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以下資料截自財團法人台灣建築中心綠建築標章網站

http://gb.tabc.org.tw/modules/pages/target

Green Building Certification

    The Green Building Certification, initiated by the Institute of Architecture and Building Research, Ministry of the Interior, aims to encourage the construction of green buildings that save energy, resources, and reduce pollution while establishing comfortable, healthy, and environmentally friendly living environments. The certification is based on three design principles: "Comfort," "Natural Harmony and Health," and "Environmental Protection." The Taiwan Architecture and Building Center was officially commissioned to announce the Green Building Certification on September 1, 1999.

    To be awarded the certification, buildings must undergo evaluation based on seven major indicators of the Green Building Assessment System. These include the Greening Indicator, Site Water Retention Indicator, Water Resources Indicator, Daily Energy Saving Indicator, Carbon Dioxide Reduction Indicator, Waste Reduction Indicator, and Improvement Indicator for Wastewater and Solid Waste. Only after approval from the Green Building Certification Review Committee can the certification be issued, designating the building as a green building.

    As the "Green Building Explanation and Assessment Manual" was revised and updated in 2003, two additional indicators were introduced: Biodiversity Indicator and Indoor Environment Indicator, making a total of nine indicators. This expanded the definition of green buildings from the passive concept of "buildings that consume the least Earth's resources and produce the least waste" to the more proactive definition of "ecological, energy-saving, waste-reducing, and healthy buildings."

    The promotion of the Green Building Certification in Taiwan includes the issuance of Candidate Green Building Certificates and Green Building Certificates. The Green Building Certificate is awarded to buildings that have obtained a usage license or existing legal buildings that meet the assessment standards. The Candidate Green Building Certificate is awarded to encourage the construction of new buildings that have obtained construction permits but have not yet completed construction or obtained a usage license. These buildings must be planned and designed in accordance with the assessment standards for green buildings.

    Nine Major Assessment Indicators for Green Buildings:

1. Greening Indicator
2. Site Water Retention Indicator
3. Water Resources Indicator
4. Daily Energy Saving Indicator
5. Carbon Dioxide Reduction Indicator
6. Waste Reduction Indicator
7. Improvement Indicator for Wastewater and Solid Waste
8. Biodiversity Indicator
9. Indoor Environment Indicator

    These indicators aim to reflect material, energy, water, land, climate, and other environmental conservation factors, with a focus on quantifiable standards. The indicators are designed to be straightforward, relatable to daily life experiences, and applicable to Taiwan's subtropical climate. They also consider the evaluation of the community or the entire building complex, providing a pre-assessment tool for the design stage to predict and control the environmental impact. The "Site Water Retention Indicator" specifically addresses the issue of non-permeable surfaces in building site development, promoting water circulation, improving the ecological environment, regulating microclimates, and mitigating the urban heat island effect.

    Note: The information is excerpted from the "Green Building Explanation and Assessment Manual 2003 Update," provided by Professor Lin Hsien-Te of the Department of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University.

 

1. What is Biodiversity?

    The term "biodiversity" refers to the preservation of the environment at the most basic level of the ecological pyramid. It involves conserving the habitat for decomposers such as earthworms, ants, bacteria, and fungi, as well as producers like green plants, and primary consumers including beetles, butterflies, dragonflies, mantises, and frogs. While many focus on protecting iconic animals like the Black-faced Spoonbill, Formosan macaque, or Formosan sika deer when discussing ecology, it's crucial to recognize the contribution of creatures such as toads and centipedes found in our surroundings or moss and fungi growing on dead trees. Ensuring the health of these foundational ecological environments allows higher-level organisms to have a rich food source, promoting biodiversity.

    Purpose of Biodiversity Indicator

    The main purpose of this indicator is to enhance the ecological quality of large-scale green spaces in major developments, emphasizing the ecological network system of biological gene exchange paths. The indicator encourages the creation of high-density aquatic ecosystems through ecological ponds, pools, and riverbanks, fostering diverse small creature habitats through porous environments and undisturbed multilayered ecological greenery. It also emphasizes the use of native plants, attracting birds and butterflies, diverse planting species, and soil protection to create a rich biological foundation.

    Simplified Assessment Method for Biodiversity Indicator

    The biodiversity indicator assesses the habitat and activity exchange foundation of large regional habitats. Therefore, it is only applicable to the evaluation of large-scale developments. Accordingly, this indicator is temporarily set to apply to sites larger than 1 hectare, exempting sites smaller than 1 hectare from its supervision. For detailed assessment methods, please refer to the "Green Building Explanation and Assessment Manual" published by the Institute of Architecture and Building Research, Ministry of the Interior.

    For buildings to meet the biodiversity indicator, attention to the following aspects should suffice:

• Larger green space area, preferably over 25%.
• Even and coherent distribution of green spaces.
• More tree species are preferable, ideally over 20.
• More shrub and vine plant species are preferable, ideally over 15.
• Prefer the use of native plant species.
• Adopt a multi-layered green space approach, with over 30% of green spaces using multi-layered greenery.
• Slopes or green hedges built with porous materials such as loose stones.
• Establish ecological ponds with natural shores.
• Create a secluded forest or mixed grassland of at least 30 square meters to prevent human interference.
• Incorporate natural shores in ponds, streams, or islands with dense vegetation in water.
• Construct ecological mounds with stacked deadwood, loose stones, hollow bricks, and compost in hidden green spaces.
• Use organic fertilizers exclusively, prohibit the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides.
• Use the topsoil of ecologically sound slopes, farmland, forests, or conservation areas for green space soil.

2. What is the Greening Quantity Indicator?

    The "Greening Quantity Indicator" refers to the method of planting various plants using the natural soil layer within the building site and the covering soil layer on the roof, balcony, exterior walls, and artificial terrains.

    Purpose of the Greening Quantity Indicator

    Greening is one of the most critical indicators of modern living environment quality. Urban and rural planning without greening makes it challenging to claim a "sustainable development" of living quality. Extensive planting of flowers and trees in our living environment not only enhances our well-being but also stimulates soil microbial activity, providing significant benefits to the ecological environment. Greening is widely acknowledged as the most effective strategy for absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, contributing to alleviating the crisis of global warming. Therefore, this indicator aims to evaluate the effect of carbon dioxide fixation by encouraging greening that produces oxygen, absorbs carbon dioxide, and purifies the air. The ultimate goal is to mitigate urban climate warming, promote biodiversity, and beautify the environment.

    Greening Quantity Indicator and Criteria

    Previous regulations related to building and urban development encouraged greening through regulations on green coverage, tree planting, and planting density. However, these regulations typically specify greening quantity based on soil depth, tree diameter, and the number of trees, primarily recognizing trees. They often lack a specific evaluation of the environmental contribution of diverse greenery such as shrubs, vines, grass, and three-dimensional building greening. In fact, the most significant contribution of greening to environmental protection lies in using plant photosynthesis to fix carbon dioxide in the air, thereby slowing down global climate warming. Therefore, this evaluation system for greening quantity uses the effect of carbon dioxide fixation as the common conversion unit for greening assessment.

    According to botanical research, the amount of photosynthesis in plants is directly proportional to the leaf area of the plant. Thus, this indicator evaluates the carbon dioxide fixation effect of plants by classifying them into seven hierarchical levels based on leaf area. This data is derived from experimental values of photosynthesis under warm climate conditions and represents the carbon dioxide fixation effect of a plant from seedling to maturity over 40 years (the standard value for the building's life cycle) per square meter of green space.

    How to Achieve the Passing Standard

   For buildings to meet the greening design, attention to the following aspects should be sufficient to meet the above standard requirements:

• Under the condition of ensuring the plot ratio, reduce the actual building coverage by at least 1% to expand and secure more green space.
• Green space area should be at least 15%.
• All open spaces on the site, except for the minimum necessary paved roads, should be left entirely as green space.
• Avoid designing around existing old trees, and protect old trees from harm during construction.
• Most green spaces should be planted with trees or multi-layered greenery, with a small portion planted with shrubs.
• In large open areas, trees should be planted as much as possible, followed by palm trees, and then scattered green spaces should be filled with shrubs.
• Underneath trees and palm trees, green spaces should be densely planted with shrubs to fulfill multi-layered greening functions.
• Even on artificial paved surfaces, trees should be planted as much as possible using planting holes or flower pots. Sufficient soil depth is considered equivalent to the carbon dioxide fixation effect of trees in natural green spaces.
• Minimize the planting of flower beds and lawns in green spaces, especially artificial lawns, which contribute little to air purification.
• Use perennial vines to climb building facades to increase greening quantity.
• Install waterproof and well-drained artificial flower beds on rooftops and balconies to enhance greening, but attention should be paid to the amount of covering soil and waterproof measures.

3. What is Site Water Retention?

    The water retention performance of a site refers to its ability to retain and store water in natural soil layers and artificial soil layers. The better the water retention performance of a site, the better it can retain rainwater, benefiting the activity of soil microorganisms. This, in turn, improves soil organic quality and nourishes plants, maintaining a natural ecological balance within the building site.

    Purpose of Site Water Retention

    Historically, environmental development in building sites often involved impermeable surface designs, causing the loss of the earth's ability to absorb, infiltrate, and retain water. This weakened the ability to nourish plants and the latent heat of evaporating water, hindering the natural regulation of climate by the earth and even leading to the "urban heat island effect" where urban environments become increasingly warmer. The "Site Water Retention Indicator" in green building design aims to promote water circulation, improve the ecological environment, regulate microclimates, and mitigate urban climate warming by encouraging permeable designs and the widespread use of rainwater storage and infiltration pools.

    Planning and Design for Site Water Retention

    The water retention performance of a site is related to the soil's permeability, and the Site Water Retention Indicator is only evaluated for permeable soils such as loam and sandy soil. For impermeable clay soils, implementing water retention design has little practical significance due to their poor water retention performance.

    Approaches to enhance site water retention can be broadly categorized into four types:

    1. Increase Soil Ground:

    This involves increasing the direct infiltration effect of rainwater. Soil ground is typically used as green space for planting and is the most natural and environmentally friendly water retention design.

    2. Increase Permeable Surfaces:

    Well-permeable surfaces have water permeability similar to exposed soil and can increase the area of permeable surfaces.

    3. Storage and Infiltration Design:

    This involves temporarily storing rainwater in ponds or low areas and allowing it to slowly infiltrate the soil naturally. It is an eco-friendly water retention design that also serves flood prevention purposes.

    4.Garden Rainwater Intercept Design:

    This refers to the design of garden planting troughs on artificial terrains such as building roofs, balconies, and basement floors, using rainwater interception to achieve partial water retention.

    How to Achieve the Passing Standard

    To meet the criteria and achieve a passing standard for the Site Water Retention Indicator, consider the following strategies in site water retention design:

• Under the condition of ensuring the plot ratio, try to reduce the building coverage by minimizing excavation for basements, thereby securing more significant space for water retention design.
• For sites located in well-permeable soils like loam or sandy soil:
• Preserve open space as much as possible.
• Maintain grass ditch designs for drainage.
• Design driveways, walkways, and plazas with full permeability.
• Use permeable designs for drainage trench systems.
• Design water-retention plazas or open spaces.
• For sites located in poorly permeable clay soils:
• Design large-scale high-quality soil artificial gardens on rooftops or balconies.
• Design water-retention pools and underground gravel storage to compensate for poor permeability.
• Replace clay with gravel layers in playgrounds, sports fields, and play areas to improve water retention.

4. What is Daily Energy Conservation?

    The lifespan of a building extends over five to six decades, involving energy consumption in various stages such as material production, construction transportation, daily use, maintenance, and demolition. Among these stages, long-term usage of air conditioning, lighting, elevators, and other daily energy-consuming elements accounts for the majority. The "Daily Energy Conservation Indicator" in green building design focuses on evaluating air conditioning and lighting electricity consumption. It defines the indicator as the comprehensive electricity consumption efficiency of air conditioning and lighting systems during peak summer periods.

    Purpose of Daily Energy Conservation

    Air conditioning and lighting electricity consumption represent the largest proportion of daily energy consumption in buildings. During summer, air conditioning electricity consumption accounts for about 40-50%, and lighting electricity consumption is as high as 30-40%. Therefore, focusing on air conditioning and lighting provides the most effective means of achieving energy efficiency in buildings. Moreover, due to the long lifespan of buildings, their cumulative energy-saving effects are significant. It can be said that energy-efficient building design is a crucial component of national energy-saving policies.

    Implementation Rules of Daily Energy Conservation Regulations

    The current "Building Technical Regulations" in our country already incorporate regulations on energy-efficient building design. It is anticipated that, over twenty years, there will be a reduction of at least 16% in the air conditioning peak electricity consumption for buildings, equivalent to 7% of the national peak electricity capacity or the output of two large thermal power plants, or all of the national hydropower plants, or a large nuclear power plant. In terms of annual cumulative effects, approximately 4.6 billion kWh of air conditioning electricity consumption can be saved each year, equivalent to reducing about seven million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, contributing significantly to mitigating global climate change.

    Daily Energy Conservation Indicators and Standards

    The evaluation of the "Daily Energy Conservation Indicator" in green buildings demands a more stringent energy consumption standard for the building envelope compared to the existing "Building Technical Regulations," with an emphasis on air conditioning equipment and lighting systems. The indicator also strengthens the energy-saving requirements for air conditioning equipment and lighting systems, setting higher goals for energy-efficient building design. The main evaluation items include the building envelope's thermal load ratio, air conditioning efficiency ratio, lighting energy-saving ratio, etc. Additionally, a reward coefficient is provided for the proportion of renewable energy use during evaluation, encouraging the promotion of renewable energy applications.

    How to Meet the Standards

    The "Daily Energy Conservation Indicator" in green buildings focuses on the energy-saving design of the most significant electricity-consuming components: air conditioning and lighting. The evaluation emphasizes energy-saving designs for the building envelope, air conditioning efficiency, and lighting efficiency.

    Envelope Energy Conservation:

• For residential and office buildings, design plans with a depth of less than 14 meters for better natural ventilation during cool seasons, avoiding the need for air conditioning.
• Avoid fully glazed designs. The window opening rate for office buildings should be below 35%, and for residential buildings, below 25%. Other buildings, considering lighting conditions, should avoid excessive window designs.
• Minimize the use of horizontal skylights on roofs. If used, high shading coefficient skylights should be used.
• For residential buildings, avoid fully sealed designs, and ensure at least one-fourth of the facade is openable for ventilation and sun avoidance.
• Install external shading or balconies to shade windows.
• Avoid large windows facing east and west.
• Use clear glass for residential buildings and Low-E glass for air-conditioned buildings.
• Implement effective roof insulation (U-value below 1.2 W/(m2.K)).

    Air Conditioning Energy Conservation:

• Design air conditioning systems with appropriate capacity to avoid excessive backup capacity.
• Use high-efficiency refrigeration units or air conditioners, avoiding cheap or unknown-brand assembled units to prevent energy waste.
• Keep the floor plan depth below 7 meters for natural ventilation during fall and winter, reducing the need for air conditioning.
• Use energy-efficient equipment systems, such as control by machine number, VAV, etc.
• Apply variable frequency control for the main unit and water pump motors.
• Use energy-efficient systems for air conditioning ducts, such as total heat exchangers.
• Implement CO2 concentration control for air conditioning systems.
• Large hospitals or hotels can use absorption chillers.
• Office buildings, exhibition halls, and stadiums can use ice storage air conditioning systems.
• Implement Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS).

    Lighting Energy Conservation:

• Ensure ample window area for residences to utilize natural lighting.
• Avoid using inefficient lamps such as tungsten filament bulbs, halogen lamps, and mercury lamps.
• Use electronic ballasts and high-reflectance coatings for fluorescent lamps in general spaces.
• Design large spaces with high-efficiency floodlights or sodium lamps.
• In precise workspaces such as reading, drafting, sewing, operating rooms, use low-intensity lighting and spotlights to enhance work surface illumination.
• Avoid over-designing lighting fixtures beyond reasonable illumination needs.
• Implement zoning switches based on indoor work patterns to turn off lighting in unoccupied spaces.
• Install automatic dimming control, infrared control for automatic lighting, and daylight control for automatic dimming.
• Use high brightness colors indoors to improve lighting efficiency.

5. What is the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Index?

    The Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Reduction Index refers to the amount of CO2 emissions calculated from the energy used in the production process of all building structural materials (excluding materials for water and electricity, mechanical and electrical equipment, interior decoration, and outdoor construction).

    Greenhouse Gases:

    Greenhouse gases are atmospheric gases that cause climate warming. Global climate warming is currently the most serious environmental issue, primarily due to an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Among them, CO2 has the most significant impact on global climate warming. Greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry are mainly attributed to energy use, which includes "daily energy use" such as air conditioning, lighting, and electricity, and the "production energy use" of building materials such as steel, cement, red bricks, ceramic tiles, and glass.

    Purpose of Carbon Dioxide Reduction:

    The problem of global climate warming is currently the most urgent environmental issue. Since the "Earth Summit" in 1992 and the establishment of the "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change" to the "Kyoto Protocol" in 1998, countries worldwide have actively worked on reducing CO2 emissions. In the past, the domestic construction industry adopted high-energy and high-pollution structural designs, causing significant environmental damage. Currently, 95% of newly constructed buildings in Taiwan use reinforced concrete, with 80% of sand and gravel illegally collected from rivers and high-energy cement used in production. When concrete buildings are demolished in the future, the waste cement, soil, bricks, and tiles will be challenging to recycle, creating a significant environmental burden. Therefore, improvements in the planning, design, and construction of buildings are necessary to reduce CO2 emissions.

    Carbon Dioxide Reduction Indicators and Standards:

    The CO2 emissions index of a building's structure, denoted as E CO2, must be calculated by cumulatively summing the actual usage and the unit CO2 emissions of the building materials. The smaller the E CO2 index value, the more economical the building materials used, and the lower the CO2 emissions, resulting in less harm to the global environment.

    How to Meet the Standards:

    To meet the standards of the CO2 reduction index, the planning of building material usage should follow principles such as:

    Shape Coefficient:

• Design building floor plans to be regular, symmetrical, and rectangular.
• Minimize floor height differences within the building, except for high ceilings in certain areas.
• Maintain a uniform and simple facade without dramatic setbacks or protrusions.
• Keep the floor heights of the building even, without significant variations in the middle.
• Avoid excessive floor-to-ceiling heights and excessive voids on the ground floor.
• Avoid overly elongated or excessively tall buildings.

    Lightweight Design:

• Encourage the use of lightweight steel or wooden structures.
• Adopt lightweight drywall partitions.
• Utilize lightweight metal curtain walls.
• Implement precast integrated bathroom systems.
• Design with high-performance concrete to reduce concrete usage.

    Durability Design:

• Increase seismic resistance by 20-50% in structural designs.
• Increase the thickness of concrete protective layers for column and beam reinforcement by 1-2 cm.
• Increase the thickness of concrete protective layers for slab reinforcement by 1-2 cm.
• Design rooftop equipment to be suspended structures, separated from the waterproofing layer.
• Design visible air conditioning and plumbing system pipes.
• Design open electrical and communication line layouts.

    Recycled Building Materials:

• Use blast furnace cement as a concrete material.
• Design with high-performance concrete to reduce cement usage.
• Use recycled face bricks for interior and exterior building surfaces.
• Use recycled bricks or recycled cement bricks for external wall landscaping.
• Use recycled aggregate as concrete aggregate.

6. What is Waste Reduction?

    Waste refers to the construction imbalance of earthwork, abandoned soil, waste building materials, and dispersed dust generated during construction and subsequent demolition processes that are detrimental to environmental hygiene and human health.

    Purpose of Waste Reduction Indicators:

    In Taiwan, reinforced concrete construction produces approximately 1.8 kg of dust per square meter of floor space during the construction phase, posing health risks to individuals. For mid-rise residential buildings, around 0.14 cubic meters of solid waste is generated during the construction phase, and approximately 1.23 cubic meters of solid waste is produced during the demolition phase, imposing a significant burden on waste management.

    The "Waste Reduction Indicators" aim to advocate for cleaner and more environmentally friendly construction practices by using waste, reducing air pollution, and promoting resource recycling. The goal is to mitigate the environmental impact of construction development, reduce public resistance to construction development, and ultimately enhance the quality of living environments.

    Waste Reduction Indicators and Standards:

    This waste reduction indicator focuses on four major construction pollution sources: earthwork balance, construction waste, solid waste from demolition, and construction air pollution. The pollution severity is evaluated using actual pollution emission ratios, with equal weight given to the emission ratios of the four major construction pollution sources. The calculated values must be less than the waste reduction benchmark to meet the requirements of "green building."

    How to Meet the Standards:

    Earthwork:

• Minimize excavation for basements.
• Use excess soil for on-site topography modification or for balancing earthwork in site engineering.

    Construction Automation:

• Use metal system formwork.
• Adopt system formwork.
• Use precast exterior walls.
• Use precast columns and beams.
• Use precast floor slabs.
• Use precast bathrooms.
• Use dry partitions.

    Structural Design:

• Adopt wood construction.
• Use lightweight steel structures.

    Recycled Building Materials:

• Use blast furnace cement as a concrete material.
• Design with high-performance concrete to reduce cement usage.
• Use recycled face bricks for interior and exterior building surfaces.
• Use recycled bricks or recycled cement bricks for external wall landscaping.
• Use recycled aggregate as concrete aggregate.

    Air Pollution Control:

• Construction sites should have dedicated washing facilities for construction vehicles and earthmoving equipment.
• Establish measures for the cleaning water of vehicle mud and earthmoving equipment, with sludge settling, filtering, de-silting, and drainage facilities.
• Fully cover vehicle mud and earthmoving equipment with impermeable dust-proof plastic sheets when leaving the construction site.
• Install dust-proof covers on structures after construction.
• Erect dustproof fencing over 1.8 meters around the construction site.

7. What is Indoor Environment Indicators?

    The term "Indoor Environment Indicators" primarily assesses factors affecting residential health and comfort in the indoor environment, such as sound insulation, lighting, ventilation, interior decoration, indoor air quality, etc. The goal is to raise awareness of indoor environmental quality among the public, reduce indoor pollution, and enhance overall well-being.

    Purpose of Indoor Environment Indicators:

    The "Indoor Environment Indicators" focus on four main aspects: acoustic environment, lighting environment, ventilation, and indoor building material decoration. Particularly in terms of interior decoration, the indicators encourage minimizing the amount of interior decoration and using healthy building materials with the Green Building Material Certification. This aims to reduce the emission of harmful air pollutants while requiring low-pollution, low-emission, and recyclable material designs.

    Indoor Environment Indicators and Standards:

    These indicators assess indoor living environments from the perspectives of "health" and "environment." It serves as a crucial starting point for evaluating green buildings. The indicators aim to alert individuals to potential health risks posed by indoor environmental pollutants, address and alleviate these threats and concerns, and evaluate the environmental impact of indoor spaces, considering natural ventilation, lighting, and acoustic comfort.

    How to Meet the Standards:

    For buildings to meet the specified standards in green design, attention to the following factors is crucial:

• Use reinforced concrete exterior walls and floor structures with a thickness of at least 15 cm.
• Utilize airtightness level 2 or above glass windows to ensure good sound insulation.
• Preferably use light glass or low-E glass, avoiding highly reflective or heavily colored glass to maintain good daylighting.
• For residential and non-central air-conditioned office buildings, maintain a building depth of less than 14 meters, with configurations like straight, L-shaped, U-shaped, or courtyard-shaped to facilitate ventilation and daylighting.
• Avoid excessively deep interior spaces to ensure good natural daylighting.
• Most light fixtures should have anti-glare measures or grids (no exposed light tubes).
• Central air conditioning systems should incorporate a fresh air supply system.
• Keep interior decoration simple and avoid excessive ornamentation.
• Use building materials for interior decoration that have domestic and international environmental certifications, such as Green Building Material Certification (i.e., low emission, low pollution, recyclable, and reusable materials).
• Preferably use natural and ecological building materials for interior decoration.

8. What is Water Resource Indicator?

    The term "Water Resource Indicator" refers to the ratio of the actual water usage of a building to the average water usage, also known as the "water-saving rate." The assessment of water usage includes the evaluation of water efficiency in the kitchen, bathroom, faucets, as well as the assessment of rainwater and reused wastewater.

    Purpose of Water Resource Indicator:

    In the past, improper water design in buildings, low water fees, and poor water usage habits contributed to high water consumption in Taiwan. In 1990, the average water consumption in Taiwan was 350 liters/(day*person), leaving ample room for water conservation. With increasing global environmental awareness, water-saving design in buildings has become a shared responsibility. The goal of this indicator is to actively use methods like rainwater harvesting and the recycling of domestic wastewater (source control) and to adopt water-saving appliances in building design (flow control) to achieve water conservation.

    Effective Methods for Water Resource Utilization:

    In the design of buildings, attention to the following factors should help meet the specified standards:

• Use water-saving appliances: According to a survey on residential water use, bathroom toilets account for about 50% of the total water usage. Many building designs use improper water fixtures, resulting in significant waste. The adoption of water-saving fixtures, such as new faucets, water-efficient taps, water-saving toilets, dual-flush toilets, water-saving showerheads, and automatic flushing sensing systems, can lead to substantial water savings.
• Install rainwater harvesting systems: Rainwater harvesting involves capturing and storing rainwater through natural terrain or artificial methods. After simple purification treatment, rainwater can be reused for general household use, firefighting, and reducing urban peak loads.
• Implement reused wastewater systems: Reused wastewater refers to treated domestic wastewater that meets specified water quality standards and can be reused within a certain range for non-potable and non-body-contact water use. In total water consumption, flushing toilets alone accounts for 35%. If recycled water is used for toilet flushing, significant savings can be achieved.

    Water Resource Indicator and Standards:

    This indicator sets a standard of 250 liters per person per day as the average water consumption for general accommodation-type buildings. The indicator for accommodation-type buildings is based on an actual water-saving rate below 0.8. For other building types, the standard is based on the adoption rate of water-saving fixtures, and it must be above 0.8 to meet the reward level.

    Design Principles to Achieve Standards:

• All toilets and public faucets must adopt water-saving fixtures with water conservation certification or equivalent water consumption specifications.
• Convert single-flush toilets to dual-flush toilets with water conservation certification.
• Water-saving valves, flow restrictors, foam generators, and other water-saving taps have limited water-saving efficiency. Switch to automatic sensing taps or self-closing taps for better water-saving efficiency.
• For accommodation-type and hotel-type buildings, try to use showers instead of bathtubs in bathrooms.
• Avoid installing private massage or luxury SPA shower facilities that consume a lot of water. If installed, use dual-flush toilets with water conservation certification to compensate.
• Avoid installing large water-consuming artificial lawns or flower gardens. If installed, use automatic moisture-sensing irrigation systems for water conservation.
• For public facilities such as water features, swimming pools, fountains, play pools, SPAs, or saunas that consume water, set up facilities for rainwater collection, storage, or reused wastewater.
• For developments with a total floor area of over 20,000 m2 or a site area of over 2 hectares, install facilities for rainwater collection, storage, or reused wastewater.

9. What is the Sewage and Waste Improvement Indicator?

    This indicator focuses on specific assessment criteria related to building space facilities and usage management. It provides a tangible assessment indicator that allows property owners and users to have specific control and improvement measures for environmental hygiene.

    Purpose of the Sewage and Waste Improvement Indicator:

    To complement sewage treatment facility functions, this indicator examines and evaluates the intervention of domestic wastewater drainage pipe systems to confirm the integration of domestic wastewater into sewage systems. Additionally, the indicator aims to emphasize the importance of landscape beautification design in waste disposal spaces, enhancing overall living environment quality.

    Sewage and Waste Improvement Indicator and Standards:

    While sewage treatment facilities are strictly regulated in building technical rules and related specifications, this evaluation requires more comprehensive standards for the environmental aspects of sewage and waste treatment. This is to align with the true spirit of "green building."

    Qualification Criteria for Sewage:

    The sewage treatment and effluent water quality standards are detailed in environmental and building technical rules and are not reassessed by this indicator. However, the indicator focuses on a significant deficiency in current building-related sewage treatment—specifically, the incomplete integration of domestic drainage pipes into sewage treatment facilities. Therefore, this indicator inspects and assesses this aspect.

    Qualification Criteria for Waste:

    This indicator evaluates only the landscape and sanitary environmental design conditions of public waste disposal spaces on the site. Since non-community-type detached houses typically have their waste collected by environmental protection units, and there is no hygiene issue with centralized public waste collection, the assessment of this indicator may be unnecessary for such residential buildings.

    How to Achieve the Standards:

    For Sewage:

• All domestic wastewater from bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry spaces must be connected to sewage drains or sewage treatment facilities.
• For buildings with specific laundry spaces in dormitories, nursing homes, hotels, hospitals, laundry shops, etc., interceptor devices must be installed, and the drainage pipes should be properly connected to sewage drains or sewage treatment facilities.
• For buildings with dedicated kitchens in schools, institutions, public buildings, and restaurants, grease traps must be installed, and drainage pipes should be securely connected to sewage treatment facilities or sewage drains.
• For buildings with specialized bathrooms in sports facilities, dormitories, hospitals, clubs, etc., drainage pipes for miscellaneous wastewater must be securely connected to sewage treatment facilities or sewage drains.
• Local governments should have a waste collection system in place, preventing waste from being left on the ground.
• Adequate storage space for waste handling and removal.
• Dedicated waste collection centers with landscaping or beautification.
• Kitchen waste collection and utilization facilities.
• Resource waste sorting and recycling systems.
• Pre-processing facilities such as refrigeration, freezing, or compression for waste.
• Closed waste bins to prevent animal access, regularly cleaned and disinfected.

    This set of criteria ensures a comprehensive evaluation of both sewage and waste treatment, emphasizing not only legal compliance but also environmental impact and quality of life considerations in building design and management.