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Sustainable construction projects affect various stakeholders with different social, environmental and economic interests. It is essential that the decision makers maintain effective communication with relevant groups to avoid project failures. Although citizen participation offers a means of better addressing and meeting stakeholder concerns and expectations, the decision/evaluations of contemporary sustainable projects are becoming ever more complicated, with an increasing number of stakeholders involved to actively defend their own interests. In response, this paper provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the stakeholders of sustainable construction in China and quantifies their influence in decision/evaluations by semi-structured interviews (in research stage I) and a three-round Delphi survey (in research stage II). Follow-up interviews (in research stage III) are carried out to collect more in-depth views concerning the characteristics and the respective importance of each stakeholder group involved. The findings indicate that the government is the most influential entity and the extent to which its intervention is needed in balancing the interests of other stakeholders presents a major challenge. The high potential influence of end-users is also identified, suggesting the need for a more transparent and inclusive participatory decision/evaluation process in the country. An enhanced future role for NGOs is further identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the accelerating urbanization in China, the right-of-use transfer (RUT) of rural collectively owned construction land provides a promising means of increasing the efficiency of rural land use and promoting urban and rural integration. There are various ways of doing this and no universal mode of RUT that fits all areas because of the divergent cultural characteristics and geographical features of different regions and locations in China and decisions need to be made on a case-by-case basis. This paper proposes an analytical framework to help in such decision making. Firstly, the literature concerning the RUT of collective construction land is reviewed and six typical pilot reform areas are studied. Secondly, a theoretical analytical framework for the choice of RUT mode is developed based on the findings of the literature review and the experiences of the pilot reform areas. Thirdly, Zhoushan City's new urban district is used as a case study to demonstrate and test the framework, and an appropriate RUT mechanism is suggested. The analytical framework can serve as a guideline for local governments to make decisions on the form of collective construction land RUT throughout China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Implementing international projects in a foreign country is a high risk business activity. Research on this subject has tended to emphasize traditional risks. However, an emerging new type of “social risk” in the globalization era has been ignored. With the rapid urbanization progress in China, many international contractors have entered the Chinese construction market due to the huge demand in the market. However, the differences in the social, economic and cultural backgrounds among the international contractors and their partners have led to difficulties and occasional disputes among various participants. In particular, they are presented with various social risks in a new environment. This paper identifies the key social risk factors associated with international contractors from a questionnaire survey and case study. The social risks highlighted from the questionnaire survey include “local protectionism (for local projects)”, “risk of poor social relations between various parties in the local region”, “permit or license risk in dealing with land use and construction planning issues due to policy changes” and “dispute risk with local construction labor”. Several risk response strategies for international contractors are also illustrated by the case study from China. Suggestions developed in the case study can provide useful references to those international contractors who have entered or are planning to operate their businesses in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

China's energy consumption in the building sector (BEC) is not counted as a separate type of energy consumption, but divided and mixed in other sectors in China's statistical system. This led to the lack of historical data on China's BEC. Moreover, previous researches' shortages such as unsystematic research on BEC, various estimation methods with complex calculation process, and difficulties in data acquisition resulted in “heterogeneous” of current BEC in China. Aiming to these deficiencies, this study proposes a set of China building energy consumption calculation method (CBECM) by splitting out the building related energy consumption mixed in other sectors in the composition of China Statistical Yearbook-Energy Balance Sheet . Then, China's BEC from 2000 to 2014 are estimated using CBECM and compared with other studies. Results show that, from 2000 to 2014, China's BEC increased 1.7 times, rising from 301 to 814 million tons of standard coal consumed, with the BEC percentage of total energy consumption stayed relatively stable between 17.7% and 20.3%. By comparison, we find that our results are reliable and the CBECM has the following advantages over other methods: data source is authoritative, calculation process is concise, and it is easy to obtain time series data on BEC etc. The CBECM is particularly suitable for the provincial government to calculate the local BEC, even in the circumstance with statistical yearbook available only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Emission Trading System has been promoted as a tool for providing financial and cost-effective incentives to carbon emitters to apply emission reduction measures. The mechanism of Emission Trading System has been applied in many energy-intensive industries such as electric power industry. However, it appears that Emission Trading System finds limited application in building sector due to the unique characteristics of buildings. This study presents an identification and analysis on the factors affecting the implementation of Emission Trading System in the building sector within the context of China. Research data are collected from semi-structured interviews with a group of carefully selected experts. As a result, fifteen representative factors have been identified, and discussions on their representativeness have been conducted. The intricate interrelationships between the identified factors have been examined based on a hierarchy structure established by using the Interpretive Structural Modeling method. Furthermore, these factors have been classified into four categories: autonomous factors, dependent factors, linkage factors, and driving factors, which is based on the calculation of the factors' driving/dependence power by applying the Matrice d’Impacts croises-multipication appliqué a classement (MICMAC) technique. This classification provides a different profile between individual factors from that by traditional study where the relative importance is generally given between factors. The findings on these factors provide valuable references for helping policy designers and practitioners adopt effective policies and measures to promote the development of ETS in the Chinese building sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]