Many buildings in HCM City failed to meet ecological and energy factors, said environment experts and architects at a recent workshop on energy savings.
Outdated energy-inefficient air conditioners, lighting systems, office appliances, elevators, and other auxiliary devices like pumps and air ducts are in use in many buildings.
For these appliances, the typical energy consumption is 40-60 per cent for air conditioning, 15-20 per cent for lighting, 10-15 per cent for offices, and the remaining devices, the rest.
Energy-saving potential for cooling and lighting systems is estimated at around 20 to 35 per cent.
On average, green buildings could cut 35 per cent of carbon emissions, 30-50 per cent of water consumption and 50 per cent – 90 per cent of the cost for waste treatment.
Huynh Kim Tuoc, director of HCM City Energy Conservation Centre, said the pace of high-rise building construction in the city required more sustainable construction methods.
Many hotels in HCM City have invested a lot of money to reduce power consumption and attract more tourists.
Majestic Hotel, which has saved 20 per cent on electricity, is an example. It has redesigned its energy consumption structure and each year has been saving around 719,866 kWh electricity or VND1 billion (US$48,700).
However, the awareness of green building among investors is not high.
Real estate developers and investors only focus on the immediate profit due to their insufficient financial capacity.
Tran Khanh Trung, director of TTK Architecture and Design, said his customers were not interested in environmentally friendly elements if they had to spend much more money to meet the criteria.
In designing, fewer than 50 per cent are concerned about environmental and energy saving issues.
“They don’t care if the buildings are beautiful or not. The trend of green building has not occurred here. In order to do that, an architect is not enough,” Trung said.
The city has decided to subsidise 30 projects in the city, with a total fund of VND1.1 billion ($53,600), to promote green building.
“It’s a little amount of money for a building,” Trung said, adding: “The subsidy should be much more. In France, the Government is ready to spend 30 per cent of the project’s value to encourage sustainable development.”
High-rise buildings like offices, hotels and apartments are the main consumers of commercial and service energy, which makes up 10 per cent of total energy consumption in Viet Nam.
In the next 10 years, the figure will go up 3.6 times because many more commercial buildings will be built.
