Greentech Lead Europe: While environmental goals and energy security are driving
government policies on green buildings, eventually cost and affordability
determine the pace of their adoption, says a new report from Lux
Research.
Countries with high per capita incomes tend to be the
early adopters of green buildings, says the report titled, “Policy’s Dramatic
Impact on Green Buildings: The Global Hotspots.”
Rich countries like U.S., Singapore, South Korea,
Germany and Australia are keen to adopt expensive technologies and emerging
technologies such as dynamic windows, green roofs and BIPV. They also create
attractive policy regimes for green buildings.
However, the report found that energy-rich countries like
Brazil are lagging in policies that support green buildings but fast-growing
nations are ahead on account of their need to contain ever-increasing energy
costs and simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Buildings are the spine of the increasingly urban world
we find ourselves in, now containing over 50 percent of the global human
population. Buildings use 40 percent of the world’s energy and account for 40
percent of the carbon dioxide emissions,” said Aditya Ranade, Lux Research
analyst and the lead author of the report.
“Policy measures, along with ability to pay, payback
periods, and addressable market size, should determine a firm’s decision on
which countries to invest precious market development funds in,” he added.
Unlike securing energy supply, which is viewed as a
zero-sum game, green buildings and energy efficiency are seen as “win-win”
possibilities, leading to cooperation, like the work between USAID and India’s
BEE on developing the ECBC codes and carbon emission cap-and-trade programs in
several countries, the report said.
