By Jessie Chen
What is a “green building?” Does this mean that the color of the building has to be green? No. Since the 1970s, when serious environmental problems began to emerge, two worldwide energy crises in the early 80s and 90s prompted many countries to dedicate themselves to worldwide environmental protection, and especially to sustainable development. In December 1992 the United Nations created a division called “The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)” to monitor and ensure the follow-up and implementation of former agreements at all levels. As a widely-used international definition of sustainable development suggests, it must “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainable development can be viewed as a development pattern that takes economic efficiency, environmental protection, and social justice into consideration and tries to strike a balance among them. Under such an environment-friendly stream of thought, there also rose up the concept of “green buildings,” which has been adopted by many governments in their construction-related laws. Many countries have been focusing on different issues relating to green building for years and have passed legislation to demand that the design and construction of certain buildings satisfy the criteria of green building. For example, in the 1990s the German government started to require that 30% of the thermal energy of residences in some areas had to come from solar energy. Moreover, the government also made use of financial tools to encourage investors to develop more energy-saving designs into their buildings. In Taiwan, the Executive Yuan has used green building concepts for sustainable development projects since 1996. According to Taiwan’s green building evaluation system, there are seven main indicators: 1. the building site, 2. water conservation, 3. energy savings, 4. water resources, 5. carbon dioxide emissions, 6. waste disposal, and 7. sewage and garbage disposal. By means of this system, the Ministry of the Interior hopes to motivate nongovernmental architects and builders to devote themselves to green building standards, to lower the impact of the construction on the environment, to create a healthy indoor environment for the occupants, to utilize energy efficiently and save resources, and to maintain and even elevate the sustainability of the environment. Up to now, however, only a few model buildings which follow green building criteria have been completed in Taiwan, and some are open to visitors, such as NTU’s model green house near Jilung Rd. The design of the house, the choice of materials, and the construction of the garden all satisfy the prerequisites of a green building. For example, in order to save electricity, its walls and roof were made of different layers like a sandwich with energy-saving materials. Though the idea of green building has been promoted for some time, many people still seem unaware of it. In other words, there is still much room for both the government and the people to strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection, thus making Taiwan a truly green island. For more information: 1. Green Building Information Centre < http://greenbuilding.ca/GBIC.htm> 2. United Nations Division for Sustainable Development < http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/> 3. International Institute for Sustainable Development <<a href=“http://www.iisd.org/”>http://www.iisd.org/> a
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May 2024
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