Green Building by Standards

It is commonly recognized that eco-development hardly strikes roots in the Russian soil. But the progress goes ahead, and present-day projects are much greener than 20 years ago.

Energy-efficient construction solutions help to significantly save energy resources and considerably decrease residents' utility expenses. However it is a common perception that as long as energy is relatively cheap in Russia, eco-development will never gain momentum.
Being quite expensive, energy-efficient solutions are mostly used in elite and business-class housing. In some cases energy-efficient construction technologies and sustainable solutions are implemented in comfort-class housing.
In the traditional sense, green development implies friendly treatment of nature. All aspects of a project are elaborated in this way: the design concept, usage of resource-saving technologies and natural building materials. In the western practice, however, eco-development also includes protection from noise, vibration and light pollution, as well as implementation of state-of-the-art construction techniques. The goal is to mitigate the influence of development on the environment. Examples of this kind of sustainable construction can often be found in Scandinavia, particularly in Finland.  
In Russia, the meaning of eco-development is commonly substituted with concepts somehow associated with ecology. "Developers often claim their construction sites as sustainable just because they are located near green zones: parks, urban forests, waterside or other features of a natural landscape," Nadezhda Soldatkina, CEO of LLC "N+N" speaks ironically.
Denis Babakov, Head of Sales at "LSR. Real Estate - North-West" states that eco-development makes progress as construction technologies evolve. "When developers promote their projects as safe for people and the environment, they generally mean compliance with statutory design requirements. They mostly refer to energy saving and efficiency, as well as minimizing environmental hazards of a construction project or a building. Thus, eco-development is to a great extent an advertising and marketing trick," he says.
Denis points out that many ideas of eco-development are already present in both environmental protection regulations and the "State program of energy saving and improvement of energy efficiency for the period until 2020." Some of its provisions are implemented in statutory acts that establish higher standards of heat insulation for walls and windows, in order to reduce energy consumption for heating. Others regulate minimization and cleaning of hazardous discharges, emissions and waste products, etc. These provisions are compulsory for all construction companies.
"This way, high-performance equipment compliant with facade winterization requirements is used to save heating energy. Energy is also saved due to curtailment on demand of electricity and water. This can be achieved with additional heat exchangers, recuperators and diverse automatic controls for rational utility systems management. For example, illuminating equipment is regulated by special sensors. The illumination turns to the maximum during rush hours, but at night it only allows to orientate in space," says Babakov.
Denis believes that eco-development used to be a trend feature some time ago, but today it is being slowly implemented in real life. "This is caused by increasing costs of resources and the natural motivation to reduce operating expenses. Buyers start asking how expensive the maintenance of their apartment will be and how comfortable the new building is for living. The standards of real estate quality are growing. This forces developers to implement more advanced solutions. Buyers encourage eco-technologies and choose them among other options, but their attitude towards energy saving is dispassionate," thinks Babakov.

Opinion

Evgeny Bogdanov, CEO of RUMPU, Finnish engineering company:

The "eco-development" concept is used as a marketing trick or reflects the ambition of a development company's owner to build eco-friendly, energy-efficient and modern housing. The additional expenses will be allocated to the project's working cost and won't increase the price of a square meter. Until such sites find a ready market (which won't happen until energy costs grow significantly), there won't be any customers willing to pay for expensive green technologies in Russia.