Recommendations for Improving Incentive System in the Building Sector of South Korea

Reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is a primary concern throughout the world, and the building sector is a particularly efficient area for making these reductions. In South Korea, the government has recently enacted policies for ‘Green Growth’ that, among other things, enforce regulations in the building certification rating system (BCRS) and reorganize existing incentive systems. In this paper, we examined regulations and incentive systems used in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States that encourage the use of energy efficient technologies in construction and compared these policies to those used in South Korea. We also disseminated surveys to experts in the fields of architecture, planning and design, and engineering to better understand their knowledge and perception of the BCRS and its incentive systems. Additionally, we sought their recommendations for improving these incentive systems. Based on our comparative case studies of regulations and incentives in other countries in addition to recommendations from experts in South Korea, we concluded that incentive systems in South Korea limited and could be improved. We end our paper with recommendations for strengthening existing regulations and incentives and for implementing new incentive programs.