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Building Sustainable Communities in China - Status and Outlook

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 International Journal of Energy for a Clean Environment 19(3–4):175–200 (2018)

STATE-OF-THE-ART IN LOW CARBON

COMMUNITY

Yuexia Lv,1,* Jinpeng Bi,1 & Jinyue Yan2,3

1
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Qilu University of Technology
 (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, China
2
School of Business, Society and Energy, Mälardalen University, Västerås,
 Sweden
3
School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology,
 Stockholm, Sweden
*Address all correspondence to: Yuexia Lv, School of Mechanical and Automotive
Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences),
Jinan, China, E-mail: yuexialv@foxmail.com; 646850105@qq.com; Tel.: +86-533-
 89631132; Fax: +86-533-89631132

The global warming and energy crisis have attracted significant attention round the world in re-
cent years. As a basic social unit involving building construction, inhabitant transportation, en-
ergy utilization, and individual behavior, the community may significantly affect the carbon emis-
sions generated by humans. The concept of low carbon community has been accordingly proposed
to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate a prosperous low carbon economy. In this
paper, various low carbon technologies, strategies, and lifestyles, involving community planning,
advanced green building technologies, renewable energy supply systems, sustainable transporta-
tion, water recycle and waste management systems, change of low carbon living mode and ener-
gy-related behavior were thoroughly discussed. The current status of low carbon community prac-
tices in both developed countries and China, together with their corresponding achievements, has
been reviewed. Evaluation tools and indicators were analyzed to provide important references for
policy makers in supporting sustainable community construction activities. Furthermore, recom-
mendations were proposed to facilitate the development of low carbon communities in the future.

KEY WORDS: low carbon community, green building, evaluation indicator, renewable
energy, net zero carbon emission

1. INTRODUCTION

Environmental issues due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4,

N2O, and CFCs) have become global problems that attracted international attention
in recent years. Among these greenhouse gases, CO2 has the greatest adverse impact
and approximately contributes to 55% of the observed global warming because the
world economy development still depends on fossil fuels as the main energy source.

2150-3621/18/$35.00 © 2018 by Begell House, Inc. www.begellhouse.com 175

176 Lv, Bi, and Yan

NOMENCLATURE
AHP analytic hierarchy DECC Department for Energy and
process Climate Change
ASHP air source heat pump GBTool Green Building Tool
BAPV building attached GSHP ground source/geothermal
photovoltaic heat pump
BEAT Building Environmental HK-BEAM Hong Kong Building
Assessment Tool Environmental Method
BEES Building for Environment and HVAC heating, ventilation, and air
Economic Sustainability conditioning
BIPV building integrated IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on
photovoltaic Climate Change
BREEAM Building Research LCA Life Cycle Assessment
Establishment Environmental LEED Leadership in Energy and
Assessment Method Environmental Design
BTES borehole thermal energy Building Rating System
storage SGSHP solar-ground source heat
CHP combined heat and power pump
plant SHP solar heat-pump
COP coefficient of performance WSHP water source heat pump

Considering from technical aspects, there are three options to reduce total CO2 emis-
sions into the atmosphere which include: reducing energy intensity by improving the
efficiency of energy usage; reducing carbon intensity by switching to non-fossil fuel
energy alternatives, and enhancing the sequestration of CO2 by developing cost-ef-
fective capture and storage technologies (Zhang et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2016; Tan
et al., 2017; Lv et al., 2012). In addition, many countries are also attempting to achieve
rapid economical development and to reduce CO2 emissions simultaneously by devel-
oping policy frameworks and activities. Under the context of adapting to global cli-
mate changes and reducing CO2 emissions due to human activities, low carbon con-
cept was accordingly proposed as a novel development mode with the characteristics
of low energy consumption, low environmental pollution, and low carbon emissions.
In 2003, British Government issued a White Paper called "Our Energy Future —
Creating a Low Carbon Economy," which proposes a long-term strategic vision of

International Journal of Energy for a Clean Environment

State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 177

energy policy combining environmental sustainability, security of supply, competi-

tiveness, and social goals. In the White Paper, low carbon economy is described as
"higher resource productivity–producing more with fewer natural resources and less
pollution will contribute to higher living standard and a better quality of life." Low
carbon economy has become the most widely accepted economy development pattern
and has been considered as an important way to save current financial crisis and to
achieve global economic restructuring. The concept of low carbon economy has been
developed into low carbon society, low carbon city, low carbon community in Japan
and other developed countries to meet the requirements of sustainable development.
The low carbon society is the newly proposed development strategy, and its target is
sustainability of social development (Kainuma et al., 2012). The low carbon city is
a city adopting low carbon economic development pattern and low carbon lifestyle
(Cao and Li, 2011). Community is a basic social unit involving residential building
construction, inhabitant transportation, energy utilization, and individual behavior
which may significantly affect the human-generated carbon emissions. The term low
carbon community is mostly applied to a community which promotes or seeks to
promote sustainability in sectors such as water, building, transportation, waste treat-
ment, and energy utilization. Low Carbon Transition Plan issued by UK Government's
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in 2009 makes explicit the major
role that households and communities will play in building a low carbon future (DECC,
2009). Therefore, a low carbon community (or sustainable/ecological community) is the
most essential cell of a low carbon society and an epitome of a low carbon city, and in
a certain sense, it can be considered as the basis for constructing a low carbon society
and achieving a low carbon development strategy (Middlemiss and Parrish, 2010).
Even though the concept of low carbon community has been widely used by prac-
titioners, policy makers, and academic researchers, still some debates are being con-
ducted about the currecnt exact definition of the low carbon community. Geis et al.
(2003) defined that a typical sustainable community has the goals that are rooted in
a respect for both the natural environment and human nature, and that call for the
use of technology in an appropriate way to serve both of these resource. Middlemiss
(2008) defined the low carbon community as forms of cooperation and collaboration
which aim to reduce the carbon intensity of their members' lifestyles by providing
amenable contexts and mechanisms, and considered that the low carbon community
provides a new context for energy end-user behavior change. Raven et al. (2008) de-
scribed the low carbon community as a form of organization where everyone acts as
a citizen rather than a consumer; the citizens would work hard to upgrade the energy
infrastructure in the community at the local economical development level. Recently,
low carbon communities have been characterized by compact special arrangements,
convenient and green transportation systems, green architecture, efficient energy utili-
zation, recycle and reuse of waste materials, and public participation (Murota, 2014;
Wang et al., 2016).

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178 Lv, Bi, and Yan

In our opinion, a better understanding of low carbon community should involve

the utilization of low carbon technologies, the application of low carbon strategies,
and the change of individual behavior, the successful demonstration of development
practices, as well as the evaluation tools and indicators. However, there have been
few reports on the systematical and theoretical research on the state-of-the-art in low
carbon community development. Accordingly, it is the interest of the present work to
provide a status review of various low carbon technologies, strategies, and lifestyles
adopted for existing and emerging low carbon communities in developed countries
and China. Additionally, evaluation indicators and future recommendations help make
the community more sustainable are discussed in this paper.

2. LOW CARBON TECHNOLOGIES, STRATEGIES, AND LIFESTYLES

FOR LOW CARBON COMMUNITY
2.1 Community Planning
The goal of low carbon community planning is to encourage neighborhood design
and land use planning methods which will reduce costs and environmental impacts,
while keeping community livability. The planning should integrate land use, building
layout, energy utilization, water use, waste recycle, transportation, and infrastructure
investments, taking social, economic, and environmental sustainability into account.
Planning principles in developing low carbon community should take the followings
into consideration:
• Poverty alleviation and the satisfaction of basic needs.
• Focus on special needs groups.
• Gender equality and equity.
• The environment — physical, social and economic.
• Participation and democratic processes.
• Local economic development.
• Accessibility — public transport and pedestrian focus.
• Mixed use development.
• Corridor development.
• Safety and security.
• Variation and flexibility.
• Densification.
• Reducing urban sprawl.
• Filling the gap.
• Breaking new ground.
• Legislation, policies, guidelines, and sector plans relevant to sustainable com-
munity planning.
The review work of Ko (2013) found that the building density, exposed building sur-
face area, and tree planting are the most critical parameters related with the energy

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State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 179

performance of residential communities. The occupant behaviors, such as the thermal

preference, dwelling time, and air conditioner usage behavior, shall be considered due
to their important role in low carbon-oriented residential community planning (Ruan
et al., 2017). According to the household survey of "household energy consumption
and living conditions in Beijing" (Yang et al., 2016), the building attributes, neighbor-
hood attributes, and location attributes have impacts on household carbon emissions.
Under the premise of local public services, obviously lagging behind and high-quality
local public services highly concentrated in the inner city, the urban planners should
pursue a better spatial match between where people are and the locations of urban
amenities. In addition, Huang et al. (2015) adopted top-down and bottom-up models
for a Community Energy Planning method at different community construction stages
from the perspective of reducing energy consumption in the community planning and
operation.
2.2 Green Building/Sustainable Housing
In accordance with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001), the
commercial and residential building sector consumes about 40% energy sources and
leads to 36% energy related carbon emission in industrialized countries. Juan et al.
(2010) indicated that energy consumption of commercial and residential buildings in
the European Union and the United States even exceeds that of industrial production
and transportation. Consequently, it is of great importance to reconsider the green
building structure and exploit renewable energy systems to pursue low carbon com-
munities, thus minimizing conventional energy consumption and improving living
quality.
The energy consumption in building sector mainly includes heating, ventilation,
and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, equipment and appliances, indirect embedded
energy use associated with building construction, manufacturing of building materials,
and transport to site. The promotion of green building has resulted in the development
of various low carbon technologies and strategies to contribute to building low car-
bon and sustainable communities, such as reasonable design of sustainable housing,
green roof system, building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system, building attached
photovoltaic (BAPV) system, solar-powered integrated energy system including heat-
ing, air-conditioning, natural ventilation, and hot water supply, as well as heat pump
technologies.
2.2.1 Design of Green Building
To reduce the energy consumption associated with new housing project and to bring
down the CO2 emissions in the built environment, reasonable planning and design of
more sustainable buildings must be considered. Knudstrup et al. (2009) thoroughly
discussed the design principles and motivations applied in different approaches to the
sustainable building design:

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180 Lv, Bi, and Yan

• preserve or improve biodiversity;

• life cycle assessment (LCA) of materials;
• reduce private transportation;
• thermal mass of materials;
• insulation of building envelope;
• window area to orientation ratio;
• surface to floor area ratio;
• window to floor area ratio;
• utilization of daylight;
• zoning;
• mobility of the building;
• natural and mechanical ventilation;
• renewable energy sources;
• energy producing elements;
• energy efficient installation;
• embodied energy of materials.

2.2.2 Green Roof System

A green roof system, further divided into extensive and intensive green roof systems,
could reduce the demand on air-conditioning systems by lowering temperature inside
the building in warm climates. An extensive roof system is the preferred option for
retrofitting onto existing buildings as often the structural capacity of the roof will not
be increased. It has been considered as one of the most important means of devel-
oping a low carbon community in building features. Therefore, many governments
have been introducing various policies and regulations in promoting green roof tech-
nologies. From both a theoretical and a practical standpoint, Germany is recognized
as a world leader in green roof technology, where more than 10% of houses installed
green roofs (Ngan, 2004).
According to Report on the Environmental Benefits and Costs of Green Roof
Technology for the City of Toronto (Banting et al., 2005), the green roof system
has the following advantages: reduction in stormwater runoff that affects the quality
of local water resources; reduction in energy consumption; reduction in the urban
heat island effect and associated cooling costs; beautification of the city; creation of
more natural green spaces and opportunities for local food production. But research
results of Zhang et al. (2012) showed that lack of promotion and incentives from
governments and the increased maintenance cost are identified as the top barriers
for the implementation of green roof in Hong Kong. It is essential to overcome
the above barriers to extensively apply green roof systems in the existing buildings
practice.

International Journal of Energy for a Clean Environment

State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 181

2.2.3 Solar System

Solar energy is attracting more attention in the green building energy system due to
its abundant and clean properties. A BIPV system is architecturally integrated into
the building's design which can be used for curtain walls, awnings, windows, and
skylights (Crawford et al., 2006). Thus, the BIPV system plays the role of generating
electricity and serves as construction materials, while the BAPV system is added to
the building to generate electricity without acting the structure's functional aspect. The
BIPV and BAPV systems are widely recommended as sustainable solutions by reduc-
ing the use of conventional fossil fuels with solar energy. A variety of factors have to
be taken into account to achieve multifunctional roles of the BIPV system, such as
photovoltaic module temperature, shading, installation angle and orientation (Mattei
et al., 2006). Yoo (2011) theoretically studied the influences of the angle of the solar
cell panel, albedo of earth, building azimuth, and of solar cell panels under shading
on the power generation to further optimize BIPV implementation. Peng et al. (2011)
showed that the function, cost, technologies, and aesthetics of BIPV systems should
be comprehensively considered for the design of BIPV structures, rather than solely
the high integrations. They also pointed out that photovoltaic structures and design
should be focused on the maintenance and replacement of photovoltaic cell modules,
rather than simply prolonging their lives.
In addition to the solar electricity generation system, solar powered technologies
are also integrated in new green buildings, including heating, air-conditioning, natu-
ral ventilation, and hot water supply (Si et al., 2017; Lv et al., 2018). The studies of
Henning and Döll (2012) showed that in comparison with the conventional solution,
lift cycle cost of a solar heating and cooling system has not to be higher, but primary
energy savings up to 80% can be realized. Considering the present cost of energy
sources (gas, electricity), the initial cost for absorption chillers and solar collectors
should be further reduced so that the integrated solar system for combined heating
and cooling can become more competitive (Mateus and Oliveira, 2009).

2.2.4 Heat Pump Technology for Green Building

As a highly efficient renewable energy technology, heat pump has been widely used
for space heating and cooling, as well as water heating in residential and commer-
cial buildings, without consuming any fossil fuels. The heat pump system applied in
green building mainly includes ground source/geothermal heat pump (GSHP) (Li et
al., 2018), solar heat-pump (SHP) (Poppi et al., 2018), air source heat pump (ASHP)
(Zhang et al., 2017), and water source heat pump (WSHP) (Liu et al., 2016), in which
GSHP is extensively studied by researchers.
Bagdanavicius and Jenkins (2013) investigated the energy demand for space heat-
ing, domestic hot water systems, and the electrical power requirement for GSHP in
a residential area. They found that hot water consumption has a significant effect on

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182 Lv, Bi, and Yan

energy demand and power requirements. The energy demand for hot water systems
may be up to 3.5 times higher than that for space heating for small, well-insulated
buildings. The results of Bi et al. (2009) indicated that the exergy loss of a GSHP
system for building heating mode is bigger than that of cooling mode, and the exergy
efficiency of a whole GSHP system is obviously lower than those of its components
for both building heating and cooling modes. Different heat pump systems can also
be integrated so as to combine the advantages of a single source heat pump. Bi et
al. (2004) theoretically and experimentally studied a solar-ground source heat pump
(SGSHP) system with a vertical double-spiral coil ground heat exchanger. They built
a low-grade energy utilization system to alternate the heating mode of the SGSHP
system between a SHP and a GSHP. Liang et al. (2011) proposed a new solar assisted
air source heat pump system with flexible operational modes to improve the perfor-
mance of the heating system; the established mathematical model showed that the
system coefficient of performance (COP) is enhanced with increase of solar radiation
density and solar collector area.
2.3 Energy Utilization
There is no doubt that the utilization of renewable energy sources in the community
will make a crucial contribution to solving the global climate change problem, such as
solar energy, biogas, wind power, and water power.
Solar energy is commonly integrated with building energy system in terms of solar
electricity generation system and other solar powered technologies, as discussed in
Section 2.2.3. For communities with adequate solar radiation, solar photovoltaic tech-
nology is a good energy option for powering electrical devices and pumping water.
The biogas is another promising renewable energy particularly appropriate for rural
households. The studies of Ding et al. (2012) proved that biogas digesters can effec-
tively help improve the rural energy consumption structure, improve the quality of
family life, cut down the total consumption of energy, and decrease chemical fertiliz-
ers used in fields, thus allowing the rural economy and society, as well as the energy
and ecological environment to enjoy sustainable development.
With the improvement of technical maturity, wind energy has experienced the
greatest growth worldwide over the past few years. According to the assessment of
the IPCC concerning wind energy potential, intermittent wind power on a large grid
can contribute an estimated 15–20% of annual electricity production without spe-
cial arrangements for storage, backup, or load management (IPCC, 1996). Analysis
of the wind energy utilization in Taiwan showed that dispersedly produced wind
power would contribute to establishing an autonomous and disaster-resilient pow-
er supply system; full exploitation of wind energy by replacing partial coal-based
power generation would result in annual reductions of 9.8 million tons of CO2 in
Taiwan (Yue et al., 2001). Many European countries such as Denmark, Germany, and
the Netherlands have initiated community-owned wind schemes to provide electric-

International Journal of Energy for a Clean Environment

State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 183

ity for personal consumption (Bolinger, 2011). Based upon Oregon's experience in
community owned wind projects, Yin (2012) suggested that strategically state policy
makers should check with the executive agencies to ensure they have adopted poli-
cies and procedures to encourage community renewable energy projects to meet the
strategic goals. Yin (2013) also presented seven community wind cases in Oregon
and identified common factors that should be considered by community for wind
energy projects, including geographic features, land ownership, attitudes of the local
residents, wheeling utilities, power buyer, county incentives, state incentives, federal
incentives, other incentives, financing sources, developers, conservation groups, and
manufacturers.
From the perspective of energy policies, the concept of energy autonomy or ener-
gy autarky is widely regarded as an effective tool and relevant principle to promote
sustainable community development. Rae and Bradley (2012) presented a wide range
of issues which are critically important to the development of higher levels of energy
autonomy in sustainable communities, ranging from the role of energy storage tech-
nologies through public attitudes towards local energy generation. They believed that
an increased level of energy autonomy can deliver a variety of social, financial, and
environmental benefits at the community level. Sustainable community development
through energy autarky may increase the social acceptance of renewable energy inno-
vation and has the ability to significantly reduce the carbon emissions in the commu-
nity. In addition, increased level of energy autonomy could lead to local employment
opportunities, greater energy supply security, and to the potential for attracting invest-
ment/tourism (Müller et al., 2011). Hain et al. (2005) pointed out that the sustainable
energy autonomy is most suitable for remote and particularly rural communities which
are ideal for onshore wind energy and bio-fuel cultivation. Small-scale communities
are generally studied to test the methods, practices, and technologies which could be
used to facilitate a shift towards a more autonomous energy model throughout the rest
of wider society (Kaldellis et al., 2009).
2.4 Low Carbon Transportation
With the improvement of people's living standards and rise in purchasing power,
CO2 emissions from public transportation and private cars are dramatically increas-
ing. By the year 2009, 23.5% of the total carbon emissions in Shanghai were caused
by transportation (Chen and Zhu, 2013). Therefore, sustainable or low carbon trans-
portation is generally regarded as one of the most effective low carbon approaches.
Zhou (2012) comprehensively reviewed the research, policy proposals, and recom-
mendations, implemented policies and programs on sustainable transportation since
2000, with regional focus on the US, UK, and Canada as references. The goals, vi-
sions, and strategies in relation to sustainable transportation at the community level
proposed by individual researchers and high-profile entities include (Buehler et al.,
2009; Lund and Clark, 2008): to fully coordinate and integrate transportation-land

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184 Lv, Bi, and Yan

use planning and management; to increase public awareness of sustainability and en-
courage low carbon transportation modes, such as walking or biking; to improve and
expand pedestrian and bicycle facilities; to enhance utilization of zero emission vehi-
cles and efficiency of fueling infrastructure; to use pricing to encourage the use of less
polluting cars, driving at non-peak hours and more use of public transit; to implement
low carbon transport policies in stages with a long term perspective.

2.5 Water Saving and Waste Management

Liu and Ping (2012) introduced the water saving retrofitting for existing residential
buildings to reduce water consumption, such as the application of water saving ap-
pliances (water saving taps, water saving flushing equipment of toilet, and water
saving showers), smart IC card control systems, recycled water (washing and show-
ering wastewater) for flushing toilet, irrigating landscape, and spraying roads, rain-
water collection by rainwater hopper, rainwater infiltration measures system (using
water-permeable floor and concave type greenbelt, infiltrating rainwater pipes).
An efficient household waste separation, utilization, and management system could
lead to environmental improvements in residential areas and reduce energy use re-
lated to waste disposal. Bong et al. (2017) concluded that the pilot-scale centralized
composting plant in the community is a viable way to reduce the amount of organic
waste to the landfill, produce value-added compost, and offer greenhouse gas mitiga-
tion potential of 77.64%. Bernstad and La Cour Jansen (2012) compared four systems
for household food waste collection in relation to the environmental impact catego-
ries eutrophication potential, acidification potential, global warming potential, as well
as energy use. They found that collection with vacuum system results in the largest
net avoidance of primary energy use, while disposal of food waste in paper bags for
decentralized drying before collection result in a larger net avoidance of global warm-
ing, eutrophication, and acidification. The food waste fraction of separated solid waste
can be preheated to obtain a liquid fraction which is used for biogas production, and
a dry fraction which could be incinerated to supply heat for household. In addition,
more effective policies should be designed by local governments and decision makers
to encourage waste prevention behavior, thus reducing the amount of generated waste
(Bortoleto et al., 2012).

2.6 Individual Behavioral Change and Grassroots Initiatives

Apart from the previously stated low carbon strategies and technologies, as the energy
consumer and community citizens, individuals or residents in the community play an
important role in promoting low carbon community by altering their energy-related
behavior. According to the definition of low carbon community given by Middlemiss
(2008), low carbon community provides a new context for energy end-user behavior

International Journal of Energy for a Clean Environment

State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 185

change. Behavioral changes of community individuals from existing high energy and
high carbon patterns to low carbon lifestyles are fundamental to conserve energy and
mitigate climate change, thus transforming into low carbon community. Most of the
behavioral change programs are tried to influence individual behavior via economic
instruments like grants and rebates, or via education and persuasion (Geller et al.,
2006). Individuals have been well advised in terms of low carbon lifestyles to use
energy conserving appliances, to shorten bathing time, to use less heat and air-con-
ditioning, to walk or ride a bike. In reverse, low carbon community may provide
solutions to problems in attempts to change individual behavior. Heiskanen et al.
(2010) examined how different communities reframe problems on the individual
level to reduce carbon emissions through four cases studied where each represents
these community types: urban community, sector community, interest community
and smart mob community. They also discussed four persistent barriers in energy
demand-side management which could be solved at low carbon community level:
social dilemmas, social conventions, lack of infrastructure, and helplessness of indi-
viduals when faced with the enormity of climate change. A vast commercial system
of technologies, marketing, and media may contribute to a convergence of conven-
tions of "comfort, cleanliness, and convenience" (Shove, 2003). Sustainable housing
regions and alternative utility systems are successful experiments in creating new
infrastructure of consumption (Ornetzeder and Rohracher, 2006). The management
of resources by the entire community rather than by individuals could solve the
dilemmas of the sustainable consumption. The individual behavioral change can be
encouraged by providing individuals with feedback on the collective impact they
are making in reducing carbon emissions (Tukker et al., 2008).
Grassroots initiatives are innovative networks of activists and organizations that
lead bottom-up solutions for sustainable development and solutions that respond to
the local situation and the interests and values of the communities involved. The
significance of grassroots initiatives at the community level as vehicles for trans-
forming the society-energy relations should be highlighted. Community groups can
help tackle climate change, develop community energy and transport projects, help
minimize waste, improve the quality of the local environment, and promote fair
trade and sustainable consumption and production. It is recommended that it is pos-
sible to improve and augment a community's levels of social capital through the en-
couragement of collective action on climate change. Middlemiss and Parrish (2010)
investigated the influences of grassroots initiatives on creating low carbon com-
munities and developed a theoretical framework from studies on community-based
practice change initiatives. People could change their actions, seek to influence oth-
ers around them and seek to change the social structure that they inhabit. The above
acts are invariably conceived, initiated, and enacted within the community, affecting
the capacity and ecological footprint of their community.

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186 Lv, Bi, and Yan

3. LOW CARBON COMMUNITY PRACTICES

3.1 Low Carbon Community Development Practices in Developed

Countries
The communities play a key role in facilitating, increasing, and sustaining carbon
reduction practices. A variety of low carbon practices in the communities have been
initiated in many developed countries, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Norway, Iceland, Finland, UK, France, Germany, the USA, and Canada. Main con-
struction mode of most low carbon communities is to reduce total carbon emission in
the community by applying low carbon technologies and strategies in infrastructure
innovation, buildings, transportation, residual energy utilization, behavior changes,
and other means. Table 1 summarizes the low carbon measures taken by some typical
low carbon communities in developed countries.
Denmark is one of the earliest countries to construct ecological or low carbon
community. Denmark Beder Solar Wind Community is a public cohousing commu-
nity spontaneously organized by the residents in 1980, with the most obvious char-
acteristics as public housing design and renewable energy utilization (Chinese Urban
Low-Carbon Economy Network, 2010). Ecolonia is the first low carbon demonstration
community in the Netherlands established in 1989, which demonstrates a wide range
of new technologies and ecological housing designs, including passive and active so-
lar energy, energy-saving design strategies, rainwater collection, and its use in toilet
flushing, car washing, and garden watering, the use of recycled building materials and
appropriate designing towards reducing the energy demands (Beatley, 1999). Sweden
Hammarby Community used to be a run-down old industrial area in the center of
Stockholm with severe pollution problems, but it has been an all-multifamily neigh-
borhood elevating Swedes' environmental awareness towards development by plan-
ning the community entirely around innovative low carbon technologies and practices
since 2004. The key elements of Hammarby Community include: incorporating envi-
ronmental technologies into a new community through a rigorous master plan; using
competition between developers to spur innovation; predicting the future communi-
ty, and adjusting the development when those assumptions prove incorrect (Liu and
Xin, 2011). The district heating is partly supplied by 34% from purified wastewater,
47% from combustible household waste, and 16% from biofuel (Future Communities,
2011). As the pioneer proposing low carbon economy, the UK government launched
the "Community Action 2020 — Together We Can," which highlights that communi-
ty engagement in governance is critical for sustainable society and pinpoints several
ways in which learning and behavioral change are considered most likely to be effec-
tive through the agency of community groups (Seyfang and Smith, 2006). Completed
in 2002, the BedZED (Zero Energy Consumption Development) Community has been
the largest mixed use zero carbon emission community in UK until now. The entire
community only uses energy from renewable energy sources generated on site to meet

International Journal of Energy for a Clean Environment

 TABLE 1: Low carbon measures adopted by some typical communities in developed countries
Community Name Low Carbon Characteristics and Measures References
Beder Solar Wind Comprehensive utilization of renewable energy, such as solar energy and wind energy Chinese Urban
Community, Sustainable building design, such as the use of new insulation building material, three-layer glasses, and green Low-carbon Econo-
Denmark roofs my Network, 2010
Ecolonia Ecological building ideas and techniques, including green roofs on some units, the use of recycled building
Community, materials, solar hot water heating units, rainwater collection and its use in toilet flushing, car washing, and garden Beatley, 1999

Volume 19, Issues 3–4, 2018

Netherlands watering
Use of urban waste land restores urban ecological environment
Adopt the practice of circular metabolism, for example, combustible waste is incinerated to product both electricity
Hammarby and district heating
Community, Substantial investments have been launched in public transportation to reduce car usage, such as bike lanes, buses, Liu and Xin, 2011
State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community

Sweden car poor system and the light rail line along the main boulevard through Hammarby
Promote the dialogue between public authorities, developers and residents needed to change attitudes and shape
minds towards sustainable living
BedZED
Energy efficient appliances, good day lighting and visible meters lead to behavior changes
Zero Energy Bio-Regional
The combined heat and power plant (CHP) using local waste wood and solar PV panels provide electricity
Consumption Development
Good public transport links
Development Group, 2011
Waste water recycling and efficient fixture and fittings reduce mains water consumption
Community, UK
The community structure integrates legal, political, social and economical actors from grassroots level up to the
city administration
Freiburg Vauban Solar collectors and photovoltaics are widely installed on the district's roofs
Vauban, 2018
District, Germany A highly efficient co-generation plant operating on wood chips is operating and connected to the district’s heating grid
An ecological traffic/mobility concept is implemented with a reduced number of private cars to be parked in the
periphery
Drake Landing Drake Landing
Over 90% of residential space heating needs are met by solar thermal energy
Solar Community, Solar Community,
Borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) is used as an in-ground heat sink for seasonal energy storage
Canada 2012
187
188 Lv, Bi, and Yan

residents' living requirements, without emitting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Ac-
cording to Bio-Regional Development Group, ten One Planet Living Principles have
been developed for BedZED Community: zero carbon, zero waste, sustainable trans-
portation, local and sustainable food, local and sustainable materials, sustainable wa-
ter use, natural habitats and wildlife, culture and heritage, equity and fair trade, health
and happiness (Bio-Regional Development Group, 2011). Germany Freiburg Vauban
District is a new neighborhood built as "a sustainable model district" on the site of a
former French military base. It is the first housing community in the world in which
all the homes produce a positive energy balance and then the solar energy surplus is
sold back into the city's grid for a profit on every home (Vauban, 2018). In addition,
the development of Vauban units was implemented by individual groups of different
social status (no commercial property "developers" were permitted to buy land), but
the resulting diversity of housing and community is striking. The first "Passive Hous-
es" in Vauban demonstrates that a building can have 80% less CO2 emissions than a
traditional building (Hopwood, 2007).
In addition to the above European countries, Canada and the USA are also mak-
ing great efforts to implement low carbon community development strategy. Drake
Landing Solar Community in Canada is a 52-house subdivision which won the 2011
World Energy Globe Award for Sustainability. The community has successfully inte-
grated Canadian energy efficient technologies with the renewable and unlimited solar
energy. The highlights of Drake Landing Solar Community are as follows: it is the
first community in the world with over 90% of residential space heating needs being
met by solar thermal energy; the low carbon house gas emissions can be reduced ap-
proximately by 5 tons per home per year (Drake Landing Solar Community, 2012).
The United States Department of Energy also launched the Low Carbon Communities
in the Caribbean program at the Energy and Climate Symposium of the Americas in
Lima in June 2009. The objective of the project is to enable involved countries to
implement actions and strategies geared towards increasing the sustainability of their
energy supplies while reducing carbon emissions from the energy sector by develop-
ing and using renewable energy and energy efficiency systems (ECPA, 2013).
Most developed countries have stepped into post-industrial society and made great
progress in renewable energy utilization and environmental protection when they put
forward the goal of building low carbon community. Therefore, developed countries
have inherent advantages in the development of low carbon communities. Their ex-
ploration and experiences could provide significant reference value for developing
countries to conduct research framework in low carbon community.
3.2 Low Carbon Community Development Practices in China
As a developing country, China is now facing a rapid urbanization process, and its
urbanization rate is expected to be 75% by 2050 from 45% in 2010. Large infrastruc-
tures, buildings, transportation systems, and daily urban household life will consume

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State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 189

a large amount of embodied energy producing carbon emissions. In December 2011,

the State Council of China issued "Work Plan for Greenhouse Gas Emission Control
during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period" and announced to launch low carbon city/
community pilot projects according to green, convenient, energy saving, and low
carbon requirements, so as to take the lead in formulating policies, systems, and
mechanisms conducive to low carbon development and speed up establishment of
industrial systems and consumption patterns characterized by low carbon develop-
ment (Chinese Government's Official Web Portal, 2011). Generally speaking, Chi-
nese government has been promoting four types of low carbon community initia-
tives: national low carbon ecological demonstration city, national experimental low
carbon city, national comprehensive supporting reform trial areas to build a "two ori-
ented society," and international cooperative low carbon eco-community (Ye, 2011).
Many domestic cities have made their great efforts to construct low carbon commu-
nities in recent years, such as Shanghai, Baoding, Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, and
Shenzhen. Low carbon measures taken by Shanghai Dongtan, Sino-Singapore Tianjin,
Tangshan Caofeidian, and Shenzhen International low-carbon communities/cities are
summarized in Table 2.
Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Eco-City was presented at the United Nations World
Urban Forum by China as an example of an Eco-City. It is planned to be ecologi-
cally friendly, with zero-greenhouse-emission transit and complete self-sufficiency in
water and energy, together with the use of zero energy building principles; energy
demand will be substantially lower than in comparable conventional cities due to the
high performance of buildings and a zero emission transport zone within the city. The
waste is considered to be a resource and most of the city's waste will be recycled (Ma
et al., 2008). Changxindian is the first sustainable community in Beijing and one of
the most important development areas in the city's rapid growth. The study area in-
cludes future residential, commercial, eco-industrial park and open space for a planned
population of approximately 70,000. The concept plan was developed based on a Sus-
tainability Framework which clearly sets out a vision, objectives, and performance
indicators. Energy, water, waste, environment, ecology, and transport strategies and
indicators were developed to drive the preparation and evaluation of planning options
and to achieve low carbon targets (ARUP, 2013). As one of the most prominent proj-
ects in China, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City was mooted in 2007, and its vision
is to be "a thriving city which is socially harmonious, environmentally friendly and
resource efficient — a model for sustainable development." The Master Plan of Si-
no-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City spells out the approved uses of its land, which attempts
to strike a balance between competing needs, including the social, economic, and en-
vironmental needs of the Eco-City (Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, 2013). The de-
velopment and construction of Caofeidian International Eco-City is a major strategic
decision made by Tangshan Municipal Party Committee, adopting sustainable devel-
opment concepts and technologies used in Sweden. Caofeidian International Eco-City

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 190

TABLE 2: Low carbon measures adopted by some typical communities in China

Community Name Low Carbon Characteristics and Measures References
Establish ecological buffer between urban and wetland to promote biological diversity
Shanghai Chongming Ecological water treatment technologies for sufficient utilization of water resource
Ma et al., 2008
Dongtan Eco-City Integrated and high efficient waste management system
Sustainable land use plan and transportation plan
The Eco-City is planned to be compact, with a good mix of land uses and based on
Transit-Oriented Development principles
Sino-Singapore
Sino-Singapore Tianjin Increase trips via public transport and non-motorized modes of transport such as via
Tianjin Eco-City,
Eco-City bicycles and walking, within the Eco-City
2013
Plan with extensive green (vegetation) and blue (water) networks in mind to provide an
endearing living and working environment
Roof mounted photovoltaics and canopy integrated photovoltaics
Caofeidian
Tangshan Caofeidian Recycled water for irrigation
International Eco-
International Eco-City Transit Oriented Development principles for public transportation
City, 2013
Enhance accessibility to public community facilities
Establish new industrial park with Germany
Cheshmehzangi et
Shenzhen International Develop new low carbon community zone with the US
al., 2018; Zhang,
Low-Carbon City Develop new education zone with Australia
2016
Implement sustainable energy systems and hybrid energy systems

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Lv, Bi, and Yan
State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 191

has the following highlights: first, an "eight-dimension" technical system is construct-

ed, including water use and disposal, garbage disposal and utilization, new energy
development and utilization, transportation security, greening ecology, public utilities,
urban landscape and ecological construction; second, the focus of community devel-
opment is to develop "six major industries", comprising technology research and de-
velopment, leisure and exhibition, finance and trade, technical services, education and
training, and urban services; third, there are "eight administrative function zones" con-
sisting of corporate headquarters zone, commercial and administrative zone, R and D
zone, sports and health demonstration zone, science and education zone, eco-living
zone, and industry service zone (Caofeidian International Eco-City, 2013). Launched
in August 2012, Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City is a collaborative project
between China and the Netherlands. The project is currently in its initial development
phase, collecting the required advanced development elements and efficient technolo-
gy integration plans. Secondly, the project will develop a low carbon city construction
model and modes of low carbon production and lifestyle. Finally, the project will
become one of the national low carbon city planning models of the future low carbon
planning (Cheshmehzangi et al., 2018).
In the past decade, a variety of low carbon communities have also been developed
by real estate developers in many cities of China. One typical case is Vanke Four
Season Garden in Shenzhen, acting as the early low carbon experimental community
in China. The project is a residential building characterized by adopted low carbon
technologies and strategies. In comparison with previously stated comprehensive low
carbon communities mainly initiated and financially supported by Chinese govern-
ment, the bottleneck to promote low carbon communities developed by real estate de-
velopers is the high cost for adopting low carbon technologies. In accordance with the
studies conducted by Global Green Building Trends in 2008, 80% of investigated 700
construction professionals regard "higher first costs" as a main obstacle to low carbon
building (Zhang et al., 2011). It can be attributed to that most real estate developers
pursue fastest investment recovery and maximum economic interests in short term.
In addition, developer led communities are often staying in the sectors of low car-
bon buildings, landscape or low carbon technologies, seldom considering sustainable
transportation, renewable energy utilization and waste management. The so-called low
carbon communities developed by real estate developers might not be efficient to re-
duce carbon emissions. Therefore, Zhang et al. (2013) recommended that local gov-
ernments should play the role of both project implementers and facilitators for the low
carbon community project.
Even though China has embarked on the plan and practice of developing low car-
bon community and some demonstration projects have been implemented in succes-
sion, there is still a long way to go before achieving the low carbon objectives for
Chinese community in comparison with the achievements of low carbon communities
in developed countries.

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192 Lv, Bi, and Yan

4. EVALUATION TOOLS AND INDICATORS FOR LOW CARBON

COMMUNITY

To help make the community more sustainable, evaluation tools and indicators are
required to measure and facilitate the progress towards a broad range of social, en-
vironmental, and economic goals. Criteria-based tools, such as Building Research
Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) developed by Great
Britain, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Building Rating System
(LEED) issued by the USA, Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method
(HK-BEAM), Green Building Tool (GBTool) established by Canada, EcoProfile de-
veloped by Norway, and Environmental Status established by Sweden are considered
as comprehensive environmental assessment schemes for the building sector (Lee and
Burnett, 2008; Chang et al., 2007; Kuttner et al., 2013). Since the late 1990s, the
methods based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) have been developed for environ-
mental assessment of building, including Building Environmental Assessment Tool
(BEAT) developed by Denmark, Building for Environment and Economic Sustainabil-
ity (BEES) developed by the USA, and Eco-Quantum developed by the Netherlands
(Haapio and Viitaniemi, 2008). Indicators identification plays a key role in building
energy efficiency assessment method development. Therefore, Yang et al. (2010) in-
troduced a method of identifying and weighting indicators for accessing the energy of
residential buildings in China and proposed a list of 83 indicators of energy efficiency
assessment in residential building in the hot summer and cold winter zone in China.
Sustainability indicators at community level based on local data provide a practical
method to monitor progress towards sustainable development. The European Union
proposed an indicators system relevant to communities under the title of "Towards a
Local Sustainability Profile-European Common Indicators." It was expected that these
indicators would support local authorities in their work towards sustainable develop-
ment and provide objective and comparable information on progress across Europe.
The UK government published local indicators to be used as guidance by local au-
thorities when establishing their own indicators (DETR, 2000). China's Central Gov-
ernment published 20 indicators mainly concentrating on eco-environment protection
and their assessment criteria as the first local indicator system in China.
In addition to the government, many researchers have also contributed to the de-
velopment of community sustainable indicators. Sustainability indicators generally
involve two broad methodological paradigms: one is expert-led and top-down and
the other is community-based and bottom-up. Indicators emerging from top-down ap-
proaches are generally collected rigorously, scrutinized by experts and assessed for
relevance using statistical tools; but such indicators often fail to engage local commu-
nities. Indicators from bottom-up methods are prone to be rooted in an understanding
of local context and are derived by systematically understanding local perceptions
of the environment and society; however, indicators developed through participatory

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State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 193

techniques alone may not have the capacity to accurately or reliably monitor sus-
tainability. Correspondingly, Reed et al. (2006) developed a methodological frame-
work by integrating approaches from different paradigms, which not only emphasizes
the importance of participatory approaches setting the context for sustainability as-
sessment at local scales, but also stresses the role of expert-led methods in indica-
tor evaluation and dissemination. Alexander (2000) introduced the new information
and communications technologies that adopts systems principles (information flows,
control variables, and sub-system boundaries) and a biological metaphor (the differ-
ence between an ecosystem and an organism) to establish some principles upon which
sustainable economic activity could rest. Hsueh and Yan (2011) applied the Delphi
method, analytic hierarchy process, and fuzzy logic in building a quantitative evalua-
tion model to evaluate low carbon development effectiveness during sustainable com-
munity construction, which can serve as the basis for the selection of an appropriate
target community prior to implementation of a low carbon community. By combining
the data from the different sectors of Shanghai Chongming County, Yuan et al. (2003)
identified four cores and seven additional indicators as indicators which could be used
to steer local activities directed towards sustainable development. In comparison with
European lists, the Chongming list was found to have a greater emphasis on eco-
nomic development but a similar level of concern for environmental matters. Xie et
al. (2017) classified and screened six types of primary indicators, including perfor-
mance in reducing carbon emission, low carbon planning, energy consumption, envi-
ronment and resources, low carbon transportation, low carbon management and living
to evaluate the low carbon community construction status and development degree for
Guangdong Province or even the whole China. In addition, the Comprehensive Pop-
ularity Intensity Indicator is also a useful indicator which can be used to evaluate the
performance of low carbon development at the city level (Cai et al., 2017).

5. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROMOTING LOW CARBON COMMUNITIES

Even though the existing low carbon community projects have significantly contrib-
uted to carbon dioxide mitigation at community level, there are still some obstacles
inhibiting the development and promotion of low carbon communities in the future,
especially in China and other developing countries. To maximize the social, econom-
ic, and environmental benefits by developing low carbon community, the following
recommendations are summarized as the future research directions based on the re-
search results given in Shi and Lai (2013), Li et al. (2012), and Ng et al. (2013).
(1) Low carbon technologies, strategies, and lifestyles involved in low carbon com-
munity construction cover across different and multidisciplinary subjects, which
not only include energy saving, renewable, sustainable consumption and transi-
tion researches, but also include human or social behavior research. Therefore,
the policy maker and community designer should comprehensively consider the

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194 Lv, Bi, and Yan

environment, energy, fuels, engineering, material science, social and political

science, management and economics even psychology to develop the institu-
tionalized framework and promote low carbon communities to a large scale.
(2) The change of individual high carbon lifestyle and awareness of public partici-
pation are critical for the implementation of low carbon activities, but most low
carbon community projects in China generally neglect the importance of the
above two factors. Incentive policies and proactive supporting financial strat-
egies for low carbon community and behavioral lifestyle changes among local
residents should be promoted by the government.
(3) The information database for energy consumption and carbon emissions is in-
sufficient to support informed policy making. It is also difficult to calculate
the carbon footprint accurately without a wide variety of available information
sources. Personnel training, regular monitoring and developing living informa-
tion systems platforms should be encouraged to enhance the carbon statistics of
local communities. An extensive effort will be needed to initiate a new evalua-
tion system and improve the existing evaluation indicators.
(4) The high cost is one prominent barrier on the way to widely develop and pro-
mote low carbon community, especially the cost of green buildings. In com-
parison with conventional buildings, the construction of green buildings not
only includes the higher purchase and acquisition costs of green or renewable
technologies, but also higher costs of installations in accordance with specified
standards, design specifications and higher labor costs (Geng et al., 2012). En-
couraging government to provide incentives and subsidies, reducing technology
transfer fees of advanced energy-efficiency technologies of developed coun-
tries (Alshamrani, 2017), developing efficient and low cost building materials
(Bardhan and Debnath, 2018), applying cost-optimal methodology to find the
most cost-effective solutions for old buildings refurbishment (Dalla Mora et al.,
2017) are promising methods to eliminate or decrease obstacles to green build-
ing adoption.

6. CONCLUSIONS

With increase in concerns on global warming, reduction of CO2 emissions generated

by human activities is becoming an urgent issue. In this regard, low carbon com-
munity is of great significance to the world due to its characteristics of sustainable
development and carbon reduction. The development of low carbon community in-
volves various low carbon technologies, strategies, and lifestyles, for example, the
reasonable community planning, advanced green building technologies, utilization of
renewable energy sources, sustainable transportation, water recycle and waste reuse
system, change of individual behavior from high energy and high carbon patterns to
low carbon lifestyles. The above subsections are not mutually exclusive but overlap

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State-of-the-Art in Low Carbon Community 195

and complement one another in promoting development of low carbon community.

Depending on the inherent advantages in renewable energy utilization and successful
environmental protection, a variety of developed countries have already successfully
initiated low carbon community practices, providing value references for China and
other developing countries. With the rapid urbanization process, China has also been
participating in the construction of low carbon community demonstrative areas and
obtaining some achievements. With further efforts on innovative evaluation system by
researchers, incentive policies and strategies by policy maker, there is no doubt that
the low carbon community will be a critical way to reduce human-generated carbon
emissions in the near future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research was carried out with the financial support of Shandong Provincial Nat-
ural Science Foundation, China (ZR2017LB021) for which due acknowledgement is
given.

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