Research on the Impact Path of the Sustainable Development of Green Buildings: Evidence from China

Abstract

Green buildings are not only the optimum avenue to reduce the adverse effects of buildings, but also the inevitable requirement for implementing the concepts of sustainable development in construction. As they are more complicated engineering systems, green buildings face more influencing factors from various aspects than traditional ones. Therefore, those factors and their driving effects must be considered carefully for the purposes of the sustainable development of green buildings. The research samples selected in this paper are 23 typical green building cases in Tianjin. This paper employs the clear set csQCA method to explore the linkage effect of incentive policies, technical support, enterprise recognition, the evaluation standard system, and development cost on the sustainable development of green buildings and path selection. The results show that a single condition is far from enough for the sustainable development of green buildings. Multiple antecedent conditions are developed concurrently to form the diversified configuration driving it. There are three ways to initiate this; the first is a three-element driving system, including incentive policies, enterprise recognition, and development cost; the second is another three-element driving system including technical support, enterprise recognition, and an evaluation standard system; and the last is a four-element driving system, including incentive policy, technical support, evaluation standard system, and development cost. The conclusion of this paper contributes to a deepening of the rational understanding of the nature of the complex interaction of the multiple factors that are behind the sustainable development of green buildings in China, and it, therefore, brings beneficial practical enlightenment for the purposes of sustainable development.

1. Introduction

On 22 September 2020, the Chinese government solemnly declared that it would strive to reach a carbon peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” (hereinafter referred to as the “double carbon” goal) is China’s solemn commitment to actively address global climate change, and this will also serve in China’s mission to be a responsible major country. Implementing the “double carbon” target is a systematic project involving the comprehensive transformation of the production mode and lifestyle. The realization of the “double carbon” target requires the coordination and cooperation of different industries. A green building refers to a facility that saves resources to the maximum extent during the whole life cycle of the building, including water, land, energy, materials, etc. By achieving this, the building can help protect the environment and reduce pollution, provide healthy, comfortable, and efficient spaces for people to use, and also harmoniously coexist with nature [1,2,3]. Therefore, the construction industry is essential in improving the quality of life, promoting national economic development, and meeting social needs. However, as the construction industry consumes a large amount of natural resources and also energy, it causes negative impacts in terms of carbon emissions, global warming, etc. According to the “Research Report on China’s Building Energy Consumption (2021)” published by the Special Committee on Energy Consumption of the China Building Energy Conservation Association, the total carbon emissions of the whole process of construction in 2019 were 4.997 billion tons of CO₂, accounting for 50.6% of the total national carbon emission. In order to reduce the negative impacts of buildings, and to promote the concept of sustainable development, the concept of green buildings came into being. It has also become a solution that has been advocated in the field of architecture [4].

As the world’s largest construction market, China’s urbanization rate rose from 17.9 percent to 63.89 percent from 1978 to 2020. Further, after more than three decades of rapid urbanization, fixed asset investment has increased from 835 million yuan to 72,552.4 billion yuan. Massive urbanization and a high investment in fixed assets mean that the number of buildings have increased dramatically. In 2022, the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development issued the 14th Five-Year Plan for Building Energy Conservation and Green Building Development, which stipulates that by 2025, green buildings will be completed for all new urban buildings, thereby building energy efficiency will be steadily improved, and building energy structure will be gradually optimized. The growth trend of building energy consumption and their carbon emissions will be effectively controlled, thereby forming a green, low-carbon circular construction and also development modes. As such, thereby further defining the development target of green buildings. In this context, green buildings have become an important carrier for the sustainable future development of the construction industry, as such, it is urgent to promote green buildings now. Compared with traditional buildings, green buildings have unique characteristics and requirements, and thus face more influencing factors than conventional buildings [5]. At the same time, green building technology pays more attention to low consumption, environmental protection, the economy, etc., which is a more sustainable building method [6]. The question of how to promote the sustainable development of green buildings is an urgent problem to be solved. Many researchers have conducted beneficial explorations around this issue. The development and supply of green buildings must engage fully with the promoting role of many driving factors in order to truly build green buildings. The drivers of all aspects are the keys to ensuring the continuous participation of various stakeholders, such as developers, builders, and designers, in green practices [7]. At the same time, some scholars have found that the initial cost, evaluation standards, incentive policies, and technical support of green buildings can affect the development of green buildings [8,9,10,11]. However, existing studies primarily focus on the influence of a single variable on the sustainable development of green buildings, ignoring the synergistic effects of various condition variables. Moreover, it is affected by multiple factors simultaneously, and there is a complex configuration mechanism behind them. In addition, only a few existing scholars focus on the path of green building development [12,13]. This is because different factors do not have independent impacts, these factors will generate different combinations through linkage and matching, which will further affect it.

Due to the above research deficiencies, this paper first defines the connotation of the sustainable development of green buildings, studies the components that affect it, and analyzes the relationship between each element and it. On this basis, it is crucial to determine the appropriate empirical research object. There are a variety of regions that promote green buildings; therefore, it would be wise to start with one specific region in order to study the impact path of its sustainable development. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Tianjin’s green building and prefabricated building work has been at the forefront of the country, it has been approved as a national energy-saving transformation demonstration city and a pivotal city for improving the energy efficiency of public buildings. This study takes Tianjin as an example city, and 23 typical cases as the empirical research objects. The clear set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) method was used to explore whether, and to what extent, a single factor affected the necessary conditions for the sustainable development of green buildings, and also empirically discussed the impact path and action mechanism of it from the perspective of configuration. This was conducted to clarify their relationship, and to provide a reference for the sustainable development of green buildings. Specifically, this study will attempt to answer the following questions: What condition configurations exist to promote the sustainable development of green buildings via matching combinations? Which conditions play a more prominent role?

The research content of this paper, following this introduction as the first part of the paper, is arranged as follows: The second part is a literature review on domestic and foreign studies, whereby the relevant literature is summarized and systemized, thus providing a solid theoretical basis for this research paper. The third part selects csQCA as the research method, based on the existing literature research, and then determines the condition variables and outcome variables according to the current research results. In the fourth part, a truth table is first constructed, then a univariate necessity analysis is carried out, and, finally, a multivariate combination analysis is carried out using QCA software. The fifth part summarizes the conclusion of this paper, puts forward feasibility suggestions, and also future research prospects and shortcomings.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Sustainable Development of Green Buildings

The far-reaching impact of the construction industry on safety, the economy, the environment, and public health have attracted increasing social attention [14]. Implementing sustainable development in the construction industry has always been the focus of widespread concern. Green buildings have been widely recognized by all countries as a strategy for promoting sustainable development in the construction industry [15]. In terms of green buildings, people believe that “in the whole life cycle of the construction project, the construction and use of buildings are responsible for the environment and improve the efficient utilization of energy” [16]. Green buildings are considered to be an effective and sustainable alternative to traditional buildings, compared to traditional buildings’ negative impact on the environment and climate. Further, green buildings play a crucial role in resource conservation and environmental protection [17]. At the same time, more and more scholars have pointed out that green buildings are not a temporary need or a quick decision, but a product of the times, born under the concept of sustainable development [4,18,19]. Further, under this concept of sustainable development, while green buildings must be vigorously promoted and developed, how to effectively achieve them also faces huge questions [12]. The sustainable development of green buildings should not only consider the coordination of the green building development process within the economy, society, and ecological environment, but should also consider unity with current development statuses and future development potential [20]. Further, it must be noted that a review of the relevant data shows that the number of green buildings has increased in areas where the economy is better or where green building has policy support [21].

2.2. Influencing Factors of the Sustainable Development of Green Buildings

There have been many studies on the influencing factors of sustainable development, but there is scarce literature explicitly discussing the influencing factors in the sustainable development of green buildings, specifically. Relevant scholars have used different methods to identify and to study the influencing factors; further, existing studies have explored the influencing factors from the perspectives of varying construction stakeholders (developers, construction units, architects, customers, and engineers). The identified influencing factors include evaluation criteria, green building materials, comprehensive green building technologies, etc. [22]. Similarly, social network analysis is used to identify the key factors affecting green buildings, and the results show that government supervision, property management experience, incremental cost, and an environmental awareness of building green buildings are the key influencing factors for promoting the development of green buildings [23]. In addition, through the construction of the RBF-WINGS model, some studies have concluded that scientific and technological investment is the fundamental factor affecting green building support; further, it has also been found that green financial support and industrial scale are the main factors influencing the growth of green buildings [19]. Through a reading of the literature, it has been found that five factors have a significant impact on the sustainable development of green buildings, which are: incentive policies, technical support, enterprise recognition, an evaluation standard system, and development cost (and their impact on it).

(1) Incentive policies and the sustainable development of green buildings. In recent years, governments of all countries have strengthened their participation in the green building market, and a large body of literature supports the critical role of governments in promoting the green building agenda [24]. Therefore, the government has adopted many regulations and policies in order to incentivize and to enforce green building practices, as well as to promote building energy efficiency [25]. In Europe, Scandinavian countries took the lead in introducing regulations to improve building energy efficiency and comfort [26]. Some legislation, executive orders, and national policies in the United States encourage green building construction in different states [27]. In China, many studies have discussed the government’s policies and plans to encourage green building [28,29,30]. As an essential environmental factor, incentive policy plays a vital role in promoting green practices. Green building has a solid external economy, which usually needs to be intervened in by the government in order to formulate relevant incentive policies. Policy incentives have become one of the fundamental driving forces in promoting the development of green buildings. It conducts a comprehensive evaluation and description, by comparing different government incentives, and it divides the government’s external stimuli into economic and non-economic incentives. Further, it has been found that non-economic incentives are more effective than financial incentives [31]. For green buildings, economic incentives are common policy incentives, mainly divided into financial subsidies, development application fee discounts, tax incentives, etc. Non-economic incentives include floor area ratio award (FAR), accelerated permit approval process, and business plan assistance.

(2) Technical support and the sustainable development of green buildings. In addition to the lack of government operation elements, an imperfect personnel training system and imperfect technical standards contribute to the poor green building design ability of architects, which makes the development of green buildings lack the most important core elements—which is a crucial bottleneck to be broken in the current development of green buildings [32]. Through an analysis of policy factors, green technology, green building participants, and green building materials, it has been found that these aspects should be improved in the future [33]. Presently, the application of green building technology lacks comprehensive and scientific planning, and the integration of development, planning, design, and construction is not good enough, which restricts the sustainable development of green buildings to a certain extent [34]. More advanced green building technology—in the whole life cycle of building design, construction, and operation—needs to be adopted for the development of green buildings in order to increase the performance of the building through technological innovation and creation, and to realize the requirements of the green building in order to protect the environment, save resources, and create comfortable spaces. Green building technology provides a strong support for developing green buildings, leading to innovation and development for the whole construction technology system.

(3) Corporate recognition and the sustainable development of green buildings. Gaining recognition and improving societal reputation are another two intrinsic drivers of green building practices. The competitive and complex business environments have affected the operation mode of enterprises, and establishing a good image and reputation has become necessary for enterprises to survive in the industry [35]. Through a case study of green buildings in China, it has been found that developers believe that the development of green housing can reduce construction and operation costs; obtain favorable land prices and more financing channels; and improve the reputation and image of corporate green brands [36]. The corporate image reflects a company’s values, which defines the company’s attractiveness and its products in the market [37]. Building green buildings can further show a company’s commitment to social responsibility, and, by undertaking this social responsibility, the company’s visibility and image can be thus improved. By conveying a commitment to sustainable development, enterprises can gain a high degree of trust and gain good publicity from customers. Implementing green building practices contributes to achieving social sustainability and increases customer appeal, due to this corporate recognition has become a key driver of green building sustainability.

(4) An evaluation standard system and the sustainable development of green buildings. A green building is a highly complex engineering system, and so the evaluation standard of green buildings is an essential basis for guiding the development direction of green buildings. Developed by the USGBC in 2000, LEED is one of the most widely used green building rating systems, and it has played an essential role in mainstreaming green building development in the United States and globally. Approximately 75,000 projects in the United States and worldwide have achieved LEED certification through their participation in the LEED rating system, with 1.85 million square feet of building space rated each day (USGBC, 2016) [38]. Australia has also taken steps to promote its development. For example, the Australian government has initiated the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010, which sets the mandatory requirements for improving the energy efficiency of buildings [39]. Compared with other countries, China’s research on the green building evaluation system is relatively late. In 2006, the Green Building Evaluation Standard (ESGB 2006) was published and revised in 2014 (ESGB 2014). A scientific and perfect green building evaluation system is significant for the purposes of developing green buildings. China’s green building evaluation standards align with China’s national conditions, but there are some problems, such as the integration of evaluation systems and the need for standards from other fields to assist with green building evaluation standards.

(5) Development cost and the sustainable development of green buildings. Over the past few decades, higher first costs have been rated as the number one barrier to green building development. Although costs have declined recently, 49% of industry experts still consider green buildings to be expensive [40]. Studies also show that the costs vary by building type, and that green buildings can be achieved with little additional cost [41]. In this study, we focus on development costs. Development costs include all costs associated with the building, such as materials, labor, equipment, and utilities, as well as all fees required until the installation is completed [42]. It is important to note that most of the additional costs of green buildings are not “hard costs” (that is, costs associated with installing major green components and materials), but “soft costs” (for example, costs associated with the extra time required for planning, design, and construction) [43]. The cost of green building construction has been falling due to the increasing use of integrated design methods. Further, the most successful way to reduce costs is through integrated design, which involves all parties in the early design phase and allows teams to collaborate in order to innovate on solutions [44]. USGBC (2003) even asserts that the construction cost of green buildings is not high, and it may even be lower than that of non-green buildings, because the efficient utilization of resources and comprehensive design plays a crucial role [45].

The above research has engendered many beneficial explorations into the sustainable development motivation of green buildings. However, the existing literature mainly discusses single factor influences on the sustainable development of the green building, and also primarily uses regression-type thoughts on research methods to explore the linear relationship between different variables, neglecting incentive policy, technical support, recognition, an evaluation standard system, the integration of development cost analysis, or the lack of synergies between the exploration of a variety of conditions. In the context of China, the sustainable development path based on green building needs to be further clarified. This paper attempts to introduce the QCA method, explore the interaction between different influencing factors, explore the specific path to effectively improve it, and provides guidance and help for the sustainable development of regional green buildings. The research summary of the influencing factors of the sustainable development of green buildings is shown in

Table 1. Review on influencing factors of sustainable development of green buildings.

Category	Sub-Categories with Descriptions	References
Incentive policies	Governments have stepped up their involvement in the green building market. The government has provided plenty of incentives for green buildings and energy efficiency.	(Simpeh et al., 2020 [24]; Pombo et al., 2019 [25]; Allouhi et al., 2015 [26]; Sebi et al., 2019 [27]; Zhang, 2014 [28] Baldwin et al., 2018 [29]; Liu et al., 2020 [30]; Olubunmi et al., 2016 [31])
Technical support	We should focus on improving the relevant personnel training system and technical standards to enhance architects’ results. There is room for improvement in green building technology’s planning, development, and design. Advanced technology is conducive to the better performance of buildings.	(Geng et al., 2019 [32]; Fu et al., 2020 [33]; Wang et al., 2018 [34])
Corporate recognition	Establishing a good image and reputation has become a necessary condition for the survival of enterprises. Companies can gain customer trust by taking on social responsibilities, such as implementing green building practices. Corporate image defines the attractiveness of its products in the market.	(Kennedy et al., 2016 [35]; Zhang et al., 2011 [36]; Andelin et al., 2015 [37])
Evaluation standard system	LEED, developed by USGBC in 2000, is a widely used green building evaluation standard system. The United States, Australia, China, and others have standard evaluation systems.	(USGBC, 2016 [38]; Wilkinson, 2013 [39])
Development cost	Development costs are divided into hard and soft costs. Hard cost is the cost associated with installing major green components and materials. Soft costs are associated with extra planning, design, and construction time.	(DDA, 2018 [40]; Hu et al., 2021 [41]; Hu, 2019 [42]; Ade et al., 2020 [43]; USGBC, 2003 [45])

.

3. Methods

3.1. Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Clear Sets

Charles Larkin proposed QCA in 1987. It uses small sample analysis to find complex causal relationships, and it emphasizes dealing with related problems through empirical and theoretical associations. QCA uses configuration logic in order to study the effects of multiple complex variables on outcome variables. This method is chosen for the following considerations: On the one hand, the sustainable development of green buildings is often affected by multiple factors in real life—such that it is far from enough to study the independent role of a single variable—and linear regression analysis is also susceptible to multiple reproducibility and autocorrelation. The law of qualitative comparative analysis focuses on multiple conditions or the combinations of various factors of a particular result in order to clarify the various reasons leading to the results, and it enriches the explanatory space of its antecedent variables. On the other hand, although regression analysis has more significant advantages than other research methods in large-sample research, qualitative comparative analysis has more unique advantages in small- and medium-sized sample analysis. More importantly, it can conduct the cross-level exploration of samples.

3.2. Framework Design

In QCA analysis, selecting the configuration conditions is a vital procedure for constructing the research framework. Existing research believes that induction and deduction are two effective ways for determining the configuration conditions [46]. Among them, induction is a bottom-up method used for summarizing the existing research results and determining the conditions. The deductive method refers to constructing and forming a top-down approach from the core constructs, elements, or types of the existing theoretical framework. This paper mainly uses induction to identify the key and necessary antecedent conditions. It should be pointed out that the QCA method cannot cover all the influencing factors and can only select more antecedent conditions. Through a literature review, this study takes incentive policy, technical support, enterprise recognition, an evaluation standard system, and development cost as the five antecedents affecting the sustainable development of green buildings. Further, combining the actual situation of the region, and being based on the existing studies, an integration framework of antecedents affecting the sustainable development of green buildings is constructed, as shown in Figure 1.

3.3. Sample Selection and Data Sources

The research sample of this paper is the data of 23 cases in Tianjin in recent years, which is a medium sample; further, the number of case samples meets the basic requirements of qualitative comparative analysis methods. The qualitative comparative analysis includes three modes: clear set (csQCA), fuzzy set (fsQCA), and multi-valued set (mvQCA) qualitative comparative analysis. The qualitative comparative analysis method of the precise set applies to the variables whose variables are assigned through dichotomy. After setting the condition variables, in each specific case, appearing or not appearing are assigned a value of 1 or 0, respectively. These condition variables may become the set path of the cause variables, a precise combination of causes for the results to be studied, or complex social phenomena. This study tries to clarify the clear reason combination path of the sustainable development of green buildings, which is why this method was selected. At the same time, according to the number of case samples screened by the research questions, a medium number of samples ranging from 10 to 60 is used for scientific research. Concurrently, according to the determined samples, the repeated analysis of cases and the number of condition variables determined for analysis and research is set as four to seven, which is credible. This paper takes 23 cases of green buildings in Tianjin as samples in recent years and finds the star rating of the projects through the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, PRC. The Green Building Evaluation Criteria, introduced in 2006, classifies green buildings in China into three grades: one, two, and three stars. According to the statistical requirements, the green building is categorized into three stars, further the energy consumption efficiency is categorized as decreasing from one star to three stars, as shown in

Table 2. Case presentation table.

Serial Number	Project Name	The Construction Time	New Green Building Area	Project Star
1	Command Center of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Traffic Police Brigade	2017	2900 million square meters	★★
2	Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Information Building	2017	2900 million square meters	★★★
3	Primary school of Block 29 in the central area of Sino-Singapore Eco-City	2016	3010 million square meters	★★★
4	Tianjin Eco-City pro-aging apartment project	2015	2100 million square meters	★★★
5	Tianjin Chuanshui Garden	2014	800 million square meters	★
6	Tianjin Vanke Jinlu Garden	2014	800 million square meters	★★★
7	Tianjin Binhai New Area South Xincheng Community Cultural Activity Center	2014	800 million square meters	★
8	Zifongyuan Residential Project, Binhai New Area, Tianjin	2014	800 million square meters	★★
9	North Base of State Grid Customer Service Center	2014	800 million square meters	★★★
10	Tianjin Chow Tai Fook Financial Center Project	2014	800 million square meters	★★
11	Tianjin Baicuiyuan Garden	2014	800 million square meters	★
12	Tianjin Meijiang Huaxia Tianjin Dian Chuan Water Park	2014	800 million square meters	★★★
13	The project of Building C1 and C4, Lizhuyuan, Jiefang South Road, Tianjin	2014	800 million square meters	★
14	Binhai New Area South Xincheng Community Cultural Activity Center	2013	500 million square meters	★★
15	Tianjin Tianbao Gold Coast Ximi Bay Project	2013	500 million square meters	★
16	Tianjin Houtai Park Exhibition Center	2012	300 million square meters	★★★
17	Zarva garden	2012	300 million square meters	★★
18	Wanhai Garden Residential Project, Hedong Wanda Center, Tianjin	2012	300 million square meters	★
19	Kindergarten in Block 5, South Area of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City	2012	300 million square meters	★
20	Building 1~8, National Animation Industry Comprehensive Demonstration Park, Tianjin Eco-City (Plot 03)	2012	300 million square meters	★
21	Radisson Blu Sega Hotel Tianjin	2012	300 million square meters	★★★
22	Tianjin Binhai International Trade Center Project	2012	300 million square meters	★★
23	Tianjin Eco-City Readers New Media Building	2012	300 million square meters	★★★

Note: ★: The green building rating is one star; ★★: The green building rating is two star; ★★★: The green building rating is three star.

.

For the purposes of complete interpretation, combined with the existing related research, the five condition variables are identified, which affect the sustainable development of green building construction. The five micro-factors, respectively, are incentive policy, technical support, enterprise recognition, evaluation standard system, and development costs. All the selected cases have microscopic factors, and the microscopic factors have a scientific selection standard showing on the setting of the conditional variables for specific elaboration.

On the other hand, different from a single case study, QCA focuses on multiple case studies. Using this method, the cases are comprehensively analyzed, and the common characteristics are also extracted and identified as conditional variables. Meanwhile, the heterogeneity that is obtained by comparing the combination to infer the causal relationship of it is also presented in the form of a combination of reasons.

3.4. The Design Route of Variables

Given the application principle of qualitative comparative analysis, there is no ready specification for the variables to be determined in the research. Therefore, based on the existing research knowledge, the first step involves determining and interpreting the variables. Twenty-three typical cases in this study were chosen based on the re-reading of the case materials, as well as a combination with the existing research following screening. Then, five of the micro-factors and the condition variables that determine the impact of sustainable development of the green building, were determined. As a result, under the guidance of the “binary attribution principle”—which is in the weight ratio of the case study for a binary threshold value—the definitions of the variables and their assignments are shown in

Table 3. Item assignment criteria and basis table.

Variable Name	The Assignment Is 1	The Assignment Is 0	Source and Basis	Explanatory Variable
Incentive Policy (IP)	The number of government incentive policies in the current year or the previous two years of the project is greater than or equal to 1	There is no government incentive policy for the first two years of the project year	The 13th Five-Year Plan for Building Energy Conservation and Green Buildings in Tianjin	Conditional variable
Technical Support (TS)	The green building star rating of the project is 2 or 3 stars	The green building star rating of the project is 1 star	The green building assessing the standard	Conditional variable
Recognition by the enterprise (ER)	The green building area of the project in that year exceeded 8 million square meters	The green building area of the project was less than 8 million square meters	The 13th Five-Year Plan for Building Energy Conservation and Green Buildings in Tianjin	Conditional variable
Evaluation standard system (ESS)	The evaluation standard system was published or updated a year or two before the project.	No evaluation standard system was published or updated in the current year or in the previous two years	The 13th Five-Year Plan for Building Energy Conservation and Green Buildings in Tianjin	Conditional variable
Development costs (DC)	Compared to the traditional construction cost, the increase is less than 5%	Compared with the traditional construction cost, the increase is more than 5%	2011 National Special Supervision and Inspection of Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in the Field of Housing and Urban–Rural Construction	Conditional variable
Green Building Development (DGB)	The proportion of new green buildings exceeds 20%	The proportion of new green buildings is less than 20%	Circular of the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development on the Special Inspection of the Progress of Building Energy Conservation and Green Building in 2016	Outcome variable

.

3.4.1. Conditional Variable Setting

Through a systematic literature review, this paper identified five indicators as antecedent conditions: incentive policy, technical support, enterprise recognition, an evaluation standard system, and development cost.

(1) Incentive policies. Government incentive policy is considered to be one of the critical factors for the sustainable development of green buildings. This is due to the fact that the government guides the construction, the transformation, and the upgrading of the project, which is key as the direction of the enterprise determines the direction of project development. From this perspective, the management of the enterprise therefore make decisions for the development of the project according to the government’s policy direction [47]. The government marks green buildings that meet their standards and thus make policies in order to subsidize enterprises that carry out green building projects, actively advocating enterprises to carry out green building for long-term development. From the owners’ perspective, renovation policies related to economic incentives can use the upfront renovation investment to encourage owners to carry out building renovation [48].

In the 13th Five-Year Plan for Building Energy Conservation and Green Buildings in Tianjin, the Tianjin Development and Reform Commission stated that they should study and formulate policies and measures—such as floor area ratio incentives, preferential loans for the use of green building materials and equipment, and green channels for the approval of construction industrialization projects—in order to encourage and to guide enterprises to develop diversified energy-saving buildings. Therefore, this study was used in each of the promotions of green building policies, issued by the number of files as a measure for the sustainable development of green buildings. For the projects that year, or for the green building incentive policies of last year, the year with a median of 1 is the threshold. Further, the promotion of a green building policy file number is greater than or equal to 1 when the number of file assignments is 1, otherwise the assignment is 0.

(2) Technical support. As the final trend of the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry, technical support is an essential factor affecting the development of sustainable green building buildings [19]; moreover, this aspect mainly includes green building design, professional equipment, and technology [49]. Green building technologies are a vital component of implementing green building projects. For example, the training of project personnel in the effective operation of green building techniques may positively impact the successful implementation of green building projects. Government funding for green building training in order to educate construction practitioners, or the public, will promote the adoption of green building technologies in the construction industry [50]. Therefore, the technical level of each region directly affects the development of green buildings in the region.

The Green Building Evaluation Criteria, introduced in 2006, classifies green buildings in China into three grades: one, two, and three stars. According to the statistical requirements, the green building is categorized into three stars; further the energy consumption efficiency is categorized as decreasing from one star to three stars. Therefore, in this paper, the star of the green building is used as the measurement index for the project’s technical support. When the project star is 2 or 3 stars, the value is assigned as 1. Otherwise, the value is 0.

(3) Recognition of the enterprise. The recognition of the enterprise determines whether the enterprise will follow the government’s incentive policies in order to carry out green building projects, and whether the enterprise will actively develop green buildings in large quantities [22,51]. For example, companies can gain a green reputation by entering into voluntary compliance agreements with the government, and they can benefit from lower production costs by complying with the deal [1]. Enterprise recognition includes recognizing the enterprise’s green building technology, concept, and prospect. Therefore, the recognition of enterprises is a significant factor affecting the sustainable development of green buildings.

According to the 13th Five-Year Plan of Building Energy Conservation and Green Buildings in Tianjin, 32 million square meters of green buildings will be built in Tianjin during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. In this paper, the total area of green buildings newly built in the year of the project case is used as a measurement index for the recognition of green buildings by enterprises. If the new area is more than 8 million square meters, the value is 1; otherwise, the value is 0.

(4) An evaluation standard system. After the concept of a green building is established, a framework needs to be developed in order to evaluate the implementation and performance of the green building, as such the evaluation standard system comes into being [51,52,53]. The construction of the evaluation standard system is mainly based on the principle of adapting to the local conditions, combined with the climate, environment, resources, and other factors of the building location. This is done in order to comprehensively evaluate the safety, durability, health and comfort, convenience of living, and other performances of green buildings, including scoring, star division, and other operations [54]. The evaluation standard determines whether the green building will pass the acceptance threshold, whether it meets the green building standards, and whether it can reach the corresponding star rating [10]. Therefore, the evaluation standard system is an essential factor in order to determine what is affecting the sustainable development of green buildings.

As the evaluation criteria determine whether a green building can pass acceptance and be called a green building, it is detailed in the 13th Five-Year Plan of Building Energy Conservation and Green Building in Tianjin. We will improve the system of green building standards, focusing on the study and formulation of standards and specifications for the green evaluation of existing buildings, green ecological urban areas, green building project quality acceptance, green industrial building evaluation, and green rural housing technical guidelines. This is conducted in order to expand the coverage of the standards and to also strengthen the guidance of the standards. Therefore, in this paper, the number of evaluation standard systems released or updated by project cases in the current year, last year, and the year before are used to measure the evaluation system’s contribution to the sustainable development of green buildings. If the number released is greater than or equal to 1, the value is 1; otherwise, the value is 0.

(5) Development cost. Even though the life-cycle cost-effectiveness of green buildings has been widely studied and documented for decades, as well as the benefits of green buildings in terms of reducing carbon emissions to the environment, owners or investors are still reluctant to adopt them, due to the enormous costs required for investment [55,56]. It can be seen that the development cost of green buildings determines whether an enterprise has the conditions required to develop green building projects, and whether it has the potential to generate the enthusiasm needed to create green buildings. It is found from comparing the development cost of a green-certified office building and a traditional office building, from the perspective of the whole life cycle, that the former is more cost effective [57]. Green building development costs include all costs associated with the building, such as materials, labor, equipment, and utilities, as well as all the fees required until the installation is completed [42].

The Notice on Building Energy Efficiency Inspection in the National Special Supervision and Inspection of Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in Urban and Rural Housing Construction in 2011 mentioned that the cost of green buildings would increase by 5% to 10%. Thus, development cost is one of the significant factors affecting the sustainable development of green buildings. The cost of the project measures the development cost. Therefore, if the cost of the green building project is compared with the same and similar projects, the value is 1. If the cost increase is less than 5%, the value is 0.

3.4.2. Outcome Variable Design

The Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, PRC—while at the Circular of the Special Inspection of the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development on the Progress of Building Energy Conservation and Green Building Work—stated (in 2016): “In 2016, the urban green building area increased by 500 million square meters, accounting for more than 29% of the new urban civil buildings”. Thus, based on the proportion of green buildings in the construction of new buildings, the development of green buildings (DGB) can be seen to be well reflected. Therefore, this paper takes the proportion of green buildings in new buildings as an indicator for measuring the development of green buildings, and as the outcome variable of this paper. The conditional variables and outcome variables are explained in

Table 4. Explanation of condition variables and outcome variables.

The Variable Name	Concept	References
Incentive Policy (IP)	The government guides the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry by formulating incentive policies and encourages enterprises and owners to carry out green building practices actively.	(Zou et al., 2017 [47]; Dineen et al., 2017 [48])
Technical Support (TS)	As the final trend of the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry, technical support mainly includes green building design, professional equipment, technology, personnel training, etc.	(Wang et al., 2021 [19]; Chan et al., 2018 [49]; Hwang et al., 2017 [50])
Recognition by the enterprise (ER)	The recognition degree of the enterprise includes the recognition of the enterprise on green building technology, concept, and prospect. It determines whether the enterprise will follow the government’s incentive policies to carry out green building projects.	(Ofek et al., 2018 [51]; Shen et al., 2021 [1])
Evaluation standard system (ESS)	The construction of the evaluation standard system is mainly based on the principle of adapting to local conditions, combined with the climate, environment, resources, and other factors of the building location, in order to comprehensively evaluate the safety; durability; health and comfort; convenience of living; and other performances of green buildings—including scoring, star division, and other operations.	(Ding et al., 2018 [54])
Development costs (DC)	Green building development costs include all costs associated with the building, such as materials, labor, equipment, and utilities, as well as all fees required until the installation is completed.	(Hu, 2019 [42])
Green Building Development (DGB)	The development of green buildings can be better reflected based on the proportion of green buildings in new buildings.	Circular of the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development on the Special Inspection of the Progress of Building Energy Conservation and Green Building, in 2016

.

4. Qualitative Comparison and Analysis Results of Clear Sets

4.1. Truth Table Construction

According to the research steps of QCA, the analysis coders strictly followed the sample attributes set above; compared them with the five condition variables and the one outcome variable in this study; carried out scientific coding; and used fsQCA software in order to calculate the Truth Table (

Table 5. Truth table.

DC	ESS	ER	TS	IP	Number	DGB	Raw Consist	PRI Consist	SYM Consist
1	0	1	0	1	3	1	1	1	1
0	1	1	1	0	2	1	1	1	1
0	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
1	0	0	1	0	3	0	0.666667	0.666667	0.666667
1	1	0	0	1	2	0	0.5	0.5	0.5
0	1	1	0	1	2	0	0.5	0.5	0.5
1	1	1	0	1	2	0	0.5	0.5	0.5
1	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0
0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
0	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0

).

4.2. Analysis of Necessary Conditions

Necessity testing is an essential step in QCA in order to test whether a result depends on a variable. The test process includes two indicators: 1. Consistency, which indicates the sufficient degree of the condition variable, or the combination that is the sufficient condition of the outcome variable. The higher the sufficient degree, the higher the possibility that the condition variable or combination is the condition causing the outcome variable. When the consistency index is >0.8, the condition variable (X) is considered a sufficient condition for the outcome variable (Y)—that is, the appearance of the condition variable can lead to the occurrence of the result—when the consistency index is >0.9, the condition variable (X) is considered as a necessary condition for the outcome variable (Y). 2. Coverage, which is a direct indicator used in order to measure the importance of a combination of conditional variables, which further is obtained by dividing the number of specific cases by the total number of instances. Coverage indicates the explanatory power of the formation path to achieve a specified result on the outcome variable. The higher the coverage, the higher the explanatory degree of the conditional variable or the combination of the outcome. For example, a coverage rate of 0.9 indicates that the condition variable or combination of condition variables explains 90% of the cases. In this paper, a total of 10 positive and negative condition variables of five conditions were analyzed using a QCA3.0 operation for univariate necessity analysis, and the results were obtained, as shown in

Table 6. Univariate necessity analysis.

Variable Name	Consistency	Fraction of Coverage
Incentive policy IP	0.792308	0.852857
Non-incentive policy~IP	0.207692	0.344444
Technical Support TS	0.538642	0.700000
Non-technical support~TS	0.461538	0.461538
Enterprise recognition ER	0.615385	0.571429
Non-enterprise recognition~ER	0.384615	0.555556
Evaluation standard system ESS	0.538642	0.583333
Non-evaluation standard system~ESS	0.461538	0.545455
Development cost DC	0.745098	0.844762
Non-development cost~DC	0.254902	0.402331

.

As can be seen from Table 6, the consistency of all the conditional variables is lower than the 0.8 standards, which cannot be used as sufficient conditions to affect the sustainable development of green buildings. However, the consistency of incentive policies is 0.792308, and the consistency of development costs is 0.745098, which is close to 0.8. It can, therefore, be concluded that incentive policies and development costs significantly impact the sustainable development of green buildings; that is, they play an essential role in promoting the sustainable development of green buildings in Tianjin. Additionally, the two values in respect of coverage are 0.852857 and 0.844762, respectively, both being lower than, but close to, 90%—therefore indicating that they have strong explanatory power for affecting the sustainable development of green buildings. The consistency of enterprise recognition reached 0.61538, which also had strong explanatory power for the outcome variable. Furthermore, the technical support and the consistency of the evaluation standard system are plus or minus the variables accounting for about half of each, thus explaining that the strength of the technical support and the size of the evaluation standard constraints have, respectively, a particular influence on the good and evil of green building development. However, they do not single out sufficient conditions as a result, and this needs to be further explained using variable combination effects.

Therefore, it can be seen that the consistency and coverage of incentive policies, enterprise recognition, technical support, and development costs are relatively large. Therefore, it is necessary to establish incentive policies, increase the development of high-tech green buildings, reduce the investment cost of the enterprise side, and increase the recognition of the enterprise side. More importantly, the role of the evaluation standard system should not be ignored. A perfect evaluation standard system should be developed in order to ensure green buildings develop in a healthier direction.

4.3. Condition Configuration Analysis

In this paper, by running fsQCA3.0 software, and run according to the recommendations of Fiss [58], the consistency threshold is set as 0.8 for a standardized operation. Following this, the complex solutions, intermediate solutions, and simple solutions are obtained. The simple solution is often inconsistent with the facts, because it is too concise. The complex solution of the research results, which were obtained in this study, is the same as the intermediate solution. Due to this, the complex solution and the intermediate solution are both selected for analysis. When the condition variable appears in both the simple and complex solutions, it is denoted as the core condition. If the condition variable only appears in the complex solution but not in the simple solution, it is denoted as the edge condition. The core condition is the essential cause condition of the result. In contrast, the marginal condition has a weak causal relationship with the result, as such it is unnecessary and can be replaced. After the Boolean algebra operation is conducted, the configuration results are obtained, and these are now shown in

Table 7. Multivariate combination analysis.

Variable Name	Green Building Development (DGB)
	Path 1	Path 2	Path 3	Path 4
Incentive policy (IP)	●	●	⊗	●
Technical Support (TS)		⊗	●	●
Enterprise recognition (ER)	●	⊗	●	⊗
Evaluation Standard System (ESS)	⊗	●	●	●
Development Cost (DC)	●	⊗	⊗	●
Consistency	1	1	1	1
Original coverage rate	0.607692	0.0769231	0.453846	0.8769231
Net coverage	0.577372	0.0574271	0.371252	0.735324
Coverage of solutions	0.825577
Consistency of solution	1

Note: Following Ragin [59] and Fiss’ [58] presentation of QCA results, ● = core condition, $●$ = edge condition, ⊗ = core condition not present, $\otimes$ = edge condition not present, and blank indicates that the cause condition is insignificant in regard to the result characteristics.

.

Through the QCA configuration analysis of the 23 cases in Tianjin, China, it is found that the coverage of solutions is 0.825577, which can explain 82.5% of the cases. The consistency of all paths is 1, indicating that the explanatory power of the outcome variables is good. Because the coverage rate of path 2 is too low, it can only explain 7.7% of the cases, which is not convincing enough. Therefore, it cannot be temporarily analyzed in classifying influencing mechanism types. As such, the preliminary study has high coverage and can explain the path of more cases.

The three-element dominant driving type includes incentive policy, enterprise recognition, and development cost. DC*~ESS*ER*IP, “Low development cost * no evaluation standard system * high enterprise recognition * incentive policy”, can explain 60.7% of the cases, with about two-thirds of the cases belonging to this path. It shows that the lower the development cost, the less the evaluation standard constraint, the higher the recognition of the enterprise, and the policy incentive, which will further promote the long-term development of green buildings.The influencing mechanism for the sustainable development of green buildings is shown in Figure 2.

The government encourages enterprises to develop green buildings and to improve their recognition by issuing incentive policies and developing factors, such as low cost. However, because there is no corresponding evaluation standard system, the development direction of enterprises is unclear. The issues in regard to this are as follows:

(1) The influence of the government party analysis: In terms of policy support, the enterprise has the recognition, but there is no evaluation standard. Although green buildings will continue to be developed, because there is no set with a perfect evaluation standard system, this makes the acceptance criteria for green buildings uncertain for enterprise parties, and, therefore, the development direction of green buildings is not clear. We do not even know the rating stars of green buildings, as such we cannot even make subjective judgments. Therefore, local governments not only need to formulate incentive policies, but they also need to formulate a set of perfect evaluation standard systems in order to lead enterprises in society to find better future development directions, and to conduct standardized acceptance and evaluation.

(2) Analysis of the influence of the enterprise: In this paper, cost and recognition are classified as the analysis of the influence of the enterprise party. This is because the cost of the enterprise, to a certain extent, affects the recognition of the enterprise for green buildings. In the long-term development of green buildings, enterprises occupy an essential role, as it is decided that green buildings can be provided with widespread approval, and that this is the key to changing the tide of green building development. With the reduced cost of green buildings, enterprises have gradually accepted green buildings. They have changed their old-fashioned ideas and views on green buildings, which has profoundly impacted on the development of green buildings.

(3) Analysis of the impact of technical support: in a region where the government and enterprises jointly adhere to the development of green buildings, technical support plays a decisive role. This is because the additions of new and high-level technology determine the present and future of green buildings. If they do not have the hardware support in terms of technology, green buildings will be stalled, or will even slowly shift back to traditional architecture. Technical support also indirectly affects development costs and corporate recognition; this is because the country needs to possess new and high-level technology, concurrent with joint enterprise development. As such, the low cost of new and high-level technology will promote the further extended development of green buildings.

The three-element dominant driving type includes technical support, high enterprise recognition, and an evaluation standard system. ~DC*ESS*ER*TS*~IP, “High development cost * evaluation standard system * high enterprise recognition * high technical support * no incentive policy” can explain 45.3% of the cases. Compared with path 1, although the technical support improved the recognition of enterprises, this path could explain about 45.3% of the cases due to the high development cost, the lack of policy support and incentive, and the constraints of the evaluation standard system on acceptance. Therefore, path 3 is not as strong as path 1 in promoting the long-term development of green buildings. The influencing mechanism of sustainable development of green buildings is shown in Figure 3.

Due to the high development cost, there is no corresponding incentive policy. Although enterprises have new and high-level technology and a recognition of green buildings, they are still deterred by the development cost. The issues in regard to this can be broken down as follows:

(1) Government party analysis: The impact of the government in the market occupies an essential position, while the incentives on behalf of the government’s determination and attitude are recognized by the only enterprise. By introducing a standard evaluation standard, the government did not introduce the corresponding incentive policy, and did not support or guide the enterprises in the handling of enterprise development direction. This often leads to the market developing in the wrong direction, so the government’s incentive policies play an essential role in the long-term development of green buildings. The government-issued, corresponding incentive policies are an indispensable and vital participant in the market.

(2) Analysis of the influence of the enterprise side: When the enterprise obtains new and high-level technology but suffers from a lack of funds for research and development, or when companies have perfect evaluation and acceptance criteria but suffer from no policy support for the development of the project, this can make the enterprise in the field of green buildings grope for the situation alone; perhaps when enterprises see broad prospects for green buildings, they will constantly campaign for capital investment and support, but when companies encounter setbacks and the government does not intervene, enterprises will lose confidence in the future of green buildings, resulting in an indelible impact on the long-term development of green buildings. As mentioned above, enterprises play an essential role in developing green buildings. Therefore, enterprises need to obtain support and guidance from the government for project development, to continuously develop green building projects and to make green buildings develop in a longer and more sustainable way.

(3) Analysis of the impact of technical support: When enterprises use capital, workforce, and material resources to develop new and high-level technologies, but do not have enough funds to implement them, and the development cost is too high, then enterprises will not be able to apply new and high-level technologies for production, and the development of green buildings will therefore stop. Green building technical support for the field provides the thinking and ways of innovation. When there is not enough money or technical support for the development and application of new and high-level technology, the prospects for the development of green buildings are met with uncertainty; therefore, green building technology development needs government support, and incentives can bring bright prospects to the field.

The four-element dominant driving type includes incentive policy, technical support, an evaluation standard system and development cost. DC*ESS*~ER*TS*IP, “Low development cost * evaluation form approval system * low enterprise recognition * high technical support * incentive policy” can explain 87.6% of the cases. In this path, only the enterprise recognition is low, and it is the only path with a coverage rate above 0.8. It indicates that this path significantly promotes the long-term development of green buildings, and the influencing mechanism of the sustainable development of green buildings is shown in Figure 4.

The government has issued related incentive policies and evaluation standards. However, due to the enterprises’ lack of understanding of the emerging technology industry, and although the development cost is low, the recognition of enterprises has not improved. Therefore, the government needs to guide enterprises further and lead the market. This can be broken down as follows:

(1) Analysis of the influence of the government: As mentioned above, the government not only plays a role in supporting and encouraging enterprises, but, more importantly, it plays a role in guiding enterprises in the long-term development of green buildings. As such, when countries introduce a perfect system of evaluation criteria and a corresponding incentive policy, they then need to lead the enterprise and make the enterprise accept green buildings as a new concept. For many enterprises to attempt to try the unknown, the government will need to work together with them and promote the sustainable development of green buildings.

(2) Analysis of the influence of enterprises: When enterprises are faced with an emerging technology, most SMEs do not dare to try it quickly. Although the government has issued related supportive policies as well as financial supports, enterprises lack the vital financial resources and still insist on developing stable traditional buildings. Therefore, the government must guide enterprises in a timely manner such that they can have a deeper understanding of the importance of green buildings for human development, the prospect of buildings, and the benefits of projects. It can be seen that the attitude of enterprises affect the development of green buildings all the time, and that a change in the concept of enterprises is, therefore, significant.

(3) Analysis of the impact of technical support: When new and high-level technologies are developed in green buildings, they need to be recognized by enterprises, applied, and then put into the production line of the project during any point of time. Therefore, the progress of technology plays a vital role in supporting the research and development of enterprises and national scientific research fields. More importantly, high-tech, which are as far as possible toward the direction of low-cost development, technologies are conducive for recognizing small- and medium-sized enterprises, and for facilitating green buildings with a more comprehensive as well as rapid promotion and development.

5. Conclusions

Within the background of the serious waste of capital and energy in the construction industry, as well as the severe pollution of construction waste in construction, it is necessary to effectively implement sustainable development strategies and to protect the Earth (which we rely on to survive). This can be achieved by ensuring the smooth development of green buildings. Therefore, promoting the sustainable development of green buildings plays a pivotal role in implementing sustainable development. There are many influencing factors in the long-term sustainable development of the green building. Therefore in order to better understand these factors, this paper studies, based on the qualitative comparative analysis method, its influence path in Tianjin. These findings have important implications for understanding what influences green building development, and how to better promote green building development. This can be broken down as follows:

(1) The influencing factors are determined based on a literature research and case analysis.

In order to study the influence factors that affect the sustainable development of green buildings in Tianjin, this paper, by looking for related literature about the sustainable development of green buildings in recent years—and by combining the examples of Tianjin green building constructions in recent years, as well as news reports and critical policy statements—summarized the following five factors: (1) Incentive policy. The sustainable development of green buildings cannot be separated from the guidance and incentives of the government. The government needs to formulate relevant policies in order to encourage and guide enterprises to use green building technologies, to benefit from them, to promote, and also develop them continuously. (2) Technical support. The sustainable development of green buildings require that its technology be constantly updated and therefore this can bring more contributions to enterprises, government, and the people. Therefore, it is necessary for enterprises and governments to jointly develop and to study new and high-level technologies in the field of green buildings, to ensure that green building technology is always at the forefront. (3) Enterprise recognition. Enterprises are needed to develop green buildings. Therefore, the development of green buildings requires enterprises to recognize the advantages of green buildings, to support and to carry out the transformation, and to upgrade from traditional buildings to green buildings. They also need to recognize the value of green buildings, and to cooperate with the government’s incentive policies in order to develop green buildings. (4) Evaluation standard system. In the development process of green buildings, a perfect standard system is needed to manage the development and acceptance of green buildings, and to determine its grade. Therefore, the country must formulate a perfect and reasonable evaluation standard system and constantly update it with the times. (5) Development costs. The development cost determines whether enterprises can invest in and develop green buildings, as such the development cost is one of the necessary factors for ensuring the sustainable development of green buildings.

(2) Influence path based on the qualitative comparative analysis method.

The influence factors were based on the definitions of the 23 cases of Tianjin green buildings. Further, each influence factor of each case assignment, which were recorded at either 0 or 1 for each condition variable necessity of the univariate analysis, were determined in order to analyze the consistency of each variable and coverage. The establishment of a truth table provides four influencing paths that are obtained through the analysis of the standard. After the removal of the minimal coverage path, it is concluded that the following three Tianjin green buildings that affect the path of sustainable development, respectively, fall under the criteria of “the development of low-cost high recognition * no evaluation standard system * enterprise incentive policy”; “development costs high * evaluation standard system *enterprise acceptance * technical support high * no incentive policy”; and “Low development cost * evaluation standard system * low recognition by enterprises * high technical support * incentive policies.”

5.1. Management Implications

This study takes 23 building cases as samples. It applies the QCA method, aiming to investigate the influencing factors and improvement paths of the sustainable development of green buildings, and provides relevant suggestions for future green building development policies. This can be broken down as follows:

(1) Improve the evaluation standard system and update the incentive policy driving mechanism.

Through the analysis of path 1 and path 4, it can be seen that the incentive policy is crucial for promoting the rapid development of green buildings. It can, not only, improve the enthusiasm and recognition of enterprises, but also reduce the cost of enterprises. With the continuous development of green buildings in recent years, many other studies have shown that the policy incentive mechanism has a considerable role in promoting the development of the green building. Presently, the governments’ green building incentive policies at all levels in China mainly include land transfer, land planning, financial subsidies, taxes, credit, floor area ratio, urban ancillary fees, examination and approval, the evaluation of enterprise qualifications, scientific research and consumption guidance, etc.

However, due to financial constraints, and other reasons, many areas of the green building incentive mechanism are a formality and are not being properly implemented. It can be seen that to improve the policy incentive mechanism for green buildings, attention should be paid to the practicability of the incentive policies, especially for the purposes of formulating mandatory policies in line with local conditions, and to help maintain and to constantly improve these policies for a long time. In addition to further improving tax and fiscal subsidy policies, economic incentive policies should be applied from various aspects and diversified. Further, sustainable green building investment and financing mechanisms should be considered. Additionally, preferential loans should also be increased.

(2) Increase investment in high-tech research and development, and also reduce the development cost of green buildings.

Through the analysis of paths 3 and 4, and when compared with path 1, it can be seen that technical support is the necessary condition for the development of green buildings; this is because the green building is indispensable to the development of new and high-level technology research and development. As such enterprises and the government need to work together to promote high-tech green building research, development, and synchronization, in order to elevate green building technology to a higher level. As is known to all, new and high-level technologies such as information technology and material technology provide a solid technical guarantee for the development of green buildings. The analysis of this paper also shows that technological innovation has a strong positive impact on the development of the green building. The world has been building energy conservation, land- and water-saving, material-saving, and construction environments in order to improve technology application research aspects, thereby making positive progress. However, the overall research, development, and application of green building technology are still in their primary stage. This is especially still the case with the need to strengthen appropriate technologies for the purposes of green buildings (low), incremental cost technology research, and development and promotion.

The development of a green building economy cannot be achieved without a large amount of financial as well as new and high-level technological support. Therefore, with the government’s support and funds from social investors, we should focus on innovating traditional construction technology and on implementing the new technology into practical use in order to respond to the government’s call for energy conservation, emissions reduction, and sustainable development. In the process of technological innovation, we should learn from the experience and the advanced science and technology of foreign countries. Through independent research, and the development of science and technology personnel, and after many tests, practice, application, and constant improvements in the level of technology in the process of development, new technologies actively promote a role in the sustainable development of the green building process. Further, they provide a solid technical support for the sustainable development of green buildings, and therefore change the course of sustainable development in a way that cannot be satisfied by the traditional technology of the present situation.

(3) Improve the recognition of enterprises and finally promote the sustainable development of green buildings.

As understood through a comparative study of the three paths, the recognition of enterprises plays a decisive role in the sustainable development of green buildings. The sustainable development of green buildings needs the mutual promotion and cooperation of various factors. Therefore, the government needs to guide enterprises in order to improve their understanding of green buildings and understand the advantages and development trends of green buildings faster such that enterprises can better accept and develop green buildings.

In the development of the construction industry, enterprises influence the development, transformation, and upgrading of the construction industry to a certain extent, and green buildings that are environmentally friendly, new, and that benefit humanity should become the final trend in this development of the construction industry. Therefore, in order to make enterprises more swiftly recognize and accept green buildings, local governments should actively popularize knowledge of green buildings, especially in highly educated groups where green buildings have already been heavily promoted via economic benefits, social benefits, and environmental benefits. Further, they need to improve awareness of green buildings, and to influence the middle class to initiate green building development in order to fulfill the environment and atmosphere aspects of corporate social responsibility.

Moreover, to further improve public awareness, it is necessary to increase the publicity of green buildings and to improve the status of green buildings in the consumer market. While vigorously promoting green buildings in investment projects, the government also needs to carry out diversified publicity and education through websites, newspapers, information conferences, special lectures, public service advertisements, and also consider other ways in which to enhance the awareness of green environmental protection among the public and enterprises. Further, the government need to also eliminate some of the misunderstandings about green buildings. Through a deep understanding and experience of the unique advantages of green buildings, the public and enterprises will be driven to participate in the large-scale promotion of green buildings leading to the enhancement of the status and demand for green buildings in the consumer market.

5.2. Limitations and Future Research

All industries and fields across the country are taking the road of energy conservation and environmental protection, which is also the only way forward for the sustainable development of the construction industry. Under the encouragement of relevant national policies and the supervision of relevant laws and regulations, the enterprise has a mature cost control system. The selection of new green and economical building structure forms, coupled with a sufficient supply of green building materials and the support of advanced construction technology, has laid a good foundation for the sustainable development of green buildings.

There are still some shortcomings in this paper: (1) whether the 23 cases in this paper can explain the impact path of Tianjin’s sustainable development, and whether more cases are needed for more accurate research, this needs to be further verified; (2) the influence of green financial support on the sustainable development of green buildings was not considered, and the variables of green financial support should be considered in the future.