Green Building in Developing Countries : Policy, Strategy and Technology

The book reveals how green buildings are currently being adapted and applied in developing countries. It includes the major developing countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Cambodia, Ghana, Nigeria and countries from the Middle East and gathers the insights of respected green building researchers from these areas to map out the developing world’s green building revolution. The book highlights these countries’ contribution to tackling climate change, emphasising the green building benefits and the research behind them.

The contributing authors explore how the green building revolution has spread to developing countries and how national governments have initiated their own green building policies and agendas. They also explore how the market has echoed the green building policy, and how a business case for green buildings has been established. In turn, they show how an international set of green building standards, in the form of various techniques and tools, has been incorporated into local building and construction practices. In closing, they demonstrate how the developing world is emerging as a key player for addressing the energy and environmental problems currently facing the world.

The book helps developers, designers and policy-makers in governments and green building stakeholders to make better decisions on the basis of global and local conditions. It is also of interest to engineers, designers, facility managers and researchers, as it provides a holistic picture of how the industry is responding to the worldwide call for greener and more sustainable buildings.

Zhonghua Gou is a Senior Lecturer at Griffith University. His research focuses on green building design and technology. He surveyed many green projects in China and conducted post-occupancy studies to find out the green building performance in uses; beyond that, he investigated green building assessment tools in different socio-economic contexts. Dr. Gou has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles that disseminate the knowledge on green building. His green building research is multidisciplinary, involving architecture, planning, interior design, project management, real estate, engineering and social sciences. He is one of the most productive and highly cited authors on green building. He currently supervises Master’s and Ph.D. students on this topic to educate next-generation green building designers and managers.