Energy saving and carbon reduction make urban buildings "green"

Source: Economic Daily News client

Urban architecture is an important cornerstone of economic and cultural development, and its status and function are self-evident in the social development of our country. However, with the acceleration of China's urbanization process, the environmental problems caused by urban buildings are more and more prominent. "In order to achieve a harmonious coexistence between economic and social development and ecological and environmental protection, we must speed up the transformation of urban architecture and take the road of green, low-carbon and circular development." Beijing Institute of Technology School of economics dean Wang Zhaohua said.

As the core symbol of modern city, urban architecture plays an important role in energy consumption and carbon emission in our country. According to statistics, the upstream and downstream carbon emissions of the national construction industry account for more than 50% of the total carbon emissions in the country. At present, China is in the middle and late stage of industrialization, facing serious environmental pollution problems and increasingly tight resource endowment constraints. In this context, the energy saving and carbon reduction of urban buildings has become a top priority. Improving the energy efficiency of urban buildings and reducing carbon emissions is not only an environmental action, but also an investment in future sustainable development.

"Building characteristics in Beijing include high floor density, high plot ratio, and lots of elevators, stairs, etc. These factors lead to poor lighting and ventilation conditions, which in turn increases building energy consumption." Li Hao, associate professor at the School of Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, said the energy efficiency transformation of old buildings in Beijing faces challenges. These buildings have poor insulation performance and high energy consumption for heating in winter and cooling in summer. The acceleration of urbanization has led to an increasing number of new buildings and new challenges. Many buildings are designed and constructed without sufficient consideration of energy conservation and environmental protection, resulting in low energy efficiency and becoming a "black hole" of energy consumption and carbon emissions. This situation makes the task of building energy saving and carbon reduction even more difficult.

"In order to promote the green development and energy conservation and emission reduction of urban buildings in Beijing, the first task is to calculate the resource energy consumption and carbon emission data of civil buildings in Beijing." Wang Zhaohua believes that it is very important to establish a complete energy consumption and carbon emission index system for buildings in Beijing, and to calculate the total energy consumption and carbon emissions of civil buildings. This will help in-depth analysis of the internal mechanism of energy conservation and carbon reduction in civil buildings in Beijing, and provide a basis for the formulation of targeted green, energy saving and low-carbon development policies in the building sector.

"Based on the in-depth analysis of energy consumption and carbon emissions of civil buildings in Beijing, we made clear that the action mechanism of civil buildings to achieve energy conservation and carbon reduction mainly covers three aspects: improving energy efficiency, optimizing energy structure and strengthening building energy efficiency design." Wang Zhaohua said that improving the efficiency of energy efficiency is one of the key ways to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction in civil buildings. This requires that in the whole process of building design, construction and operation, we should consider how to reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency.

Optimizing energy structure is also an important means to achieve energy saving and carbon reduction in civil buildings. In the energy supply of buildings, advocate and widely use clean energy and renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, etc. In addition, it is also necessary to optimize the management of the energy demand of the building, and realize the efficient use of energy through the intelligent control system.

The strengthening of building energy saving design is the key link to reduce energy consumption and carbon emission of civil buildings. In the design stage of the building, it is necessary to fully consider its energy-saving characteristics, including the design of orientation, ventilation, lighting, etc., to reduce the energy consumption of the building to a minimum. At the same time, it emphasizes the integration of green building concepts, such as adopting environmentally friendly building materials, improving green coverage rate and other measures to achieve the environmental protection, low-carbon and sustainable development goals of buildings.

"The energy saving and carbon reduction of urban buildings is an important part of achieving ecological civilization and sustainable development. As Beijing and other big cities continue to promote energy conservation and carbon reduction, we can see that urban buildings are gradually becoming "green". This will not only help reduce carbon emissions and improve environmental quality, but also promote the green transformation of the economy." Li Hao said.

(Responsible Editor: Zhang Xue)