Green building. The Chinese government has developed a keen interest in the green building market. Since many years there has been an exchange with Europe, US, Canada, Singapore and Australia about green building practices. The exchange and technical assistance has focused on the adaptation of ‘passive’ energy-efficient house construction. Pertinent to this, the government has issued its own green building classification system (the ‘three star’ system). The government has studied the international experiences of green building certification and is considering the introduction of binding standards of energy-efficiency, both for new construction as well as for retrofitting of existing buildings. The New Urbanization Policy has instructed that newly built residential buildings must be equipped with individual measurement of household heating consumption, while that shall be gradually provided for existing residential buildings.
