Taiwan's Builders Set to Go Even Greener Under Stricter Content Code
2009/07/30 | By Ken LiuOne can be sure that the Taiwan government did not intend to drum up business for suppliers of green building materials by raising the minimum content of building materials used in a structure from 5% to 30%, starting this July 1, with such legislative action likely meant to make construction greener in Taiwan. However building material suppliers do expect business to improve, so noticeably more have been applying to the nonprofit Taiwan Architecture and Building Center (TABC) for evaluation to be qualified for the government-certified "Green Building Material Label."
Taiwan began stipulating the 5% minimum eco-building material content in November 2006, which was added to an architectural technique statute in a recent amendment. "The eco material regulation was begun with a low threshold because few certified suppliers existed, coupled with low consumer acceptance; but such scenario has been reversed," Hsu says, noting that more consumers now than before call to ask for names of qualified suppliers.
The number of green-label-certified suppliers has increased to 121 from zilch in 2005, when the government began issuing such label. Certified suppliers have been granted 241 green labels for 1,953 products, including carpets, tiles, parquet flooring, adhesives, fillers, paints, glass, and cushions. The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) issues the label based on TABC's recommendations derived from its evaluations of applications, which are supported by test reports filed by government-approved laboratories.
Four types of green building materials are labeled: ecological, healthful, high-performance and recycled. "They are qualified according to the CNS or Chinese National Standards," says W.C. Wang, manager of the TABC environmental control division. "About 70% of certified materials are labeled as healthful," she notes, "because such issue is foremost on consumers' minds."
Building materials labeled as healthful contain no hazardous substances like formaldehyde and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), which are proven carcinogenic. Dr. S.S. Jiang, a kidney-disease specialist at the Shin Kong Wu Ho-su Memorial Hospital, points out that VOCs like formaldehyde and toluene contained in building materials continue to pose health hazards for at least 10 years. "By then the VOCs will likely have triggered diseases in your organs," he says.
The eco material law has teeth in regulating new private and public building projects: violators are denied building permits during the layout stage and move-in permits at completion.
Besides trying to make construction greener in Taiwan, the eco material regulations also try to clean up, literally, two dirty truths stigmatizing the island: Taiwan boasts reportedly the world's second-highest annual per-capita consumption of cement, and its builders burn a quarter of the island's energy output.
"Cement production guzzles energy to produce a huge amount of CO2 in the manufacturing," Hsu notes, adding that Taiwan depends on imported fuel for over 97% of its total energy, without explicitly saying that transporting such fuel over long distances further leaves a carbon footprint.
"Burning so much energy to produce cement etc. certainly disqualifies Taiwan to meet the Kyoto Protocol in greenhouse-gas reduction," notes Dr. Chen Wen-ching, a research fellow at the TABC and Energy and Resources Laboratories (ERL) of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). "Production with recycled materials can help cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 80% relative to using virgin materials," says Chen, who joined the government-sponsored task to set parameters for evaluating green building materials.
Voluntary Approach
Having a higher degree of social-consciousness may be among the reasons why Japan can get away with promoting the use of green building materials by mere persuasion, while Taiwan has to do so with legislation. "Japan adopts only the 'Eco Mark' to inspire the use of green materials. After nearly twenty years of promotion, a very high percentage of Japanese consumers voluntarily accept eco materials," Hsu notes. The mark is issued by the semi-official Japan Environmental Association.
According to chairman Jackie Yang of the trade body Taiwan Green Building Material Council (TGBMC), with a membership of over 57 certified eco-material manufacturers, Germany and Japan owe their post-WWII fate to being at the forefront of green building material technologies today. Both countries lay in ruins from being devastated during the war, with necessity being the mother of invention, Japan and Germany were forced to cull among the bombed remnants materials for reconstruction, which was probably the birth of recycling or reusing objects.
Citing a definition developed in 1992 by international academic groups, Yang notes that green building materials must be non-toxic and only incur minimal eco-burden during manufacturing and recycling. "By such definition, Taiwan's building-materials industry flops shamefully, for it still burns enormous amounts of energy, uses toxic substances, and emits unmentionable volumes of CO2 in manufacturing. The TGBMC, among its goals, aims to steer users away from hazardous materials for the sake of a healthy environment," he says.
During a recent visit of the Director General S.W. Yieh of MOI's Construction and Planning Agency (CPA), the executor of the government's eco-building policy, Yang appreciated the government's raising the green building material content to 30%. "We hope other government agencies will support using green materials and budget to promote such policy island-wide. We also hope Taiwan will catch up with countries like Germany and Japan in using green building materials," he says.
Only a Start
According to TABC CEO Hsu, Taiwan began in 2004 to promote making, using green building materials to professionals like material manufacturers and architects. "It's just a start and the scope of exposure is quite limited relative to the introduction of green buildings in elementary and junior-high textbooks beginning 10 years ago," he says. One of the most significant green buildings in such textbooks is the Beitou Branch of the Taipei Public Library.
Furthermore, Taiwan recently added green materials to the nine parameters used to qualify green buildings. Having set up the "Green Building Label" system in 1999, Taiwan has become the world's fourth to do so. By the end of this March, the TABC had labeled 368 buildings as green and 1,675 project proposals. "These buildings, completed or not, conserve an estimated 745 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, cut greenhouse-gas emissions that can be absorbed by seven Daan Parks (the biggest in Taipei city measuring 259,293 square meters or about 16% of the lawn and woodland areas in NY's Central Park), and save 39.67 million metric tons of water," Hsu estimates.
Health is Priceless
Although some industry watchers estimate average prices of eco-friendly materials is around 30% higher than conventional materials, TGBMC's Yang stresses that green materials are not expensive considering health issues. "Actually, rising health awareness has helped to boost acceptance of green materials among households," he notes.
TABC's Hsu believes prices will eventually drop to more acceptable levels once more suppliers enter this segment. "I hear that some material suppliers will turn their shops into green-material-only outlets, while B&Q has set up eco-building material stalls in many locations," he says.
Official determination usually can make or break an industry. CPA's Yieh says that the agency will promote using a minimum of 60% green building materials in the public work projects under its administration by offering contractors incentives.
TABC's Hsu points out that the government plans to raise the mandatory percentage to 50% in 2010. "We hope the 100% goal could be reached soon after that," he says.
The market for green materials has ample potential. According to TABC, Taiwan's demand for building materials is around NT$690 billion (US$20.9 billion at US$1:NT$33) a year. "So there is huge room for green materials to grow," he says. The global market is even bigger, prompting Hsu to start approaching international certification organizations for mutual recognition of green labels. "For the global market, our certification system has to measure up to those in major markets," he concludes.