China Merchants Real Estate's Green Secret

To develop a comprehensive community, first build an industrial park, and then build supporting facilities for the industrial park. Reducing the amount of traffic also reduces carbon emissions.

Adopt green energy-saving technologies to save water, electricity and land, including using energy-saving air conditioners, water-saving toilets, etc.; take advantage of natural factors to take some green measures according to local conditions, such as automatic shading of buildings, use of natural ventilation, etc.

Make a good cost budget, not only effective energy saving, but also guaranteed return on investment.

“Go forward and you will see three tall grassy houses at No. 6 Xinghua Road, one of which is the office building of China Merchants Real Estate.” At the headquarters of China Merchants Real Estate, people usually This is the answer to passers-by's inquiries. "The house with long grass" - Building 3 of Shekou Nanhai Yiku has become a landscape here. It not only has green vegetation on the roof, but also blocks of lawn on the exterior walls of the building.

In 1984, China Merchants Real Estate Holdings Co., Ltd. was established in Shenzhen to undertake the heavy responsibility of Shekou construction and housing system reform. At that time, Shekou was still a wild desert. Now, Shekou's livable environment has become a resounding green business card.

China Merchants Real Estate has also been out of Shekou for a long time, forming a national territory with Shenzhen as its headquarters and the three core circles of the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei as key development areas. The Golden Valley project in Panyu, Guangzhou has also won the United Nations HBA "Best Example of Habitat Award" for China Merchants Real Estate. This is the first time that a domestic real estate company has made a brilliant debut on such an important international stage.

The good news came one after another. The 2009 semi-annual report just released by China Merchants Real Estate shows that from January to June, its operating income was 2.876 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 98.75%, an operating profit of 608 million yuan and a net profit of 487 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 123%. This can be called a miracle in the six months when the real estate industry was relatively sluggish.

“What green secrets are there in Changcao’s house?” In the office on the 2nd floor of Building 3, Mr. Hu Jianxin, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Real Estate, and Mr. Lin Wusheng, Director of Green Real Estate R&D Center revealed the mystery to us.

Developing a comprehensive community to guide energy conservation

Why do you think the Guangzhou Golden Valley project won the United Nations HBA "Best Habitat Award"?

Hu Jianxin: When we won the award in July this year, the UN-Habitat policy and strategy The Executive Director of the Planning Office said: "China Merchants Real Estate won the award this time because it created a new model of green real estate development, provided local employment opportunities, and combined its corporate mission with sustainable development to achieve social responsibility. ”

Our current green development mainly follows the development model of comprehensive community. We integrate green products and technologies, and finally use them in the construction of China Merchants Real Estate to make green consumer goods. Therefore, our focus is to integrate the green industry chain and guide consumers and manufacturers to go in the green direction.

Can you introduce this model by taking the Guangzhou Golden Valley Project as an example?

Hu Jianxin: A creative industry park is planned in the Golden Valley of Guangzhou to attract many small and medium-sized enterprises in the creative industry to settle in. In this way, in addition to creating and enhancing local employment opportunities, it can also realize four "walks"—walking to work, walking to school, walking for shopping, and walking for leisure. This helps reduce traffic, which in turn reduces carbon emissions, by an estimated 30%.

According to data, global warming is directly related to carbon emissions, and the largest source of carbon emissions is power generation, followed by industry and transportation. Transportation emission reduction is directly reflected in the Golden Valley project. In addition, walking to work, school, and shopping also creates a livable environment, which is also very beneficial to the shaping of the business environment.

In other words, the Golden Valley project continues the development model of China Merchants Real Estate—comprehensive community development to realize the interaction between industry and residence. This is also the concept of our construction of Shekou - to build the industry first, and then build supporting facilities for the industry. For example, the creative industry park provides jobs, while the Golden Valley provides an ideal living environment.

Another feature of the Golden Valley project is the energy saving of the building itself. The energy-saving rate required by the state for buildings is 50%, and the energy-saving rate achieved by China Merchants Real Estate is 65%. For example, the large-scale utilization of solar hot water - all our low-density residential buildings are sent to solar water heaters, including rough houses. We also plan to give the owners green air conditioners, water-saving toilets, and green energy-saving lamps for the fourth phase of the Golden Valley. The green air conditioner can reach the energy efficiency ratio of 1-2, and the water-saving toilet saves half of the water than the ordinary toilet. Energy-saving light bulbs will also be used for street lights and room lighting in the community. A typical 40-watt incandescent lamp can be used for 1,000 hours, while an 8-watt energy-saving lamp can be used for 10,000 hours.

Using green technology to ensure energy saving

In other words, besides the business model of comprehensive community development, green energy saving is another magic weapon of China Merchants Real Estate, right?

Hu Jianxin: Yes. The key words of green real estate are "applicable, economical, and beautiful", and the foothold is to adapt to local conditions and use more economical methods to achieve the purpose of energy saving and emission reduction. To do green real estate, our method is to choose mature green energy-saving technologies and green products, and integrate them into the buildings we develop, so as to achieve the effect of energy saving and emission reduction. This is not only reflected in the respect for the natural ecology, the recycling of old buildings and the construction of ecological courtyards, but also in the green ecological technology system composed of sustainable materials, energy, equipment and even vegetation.

At the same time, green lifestyle is very important, such as setting the office air conditioner to 26 degrees; using energy-saving lamps to reduce the energy consumption of lighting systems and air conditioning systems, etc. Achieving green energy conservation and building green buildings is the first step, and cultivating people's green lifestyle is an even more important step.

What energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies and implementation methods will China Merchants Real Estate use in construction?

Lin Wusheng: Take the Tiger Apartment we developed as an example. This four-star hotel apartment is a typical energy-saving building developed by China Merchants Real Estate. business project.

Tiger Apartment was initially positioned as a foreign-related hotel apartment. This type of building generally consumes a lot of energy. The goal of China Merchants Real Estate is to make it an energy-saving building. Therefore, we have adopted a number of energy-saving technologies and products. For example, the way of fixed shading in buildings, the application of Low-e insulating glass with excellent thermal performance, aerated concrete blocks, and frequency conversion technology. The central air-conditioning system we selected has an energy efficiency ratio of 5.6, using environmentally friendly refrigerants, energy metering by households, frequency conversion of refrigeration pumps, and a centralized fresh air system.

For the fixed shading of the building, we used Low-e glass and some shading measures. The energy-saving rate of the roof can reach 3%, the energy-saving rate of the external wall can reach 5.6%, and the energy-saving rate of the external window can reach 22.1%. Coupled with the use of natural ventilation, the overall energy saving rate can reach 13.8%. For another example, the community has built a fully purified water system. Everyone is exposed to water every day, but they may not know where the harmful components of water come from. A well-known report in the United States pointed out that in fact, only 1/3 of the water you drink from the mouth, and 2/3 is absorbed from the skin. , bottled water and the so-called direct drinking water system, only solve 1/3 of the problem of harmful water. In this project, we make all the water in contact with the human body into pure water, and the water flowing out of any faucet is drinkable. We also use the system to monitor the process of pure water production, and the return water is used to flush toilets, water flowers, etc., without wasting it.

In terms of land saving, we have machine room-less, small machine room elevators, and a full basement garage. Our floor area ratio has reached 2; in terms of water saving, Building G is designed to be 25 floors, reducing building coverage and increasing green space and leisure space, saving land resources. The building coverage rate reached 26.7%.

How does China Merchants Real Estate generally handle the recycling of those old buildings?

Lin Wusheng: Take our Nanhai Yiku Building No. 3 as an example. This building is renovated from an old factory building, and many energy-saving technologies are also used, including temperature and humidity independent control air conditioners, solar photovoltaic cells, Ground source heat pump system, solar chimney, artificial wetland, Low-e insulating glass in the periphery, energy-saving elevator, building shading including well shading, natural lighting in the atrium, etc. There are always twelve major energy-saving technologies. Among them, the temperature and humidity independent control air conditioner invented by an academician of Tsinghua University is 30% more efficient than ordinary air conditioners. The humidity outside is 80 grams per cubic meter, and the indoor humidity may only be about 63. This kind of air conditioner consumes more than 40 degrees of electricity per square meter per year, while the traditional air conditioner consumes 80-90 degrees of electricity per square meter per year. Our entire office building area is 25,000 square meters, and the energy saving effect is very obvious.

China Merchants Real Estate's green buildings cover a wide range. What are the different focuses on energy conservation for different buildings? Lin Wusheng: The buildings developed by China Merchants Real Estate include office buildings, hotels, residences and industrial parks. Different energy-saving technologies should be adopted according to different building characteristics. In addition, measures should be taken according to the geographical location of the buildings.

In the entire green life cycle, our role is to make a green building product, sell it to consumers, and guide them to use green and energy-saving technologies to achieve building energy efficiency; second, we apply our own technology to our own properties middle. For example, Tiger Apartment and Nanhai Yiku are all properties owned by China Merchants Real Estate. We have built it and we have to operate it. Through the application of green energy-saving technology, we can reduce energy consumption, thereby reducing operating costs.

Technically, China Merchants Real Estate is in a leading position in the country in terms of green energy conservation. For example, Tiger Apartment is a four-star hotel-style apartment. Most of the tourists staying in the apartment go out during the day and come back at night. Each room uses different electricity loads due to the different usage habits of travelers. This is obviously different from office buildings. The lighting requirements of office buildings are different, the density of people is much greater than that of hotels, and the electricity requirements for air conditioners are very different. Another example is the Garden City Center, a commercial project. Our current diagnosis is that the electricity load is too large. For example, you are a Toyota car, but the heart of a Hummer is installed, and the fuel consumption is much higher. We are now adding a control system to first find out which links consume more power, and then adopt some targeted energy-saving technologies to reduce energy consumption.

Good cost budget, effective energy saving

Green buildings are more expensive than ordinary buildings. How does China Merchants Real Estate balance the relationship between cost and development?

Lin Wusheng: I simply draw a picture to illustrate my understanding of green buildings. There are two curves, one is the time curve and the other is the input cumulative cost curve. A traditional building is built in three years, and the cumulative cost of the subsequent investment will continue to increase with the increase of the service life. At the beginning of the construction of green buildings, the cost is higher than that of traditional buildings. For example, Tiger Apartment, we built it into a green building, and the incremental capital invested in green technology was about 9 million yuan, a total of 4.3 10,000 square meters is equivalent to an increase of 200 yuan per square meter compared to traditional buildings. Tiger apartment consumes 70 kWh of electricity per square metre per year, while similar buildings in Shenzhen consume 140 kWh of electricity per square metre per year. In this way, Tiger Apartment can save more than 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity every year. According to the current price of electricity, it can save nearly 2 million yuan every year. The final cost recovery period is 4-5 years.

Another example is the China Merchants Office Building, which was rebuilt from Nanhai Yiku No. 3 Factory, with a construction area of 25,000 square meters. The incremental cost of building a green building is more than RMB 8 million. The office building built after the renovation is a green building. The power consumption per square meter is 60 kWh, and the same class A office building in Shenzhen consumes about 140 kWh per square meter per year, saving 2 million kWh of electricity in one year, and the payback period of the final cost is 4-5 years.

The additional cost of green energy saving in the Golden Valley Project is 100 yuan per square meter per year, and about 10 kWh of electricity can be saved per square meter. Because the user's electricity consumption is relatively small, the energy saving effect of individual residences is not as obvious as that of commercial projects, and the return on investment cost period of about 10 years.

The commercial project Shekou New Times Square has a total construction cost of about 1.5 million yuan. After the green transformation, it can save 600,000 yuan in electricity bills every year, and the cost can be recovered in about two and a half years.

Now all the construction projects of China Merchants Real Estate's green renovation projects or the construction of new green and energy-saving buildings, before deciding to do it, budget cost statistics and payback period estimates must be made. Next comes the choice of energy-saving technologies.

In China, what stage of development is green building currently in?

Lin Wusheng: I think it is quite difficult for enterprises to do green buildings, mainly because the entire green industry chain is immature, and we are still in the process of identifying the authenticity of green products and technologies provided by many manufacturers. When we screen manufacturers' products, we need the other party to provide the green product qualification certificate given by the state, as well as specific project application instructions. Finally, we will further and the project party using this technology to understand the specific feelings before and after use.

The coverage of green products and green technologies is very wide. In some European and American countries, some individual green energy-saving technologies are outstanding, but they are relatively mature as a whole and rarely seen. So the whole industry is still in the exploratory stage.

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