International legal instruments for stimulating green building and construction business: Russian case study

Zhi-Jiang Liu (), Vera Snezhko and Anastasia Kurilova
Additional contact information
Zhi-Jiang Liu: GuangXi Normal University
Vera Snezhko: Russian State Agrarian University - Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy
Anastasia Kurilova: Togliatti State University

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2022, vol. 22, issue 1, No 8, 157-175

Abstract: Abstract Green building is an innovative and socially significant element of enhancing environmental sustainability. The main idea behind the construction of green buildings is to increase the sustainability of the living environment, which is achieved by reducing the overall impact of buildings on the environment and human health. This undoubtedly important trend, entering into modern use and closely related to the concept of sustainable development, makes it necessary to determine what lies at the basis of its international legal regulation. The purpose of the study is to determine the place and role of international legal instruments for the formation of "green" construction and processes, related to it. The Aarhus Convention, as one of these instruments, provides dual protections for environmental and human rights, and its focus on public engagement provides a mechanism to ensure that governments are held accountable in their efforts to address the multifaceted challenges facing our world today. At the same time, the second one—the UN Global Compact—is the world's largest corporate social responsibility initiative and also directly affects the status of implementation of many modern instruments aimed at achieving sustainable development in national legal systems. Research question: What is the role of the UN Global Compact and the Aarhus Convention in stimulating green building in Russia at the present stage? Through the method of political and legal analysis used in the work, the study attempts to determine the role of the mentioned international regulatory legal acts in the field of environmental protection as a tool to stimulate green building. The study is based on the assumption that international environmental agreements have the necessary levers to influence green building, and their effective application is in the public interest. The study is based on the example of the Russian legal system in a comparative perspective. This paper discusses the impact of international instruments such as the Aarhus Convention and the United Nations Global Compact on promoting green building, the sustainable development of the construction industry and the relationship between sustainability and competitiveness when using green supply chain management (GSCM). The study gives reasons to say about the contradictory attitude of the Russian authorities to the initiative to join the Aarhus Convention, but at the same time confirms the interest of Russian business in adherence to the goals of the UN Global Compact; however, it demonstrates the fact that the issue of forming sustained commitment to the concept of green construction directly for the construction business at this stage is not among the top priorities. In this area, commitment to the principles of the UN Global Compact is in its infancy. In practical terms, the work is of interest both for business entities for assessing the commercial profitability of business processes and for policymakers in the field of adapting domestic legislative acts to international legislation and law enforcement practices.

Keywords: Aarhus Convention; Construction company; Green construction; Supply chain; Sustainable development; UN global compact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10784-021-09548-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:22:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10784-021-09548-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10784

DOI: 10.1007/s10784-021-09548-1

Access Statistics for this article

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics is currently edited by Joyeeta Gupta

More articles in International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().