Green Buildings Get the Green Light: Construction of Energy-Efficient and High-Quality Housing

Last year, in September, we approved [the first national Russian standard GOST R 54964–2012 “Conformity Assessment. Environmental Requirements for Real Estate” – Ed.]. These are essentially green requirements for multi-apartment buildings. We were able to combine various valuation systems with one another, combine everything into a single document, and elevate this document to the level of a national standard, and not the standards of individual organizations — Anton Shalaev, Head of the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology (Rosstandart).

The standard is the result of the efforts of both the Ministry of Construction and DOM.RF as a development institution and industry. Developers were actively involved in the drafting of the document, and we piloted this document based on the real sites of four developers. […] We believe that the document proved to be applicable and can be used quite broadly — Marina Slutskaya, Sustainability Director, DOM.RF Bank.

I think this is an excellent and clear document. Most importantly, it is extremely specific and does not allow for double interpretation — Vladimir Kalina, Managing Director of the Directorate of Regional Development, PIK-specialized homebuilder.

From our point of view, in the 21st century, buildings should be evaluated for their energy efficiency and greenness based on advanced technologies, taking into account the capabilities that [...] artificial intelligence provides. We are finalizing a unified information system for housing construction. Several indicators of the green standard are already being labelled there. We are working to ensure that there will be more than 20 such indicators by the end of this year — Marina Slutskaya, Sustainability Director, DOM.RF Bank.

We need to launch a digital platform that will make it possible to conduct a truly transparent assessment of both projects and sites, while using artificial intelligence, standardization, and the automation of various kinds of processes in the evaluation — Pavel Seleznev, General Director, Public-Private Partnership Development Center.

There is a certain imbalance between benefits and costs. Building an energy-efficient building often incurs additional costs. […] Who benefits? First, in our opinion, it’s the state, as large areas of buildings can be connected to the same infrastructure. In addition, the positive effects from the decrease in CO2 are the health and well-being of the population. Second, the population will pay less for utility bills. […] And, third, management companies [benefit] — Marina Slutskaya, Sustainability Director, DOM.RF Bank.

The construction of energy-efficient buildings is more expensive to implement, so the state [...] should create incentives for developers to get into green construction and draw the attention of buyers to such buildings — Vladimir Koshelev, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Construction, Housing and Communal Services.

Developers expect that the government will subsidize the rate in order to reduce construction costs — Anastasia Fedotova, Managing Director - Head of Directorate for ESG, Sberbank.

At present, only 36% of our apartment buildings are equipped with individual cold water meters. [...] There is [metering] equipment for 30% of hot water and 58% of electricity. […] Today, we do not understand how much we are expending. This is also a serious problem, considering energy resources — Vladimir Koshelev, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Construction, Housing and Communal Services.

We understand that the experience that the Russian Federation already has and is developing on its territory could be useful to our colleagues, at least in the Eurasian space. [...] The Russian Federation put forward an initiative to develop an appropriate interstate standard based on the national standard of requirements for green multi-apartment buildings that would be adopted even more broadly than at the level of the Eurasian space — Anton Shalaev, Head of the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology (Rosstandart).

We plan to work on promoting a standard based on the Russian green standard for the Eurasian Economic Union space. Kazakhstan has a similar system. We are seeing interest from our colleagues and expect that by the end of the year there will be a draft [to promote the green standard project in the EAEU – Ed.], which we will begin to discuss — Marina Slutskaya, Sustainability Director, DOM.RF Bank.

Green or energy-efficient mortgages could become a huge incentive for this market — Marina Slutskaya, Sustainability Director, DOM.RF Bank.

To stimulate […] consumer demand […], we need green mortgages. A person who takes on this kind of housing should be able to do so at a special rate. It should be a targeted product with a rate below that of the market — Vladimir Koshelev, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Construction, Housing and Communal Services.

We need an incentive from the government, at least at the first stages, in order to understand [the future] benefit — Anastasia Fedotova, Managing Director - Head of Directorate for ESG, Sberbank.

By 2025, management and resource supply companies must equip all our apartment buildings and all common building spaces [with metering devices]. The population must pay the minimum rate [starting from 2026– Ed.], if there are no metering devices. As such, we are encouraging management and resource supply companies to establish normal, adequate, and accurate accounting — Vladimir Koshelev, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Construction, Housing and Communal Services.