Can Sustainable Construction Get China Greener?
It is projected that over the next few years Chinas urban population will grow by 250 million on average these city dwellers presently use three times more energy than their rural counterparts. Soaring demand for metropolitan living and working space is fueling a booming construction sector, and rising incomes and living standards mean that electric appliances are proliferating like never before. At the turn of the millennium, China consumed about 8% of the total energy used in the world, more than any nation except the United States at current rates this figure will double by 2020. This is a prospect that is causing serious concern, both in China and the rest of the world. China has relatively few energy resources. Burning coal, the countrys most abundant fossil fuel, has already polluted much of the country and contributed to the acid rain that now falls in many Chinese cities. Chinas State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) estimates that damage from pollution now totals
