GBCA starts ChinaGBC on a journey of a thousand miles

"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu's famous remarks are particularly relevant to the green building challenges before the China Green Building Council (ChinaGBC).

A delegation from GBCA and Austrade has just returned from a green building mission to China, during which time we laid the foundations of a solid relationship between the Australian and China GBCs. The mission was focused on relationship-building and identifying opportunities for future collaboration.

In an article for Green Building Voice last year, the GBCA's Chief Executive, Romilly Madew, said "We may understand greening buildings, but China has gone straight to greening cities." This observation is certainly true. While we are very successfully greening our buildings, the Chinese are looking at greening neighbourhoods, communities and cities at a scale we've never contemplated.

Robin Mellon, Executive Director of Advocacy and International says: "In Changsha, capital city of Hunan province in south-central China, one development alone boasted more than 4 million square metres of apartments. Assuming an average size of 100m2 per apartment (and that's generous), that makes 40,000 apartments, all of which would have at least three people dwelling within. This makes 120,000 people living in one high-rise development - more people than live in many towns and cities in Australia. What's more, the Mayor of Changsha informed us that there are currently 3,300 such major development projects in Changsha alone.

"It's clear that China has the scale, and Australia the capabilities," Mellon adds. "We need to scale up our capabilities, and the Chinese need to adapt their capabilities to their scale. We have the micro, and they have the macro, if you like."

But the Chinese also have the power to change rapidly. The world witnessed that power during the Beijing Olympic Games, during which time the authorities had the power to shut down factories and take cars off the roads as they tried to turn smoggy skies blue. In similar fashion, if the Chinese government mandates green building, its nation of 1.5 billion people will adopt to green building faster than Australia ever could.

During the trip, the GBCA formalised its support for the ChinaGBC Foreign Membership Scheme, which will provide Australian companies with introductions into China. The membership scheme will provide the ChinaGBC with a valuable revenue stream, and international members with a valuable stream of knowledge and connections.

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