"Environmental Building Plan" Programs
Summary
This is a program introduced by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to create a market that rewards environmentally friendly, sustainable buildings, and to promote advances in new environmental technologies. It works through comprehensive assessments and disclosure of the environmental performance of buildings. Owners of buildings having more than a certain total floor space are graded on environmentally friendly features incorporated into their design, based on certain evaluation criteria, and they are required to submit an Environmental Building Plan to the local government.
This program can raise society's awareness about environmentally friendly buildings, because the local government publicly discloses the plans, which indicate the buildings' level of environmental consideration, and allows companies and citizens to obtain information on the living environment and other aspects of building quality and performance.
This is not a regulatory program based on government-set standards. One of its strengths is that, while emphasizing autonomy, it provides the motivation for building owners to do the right thing. After plans are submitted, building owners are required to disclose what environmental initiatives they have actually taken to implement the plans. "CASBEE for Japanese local government" programs resemble this "Environmental Building Plan" program, but whereas the latter emphasizes comprehensive environmental performance inside the building, the former also evaluate harmony with the surrounding environment by calculating the environmental impacts both inside and outside the building .
Examples
Tokyo Metropolitan Government
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched its program in 2002 based on the Tokyo Metropolitan Environmental Security Ordinance. The city established the program covering four areas: rationalization of energy use, sound use of resources, conservation of the natural environment, and the heat island effect caused by the high consumption of energy by urban activities. In accordance with their environmental classification under the Tokyo Metropolitan Guidelines for Green Buildings (Tokyo Green Building Guidelines), owners planning to build or make additions to buildings over 10,000 square meters in total floor space are required to conduct their own assessment of building compliance, to prepare a Green Building Plan, and to submit it to the Governor of Tokyo. Summaries of these plans are posted on the metropolitan government website. A 2008 amendment of the Environmental Security Ordinance made a number of additions: the mandatory submission of plans for new construction or expansions of medium-sized buildings; mandatory disclosure of environmental performance for new construction or expansion of apartment buildings; efforts to use renewable energy for new construction or expansion of buildings; and the mandatory use of energy efficiency performance certificates.Tokyo Metropolitan Government (“Green Building Plan” Program) (New window will open.)
