Research on the Impact Path of the Sustainable Development of Green Buildings: Evidence from China

Abstract

Green buildings are not only the optimum avenue to reduce the adverse effects of buildings, but also the inevitable requirement for implementing the concepts of sustainable development in construction. As they are more complicated engineering systems, green buildings face more influencing factors from various aspects than traditional ones. Therefore, those factors and their driving effects must be considered carefully for the purposes of the sustainable development of green buildings. The research samples selected in this paper are 23 typical green building cases in Tianjin. This paper employs the clear set csQCA method to explore the linkage effect of incentive policies, technical support, enterprise recognition, the evaluation standard system, and development cost on the sustainable development of green buildings and path selection. The results show that a single condition is far from enough for the sustainable development of green buildings. Multiple antecedent conditions are developed concurrently to form the diversified configuration driving it. There are three ways to initiate this; the first is a three-element driving system, including incentive policies, enterprise recognition, and development cost; the second is another three-element driving system including technical support, enterprise recognition, and an evaluation standard system; and the last is a four-element driving system, including incentive policy, technical support, evaluation standard system, and development cost. The conclusion of this paper contributes to a deepening of the rational understanding of the nature of the complex interaction of the multiple factors that are behind the sustainable development of green buildings in China, and it, therefore, brings beneficial practical enlightenment for the purposes of sustainable development.