Building better efficiency
Tony, an analyst at an investment bank in Tokyo, recalls the first time he brought his Japanese wife back to his family home in England. It was the Christmas holiday season, and Tony had a certain item on his “to-do list” for the trip – to point out to his wife the joys of modern central heating combined with thick insulation.
“Look, Sayako” he announced moments after entering his parents’ house. “It’s freezing cold outside but inside it’s nice and warm. All the rooms are warm, the hallway’s warm, even the bathroom’s warm around the clock! Not like in our freezing flat in Tokyo, eh?” he said with pride, and not a bit of smugness.
His wife’s terse reply: “But in Japan, we have kotatsu”.
Sayako’s assumption that a heated Japanese-style table – that warms the feet and nothing else – was somehow comparable to modern central heating left Tony scratching his head.
Yet, it’s an attitude with which members of the EBC Construction Committee are familiar. Japanese homes and public buildings tend to be energy wasters. They’re inefficiently heated and air conditioned. And because they’re inadequately insulated, they leak energy like a sieve. Most Japanese occupants, meanwhile, are complacent about their discomfort and excessive energy bills. This, in a resource-poor country that sees itself as a world leader in energy efficiency.
“We hear a lot of unusual arguments in Japan, such as, ‘But we like to feel the seasons,’ ” says committee member Philippe Valery, former-president of Saint-Gobain HanGlas Japan. “But then, when we go into offices in winter, the heating is on and it’s really hot. Then in summer, the air conditioning is on, and it’s really cold.”
Trying to improve that situation – making buildings more energy efficient – is one of three areas on which the Construction Committee focuses. The others are public procurement, and harmonization of building standards leading to mutual recognition of market authorisations.
Energy conservation has become a pressing issue in light of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s September 22 promise, at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in New York, to lower Japan’s CO2 emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020. Cynics doubt whether that highly ambitious goal will even come close to being achieved.
The committee, however, believes that the answer lies in new building construction. Why? Because, while Japanese industry is already highly energy-efficient, the construction industry is rife with inefficiency and still has vast scope for improvement. Japanese industry’s thirst for energy grew only slightly from 1970 to 2005. On the other hand, energy use by Japan’s commercial and residential buildings tripled during the same period. And it shows no signs of slowing: from 1990 to 2005 the energy use by buildings expanded by around 30%, according to The Institute of Energy Economics.
“I don’t understand why such an energy-efficient country, that boasts of its energy efficiency and is good in energy savings in the automotive industry, in the electronics industry, and in solar panels, is so backward in terms of its energy-saving standards in construction,” Valery says. “The requirements in China and South Korea, for example, are much more exacting, never mind the standards in Europe.”
This issue of standards explains a lot about the shortcomings in Japan’s construction industry, and is at the centre of the committee’s advocacy efforts. In short, legally binding standards are lacking in many aspects of Japan’s construction industry. Regulators often rely merely on recommendations.
General contractors in Japan – as elsewhere – are focused on cutting costs. But in Japan, the absence of standards means constructors can cut corners when it comes to environmentally friendly materials and innovations. For instance, windows in office buildings still tend to be single-glazed. In Europe, standards require the installation of double- or triple-glazed coated windows, which are up to 12 times more efficient than single-pane windows.
The upfront costs may be reduced, but the running costs – passed on from the builders to the occupants – become excessive as a result.
“If you offer your customer something that’s not properly insulated, then you’re offering them a really terrible product. Not just for them, but for the future generations who have to occupy the place,” says committee member Francois-Xavier Lienhart, president of insulation manufacturer MAG.
As for the standards that do exist, the committee wants to see harmonization between Europe and Japan. Materials made in Europe are often subjected to Japanese tests – after already having been approved in Europe under very similar standards. This double-layered process results in higher costs that hurt the competitiveness of European products in the Japanese market. Obtaining accreditation is part of this problem, as very few testing facilities in Europe are certified by Japanese authorities.
As for the committee’s advocacy efforts, it was represented at a conference in November through the European Union. Discussions were held among committee members, Japanese ministry officials and members of the Diet.
“If you could sum up the concept we’re trying to get across, I think ‘sustainability’ would be the key word. Practices in the Japanese construction industry are not sustainable,” says Eric De Groot, a committee member at Forbo Flooring B.V. Japan.
“There is no real consciousness of – and, therefore, no significant demand for – sustainable building in Japan at the end-user or grassroots level. Until the big contractors have a profit motive or a regulatory requirement to embrace sustainability, nothing will change.”
Even so, Japan’s €363 billion construction market is clearly one worth working on, according to Gordon Hatton, committee chairman and executive officer at Bovis Lend Lease Japan. “The market is sophisticated. The general contractors are very good at carrying out projects. But it’s a tough market. Even so, we think there are a lot of opportunities here,” he says.