[The Hwankyung Ilbo] The Ministry of Environment (Minister Han Jung-ae) and the Korea Environment Corporation (Chairman Jang Joon-young) announced that they will hold a six-week contest from August 2 to September 10 to discover carbon-neutral models in the public sector.

The project to excavate carbon-neutral models in the public sector is carried out to select representative types of facilities and to discover and spread optimized carbon-neutral models by considering the use of buildings or facilities, aging, and greenhouse gas emission characteristics.

Local governments wishing to participate in the project to discover carbon-neutral models in the public sector can fill out submission documents such as applications and business plans during the contest and submit them to the Korea Environment Corporation from September 1 to 10. 

Five selected locations, one for each of the five types: 

The subjects of the contest are buildings or environmental basic facilities owned by local governments, 10 years after completion and 30 years after completion, and the final selection is one for each of the five types, with a total of five locations.

The Ministry of Environment will select three times through the first document review in order of high scores, and then form a second deliberation committee to determine the final destination through written evaluation and on-site evaluation.

For the selected project sites, a feasibility study and basic plan for carbon neutrality of buildings or facilities by representative type will be prepared by 2021 and design and construction will be carried out for two years from 2022 to 2023, with a total of 8 billion won (4 billion won per year) in state coffers.

The selected target site for the public offering project shall maintain the goal of carbon neutrality of the facilities proposed in the master plan, etc. in consultation with the Ministry of Environment after completion of construction.

In addition, buildings subject to zero-energy building certification should be certified with at least level 3 of zero-energy building, and the results of carbon neutral operation shall be reported to the Ministry of Environment for three years.

In August, the Korea Environment Corporation will hold an online briefing session for local government officials on how to prepare business plans and actively promote posters. 

Lee Byung-hwa, Minister of Environment, Climate Change Policy Officer stated, "As local governments are interested in carbon neutrality, we hope that they will participate in the contest by applying various carbon neutrality measures that suit the characteristics of buildings. Through this project, we will discover carbon neutrality best practices for public buildings and lay the foundation for spreading to the private sector."