be converted into corresponding carbon emission reduction, and the quantitative score will be made.

Since 2009, the real estate chamber of commerce has selected the first batch of 10 "green low-carbon residential demonstration projects" in different climatic zones in China, and promoted the application of green finance, low-carbon technology and low-carbon products by demonstrating and popularizing green low-carbon technologies in these projects.

Take Shanghai Jingwei Urban Oasis Project as an example. The construction area of the project is 287,000 square meters, the green rate is 43%, and the annual carbon reduction per unit area is 2.26 kilograms. The water saving rate is 25.4%, and the annual carbon reduction per unit area is 0.92 kg; The energy saving rate is 56.2%, and the annual carbon reduction per unit area is18.07 kg; There are 1.562 motor vehicle parking spaces, all of which participate in the initiative of "less parking every day 1 km", and the annual carbon reduction per unit area is 0.72 kg. The total annual carbon reduction of the whole project is 2 1.97kg per square meter, and the total annual carbon reduction is 6,303 tons, saving the annual operating expenses by 3 15 1 10,000 yuan.

It is worth noting that the 10 demonstration project is not a luxury house in people's memory, and most of them are ordinary residential projects and even affordable housing projects. "In fact, the development cost of low-carbon housing will only increase by 200-300 yuan per square meter at most. As far as development cost is concerned, it is entirely possible for ordinary housing." Nie Meisheng said that low-carbon housing is not equal to high-priced luxury houses, and the purpose of compiling the evaluation system is to promote the low-carbon of all ordinary houses, rather than just doing a few low-carbon image projects.

Explore the financial support of low-carbon real estate

The slow progress of energy conservation and emission reduction in many industries is due to "saving energy without saving money". According to the method proposed in the evaluation system, can low-carbon real estate save money for developers and households?

According to the experience of demonstration projects and the standard of reducing carbon emissions by 20 kilograms per square meter every year, relevant experts have calculated an account: in terms of residential quarters, at present, about 654.38 billion square meters of houses in China can be transformed into green and low-carbon residential quarters, and the total carbon reduction of the four major systems of greening, water saving, energy saving and transportation can reach 200 million tons per year. The energy consumption of commercial buildings is 10 to 15 times that of residential buildings, and it is estimated that the annual carbon reduction space can reach at least1000 million tons. Coupled with the construction link, it can reduce 200 million tons. Only the above three items can reduce the total carbon emissions by about 654.38+0.4 billion tons each year, thus saving about 700 billion yuan in construction and operation costs.

In Nie Meisheng's view, the driving force of the evaluation system for the development of low-carbon real estate is not only to save money, but to combine financial innovation and change the development mode of the real estate industry.

According to her introduction, at present, the Chamber of Commerce is working with relevant authorities around the evaluation system to explore the establishment of a "carbon point" mechanism for real estate, and strive to make low-carbon related to the whole process of real estate development and become a low-carbon measure for developers.

The so-called "carbon score" means that every time a developer develops a project, the financial department can calculate and rate the carbon reduction of the project according to the "evaluation system" and count it into the developer's credit record. The lower the carbon content of the project, the higher the developer's "carbon score", and the more advantageous it is in lending and taking land. Relevant venture capital funds will also make equity investment in low-carbon real estate projects with reference to the "carbon point".

At present, this concept of "carbon point" has been recognized by some enterprises and funds. "The rapid development of the real estate industry in the future needs two wings, one is low carbon and the other is finance. Low-carbon real estate must be supported by venture capital, and the combination of capital and green low-carbon can promote the development of China real estate industry. This is a way to connect with the international community. " Nie Meisheng said.

Nie Meisheng said that the real estate industry is in great need of unified and authoritative low-carbon certification standards. The Chamber of Commerce has completed the first step of formulating an evaluation system and hopes to further seek cooperation with the government in the future. "Our goal is the same, that is, to promote the development of low-carbon economy and energy conservation and emission reduction in China."

Need an "inclusive" incentive policy

The real estate industry, like all other industries, needs the support of incentive policies in addition to standards and demonstration projects to increase energy conservation and emission reduction.

Internationally, national governments that have done well in building energy conservation have corresponding economic incentive policies. For example, according to the regulations of the United States, each set of newly-built buildings that save more than 30%-50% energy on the basis of energy-saving standards can be reduced or exempted from 1000 to $2,000 respectively. At present, China has also introduced some preferential policies. For example, some projects use new energy sources such as ground source heat pump and solar energy, and the finance will give subsidies.

"The current policy is still limited to encouraging the application of new products and technologies, rather than an inclusive policy mechanism." Nie Meisheng suggested that the carbon reduction index can be set as the parameter of land transfer, and the simple land transfer mode of "the highest price wins" can be changed. This not only reduces the development cost of low-carbon projects, but also encourages real estate enterprises to actively apply green and low-carbon technologies, which is also conducive to stabilizing land prices and housing prices.

The relevant person in charge of Vanke Group believes that effective incentive policies can not only share a series of costs and risks of enterprises in the initial stage of low-carbon buildings, but also enhance the determination of enterprises to invest in research and development in low-carbon fields. These policies will also produce a series of auxiliary effects, which will have a long-term infiltration of the environmental protection concept and life concept of the whole society, thus forming a scale effect and greatly reducing the difficulty of promoting low-carbon buildings.

Experts from the Housing Industrialization Promotion Center of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development suggested that a national medium-and long-term plan for the development of low-carbon buildings should be formulated, energy, greening and transportation should be integrated as soon as possible, and a special management organization should be set up for systematic management and deployment. Technology, policies and regulations should be adopted in a multi-pronged manner to gradually form a good pattern of "government-led, market-oriented and social participation".