Here’s some interesting green news coming out of Beijing: the city’s Olympic Village has become the first to win a green building certification.
The non-profit, non-partisan U.S. Green Building Council gave the Olympic housing a gold rating for environmental design, according to a press release (pdf here). The environmentally friendly village, home to 17,000 athletes from around the world, is contributing to improved air quality in the city. Beijing is experiencingbetter air quality this month than it has in 10 years, according to The Guardian. The Olympics seem to be making Beijing — a city that generally looks like this— a little bit cleaner. New buildings with cleaner energy standards are part of the equation. City officials also saythey are adhering to stricter air quality regulations. The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau saysit plans on adopting stricter regulations following the summer games to ensure that good conditions continue. We’ll have to wait and see if officials follow through once the media glare of the Olympics subsides. U.S. Green Building Council CEO and founder Rick Fedrizzi says his organization is making a concerted effort to work with China on greening new developments, according to the press release. The country is responsible for building about half of the world’s new buildings each year. Sustainable building practices could reduce pollution, energy use and water use in China, says Fedrizzi, which could all improve public health and the global environment.