Nine Questions + One Chart to Understand the "Implementation Plan for High-Quality Development of the Green Building Materials Industry"

　　Recently, ten departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Financial Regulatory Administration, and the National Radio and Television Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the High-Quality Development of the Green Building Materials Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"). To better understand and implement the "Implementation Plan," the relevant background and main content are interpreted as follows.

　　1. What is the background for the issuance of the "Implementation Plan"?

　　The "Opinions on Fully, Accurately, and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Philosophy to Achieve Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality" (Zhongfa [2021] No. 36) issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, and the "Action Plan for Carbon Peak before 2030" (Guofa [2021] No. 23) issued by the State Council have made overall arrangements for the green and low-carbon development of the building materials industry, pointing out the work direction and providing fundamental guidance for promoting the development of the green building materials industry.

　　Green building materials refer to building material products that consume less resources and energy and have minimal ecological and environmental impact throughout their life cycle, characterized by "energy saving, emission reduction, low carbon, safety, convenience, and recyclability." Developing green building materials is the main direction for the transformation and upgrading of the building materials industry and an inevitable choice for supply-side structural reform. It is an important path for green development in urban and rural construction and the building of beautiful countryside. To thoroughly implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments, has studied and formulated the "Implementation Plan" to guide the high-quality development of the green building materials industry over the next three years and beyond, providing strong support for accelerating new industrialization.

　　2. What is the current development status of green building materials in China?

　　Currently, China's green building materials industry is continuously expanding in scale and improving in quality and efficiency. First, the industry scale is growing rapidly, with green building materials' operating revenue expected to exceed 200 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of about 10%. Second, industrial clusters are developing rapidly, with more than 100 industrial parks or clusters nationwide focusing on building sanitary ceramics, new building materials, stone materials, and other main businesses, and nine national new industrialization demonstration bases for green building materials have been cultivated. Third, product varieties continue to enrich, with componentized and functional green building materials suitable for prefabricated buildings, prefabricated decoration, sponge cities, and ecological environment restoration emerging continuously. Fourth, application scope is expanding, with 12 pilot provinces for green building materials rural promotion activities and 48 cities implementing government procurement policies supporting green building materials to improve building quality. Fifth, standards and certifications are gradually improving, with the establishment of a green building materials product certification system taking the lead, 58 green building materials evaluation standards formulated for products such as building doors and windows, sanitary ware, and waterproof materials, and the total number of green building materials certification certificates exceeding 9,500 by the end of 2023.

　　Overall, China's green building materials industry has reached an internationally advanced level, but enterprises' green low-carbon and intelligent manufacturing levels still need further improvement. The selection of green building materials in projects and market consumption motivation remain insufficient, and an efficient policy guidance mechanism has not yet been formed. There is an urgent need to unify societal thinking, gather forces from all sides, form a joint policy support effort, and jointly promote the high-quality development of the green building materials industry.

　　3. How to understand the high-quality development goals of the green building materials industry?

　　The "Implementation Plan" proposes development goals for green building materials in 2026 and 2030 based on industry development foundations, strengthening connection with current work from aspects such as industry scale, characteristic cluster cultivation, promotion and application, and product certification.

　　By 2026, the annual operating revenue of green building materials will exceed 300 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of over 10% from 2024 to 2026. More than 30 characteristic industrial clusters will be cultivated, over 50 green building materials application demonstration projects will be constructed, government procurement policy implementation cities will not be fewer than 100, green building materials product certification certificates will reach 12,000, and the ability of green building materials to lead the high-quality development of building materials and ensure the improvement of building quality will be further enhanced.

　　4. What principles should be followed in developing green building materials?

　　The development of green building materials should follow these principles: First, insist on coordinated advancement, developing the green building materials industry from multiple links such as production, products, and application, accelerating coordinated development upstream and downstream; second, insist on dual-wheel drive, with both government and market efforts, improving the policy system for green building materials development, strengthening support and service capabilities, fully mobilizing market entities' enthusiasm, and promoting enterprises to increase product varieties, improve quality, and create brands; third, insist on innovation-led development, optimizing innovation mechanisms, promoting the research and development of new green building materials products and upgrading existing products to continuously meet people's needs for a better life.

　　5. What are the main contents of the "Implementation Plan"?

　　The main contents of the "Implementation Plan" include "4 tasks and 3 measures."

　　The 4 tasks refer to the "Implementation Plan" focusing on four dimensions of green building materials production, products, application, and support, proposing four key tasks: "promote production transformation to enhance industry vitality; implement the 'three products' action to enhance industry influence; accelerate application expansion to enhance industry growth; consolidate industry foundation to enhance industry support."

　　The 3 measures refer to the "Implementation Plan" proposing three guarantee measures: "strengthen organizational coordination, improve policy support, and increase publicity and promotion."

　　6. How to understand the task of promoting production transformation?

　　Promoting production transformation is the fundamental way to enhance the intrinsic vitality of the green building materials industry. The building materials industry is a key sector for energy consumption and carbon emissions, bearing the heavy responsibility of energy saving and carbon reduction. Only by strengthening green and low-carbon orientation and promoting the green, intelligent, and collaborative transformation of the production process can the foundation for high-quality development of the industrial chain be solidly built.

　　The "Implementation Plan" proposes to focus on the following work: First, accelerate the greening of the production process, strengthen comprehensive measures such as process upgrading, energy substitution, energy saving and consumption reduction, and resource recycling, implement technological transformation, optimize energy use structure, promote clean production, and develop a circular economy. Second, accelerate the intelligent transformation of production methods, speed up the deep integration of the entire green building materials industry chain with new generation information technology, and promote intelligent production, large-scale customization, and service extension of green building materials. Third, promote collaborative industrial development, accelerate the cultivation of green building materials industrial clusters, establish coupled development green building materials parks, and cultivate comprehensive green building materials enterprises with strong core competitiveness and driving effects.

　　7. How to understand the task of implementing the "three products" action?

　　Implementing the "three products" (increase product varieties, improve quality, create brands) action is the only way to enhance the influence of the green building materials industry. China has long ranked first in the world in the production of various products such as cement and flat glass, but the quality and brand do not fully match the scale. Industrial development must abandon the extensive development model that pursues scale expansion, focus on changes in demand structure, continuously enrich product varieties, continuously improve product quality, carefully build product brands, and accelerate the shift to an intensive development model that pursues quality and efficiency.

　　The "Implementation Plan" proposes to focus on the following work: First, carry out product variety optimization, developing green building materials products for different application scenarios around demands such as low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon projects, urban renewal and renovation, and green and low-carbon rural housing construction. Second, promote quality strengthening, encourage enterprises to carry out quality management capability evaluation, strengthen supervision and inspection of green building materials products and production enterprises, and promote the construction of a green building materials product quality grading evaluation system. Third, expand brand influence, support qualified regions to build first-class regional green building materials brands, encourage enterprises to increase investment in brand building, and cultivate trademarks and brands with distinctive characteristics, strong competitiveness, and good market reputation.

　　8. How to understand the task of accelerating application expansion?

　　Accelerating application expansion is a core element to enhance industrial growth momentum. Through the promotion and application of green building materials, it helps strengthen the positive interaction between products and applications, accelerate organic coordination across all links of the industrial chain, and form a high-level dynamic balance where demand drives supply and supply creates demand.

　　The "Implementation Plan" proposes to focus on promoting the following work: First, promote the application in construction projects, strengthen the requirements for the selection of green building materials in green buildings, and expand the scope of cities implementing government procurement policies supporting green building materials to improve building quality. Second, deepen the promotion of green building materials to rural areas, exploring the shift from "green building material products" going to rural areas to "green building material system solution providers + characteristic rural construction service providers" going to rural areas. Third, guide green consumption, explore new integrated decoration and renovation service models, encourage e-commerce platforms to set up special zones for green building material products, and encourage the implementation of green decoration.

　　9. How to understand the task of consolidating the industry foundation?

　　Consolidating the industry foundation is an important guarantee to enhance the industry's support capacity. Promoting infrastructure such as innovation platforms and standard certification helps accelerate the integrated and mutually promoting development of productive services and manufacturing, effectively improve the overall efficiency of the green building materials industry, and shape a leading trend of innovative development and new competitive advantages.

　　The "Implementation Plan" proposes to focus on promoting the following work: First, optimize the innovation mechanism, improve public R&D, technology transfer, and other platforms needed by the industry, and enhance the level of public service supply. Second, improve the standard system, formulate and revise green building material evaluation standards, improve testing method standards, and promote the coordinated development of green building and green building material standards. Third, strengthen certification support, further expand the scope of green building material product certification, improve the certification supervision system, and accelerate green building material product certification.

　　Source: Department of Raw Materials Industry, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology