Background
In 2001 the South Korean government’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation (MLIT) and the Ministry of Environment established Korea Green Building Certification (KGBC), a rating system that was further deployed by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation in 2002. Based on a September 12, 2011 presentation by Chang-U Chae of the Korea Institute of Construction Technology (KICT), titled “Korea Green Building Certification,” the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs (MLTMA) have responsibilities to:
- Provide overall management for the certification system,
- Design Certification Bodies (CBs), and
- Organize an Operating Committee (OC), which approves affairs of the system and supervise CBs.
It is not clear that any CBs have been established yet. A rating tool within the KGBC rating system is referenced as Green Building Certification Criteria (GBCC). GBCCs were developed for use by either the national or local (e.g., municipal) governments. The objectives of the KGBC and its tools are to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings and promote dissemination of green building in Korea.
Results
By mid-2011, i.e., after one decade of operation, the program had issued a total of 1786 certificates; i.e., 589 interim certificates and 1197 final certificates, with a total of 229 certificates for office buildings contributing to this total (i.e., 60 interim and 169 final certificates).
From 2002 to 2005 the number of buildings certified was in the range of 3 to 33 per year; from 2006 to 2010 the range increased from 173 to 571 annually. The following policy incentives for building owners are attributed to moving the market forward during the latter period, i.e., a) permission in 2005 for a 3 percent increase in extra construction expenses allowed for certified government-owned housing; (2) adoption in 2007 of a KGBC obligation for schools; (3) and reduction in 2009 of property and environmental taxes for commercial buildings.