Can green building make China’s cities more competitive?
[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18127" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_bottom="20"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] By Christopher Gray [dropcaps type='normal' color='' background_color='' border_color='']N[/dropcaps]ovember’s historic climate change agreement between China and the United States provides the green building community with another opportunity to evaluate our movement’s importance to China’s long-term economic and environmental forecast. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has already become a major driver of market transformation in China, but how does green building fit into the complex puzzle of China’s overarching economic and demographic trends? Now that President Xi Jinping has signaled the full extent of China’s commitment to combating climate change and greening its economy, several questions remain regarding the long-term strategic direction that China should take to ensure that it reaches its ambitious goals. Given current conditions and projections, it is clear that China’s best chance of reaching its goal of capping carbon emissions by the year 2030 is to focus on a rapid green transformation of its urban centers. The most logical first step in this process would be to focus on the transformation of China’s built environment, not only in established international cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, but also in China’s emerging...