The Beijing Energy Conservation & Environment Protection Center (BEEC), an office building in downtown Beijing, is the first retrofitted existing building in China to receive the internationally recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. Intended to be a model highlighting energy efficiency in office building retrofit programs, BEEC has achieved 70 percent energy savings and 60 percent water savings when compared with other similarly sized office buildings in China. Following the retrofit, the building’s energy efficiency was more than 30 percent greater than the ASHRAE 90.1 Standard.

There are more than 1.7 billion square feet of existing public buildings in Beijing. If these buildings could be retrofitted to achieve the same energy performance as this demonstration project, Beijing could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 22 million tons each year from remodeling buildings alone.