Sun believes that with the advancement of technology and growth in supporting policies, the development of green construction will have a welcoming environment and the cost of going green will also drop. According to 2008 investigations, a construction that met the state’s one-star green standards cost an extra RMB 100 per square meter. The cost per square meter rose by RMB 250-270 for compliance with two-star standards, and RMB 350-450 for being built to three-star standards. Today this has been lowered to RMB 50, 150 and 250 respectively.

Normally application of renewable energy contributes to 40 percent of the extra spending on green buildings. When the state rules this to become the code for all buildings, the cost disparity between green and conventional buildings will narrow, deviating little from standard costs.

Driving the shift is undoubtedly the government’s policy support for the utilization of renewable energy. Solar power, for example, has become mandatory for new housing projects in many areas.

City and Lifestyle Renaissance

Wu Jianzhong, one of the masterminds of the Shanghai Expo’s city theme, comments that the Eco-House in Shanghai and its prototype are intended to highlight a holistic eco-living concept instead of isolated energy-saving and emission reduction technologies. “The model is just one cell of the city. If every building can reduce its drain on surrounding resources and orient to future reutilization, our low-carbon city will be realized,” he says.

“Eco-construction points the way for the development of world architecture in the 21st century. It can reconcile relations among men, and between architecture and nature, and propel the development of new materials and trades,” remarks Wang Wei, vice president of the Shanghai Research Institute of Building Science and head of the pilot eco-construction project. Wang predicts the market potential for this big picture within Shanghai will amount to RMB 16.4 billion. By his estimate, the adoption of eco-construction will save RMB 100 million in construction garbage treatment each year, cut cement consumption by three million tons and reduce building materials costs by RMB 600 million. In addition, eco-buildings can save 747,800 tons of standard coal in energy consumption, and the adoption of green building materials can save another 420,000 tons of standard coal. The result is an annual reduction of carbon dioxide discharge by 1.35 million tons.

Studies show that the energy consumption of existing buildings in Shanghai is three or four times that of developed countries. Industrial insiders point out that eco-construction is an architectural and lifestyle revolution, and its popular application depends very much on making its cost acceptable to consumers. They call for effective stimulus measures, policy guidance and support, related rules and regulations, comprehensive green standards, and an evaluation system. Much is yet to be done in these respects.