Green building is cost-effective

1. Upfront investment in green building makes properties more valuable, with an average expected increase in value of 4 percent. By virtue of lowered maintenance and energy costs the return on investment from green building is rapid: green retrofit projects are generally expected to pay for itself in just seven years. 3

Green building (GB) policies have been implemented to promote GB and address climate change. Most of the existing literature have studied the costs and benefits of developing GB, without considerations of GB policies’ impacts. This paper aims to study the costs and benefits of implementing GB policy from the developers’ perspective.

The original policy issued by The Science Council of Japan was in Japanese, and this English article summarises the policy that outlined a roadmap to realize a healthy low-carbon society. The aim of the policy is to build a low carbon footprint and high environmental performance. There are four parts as below: 

(1) Increasing motivation for new, healthy, low-carbon lifestyles and behavioral changes

Cities need to become ‘smarter’ if we are to save the planet. John Dora, editor of a special issue of ICE Engineering Sustainability journal on smart cities, says the ingenuity of civil engineers will be essential for their delivery.