With a billion-plus population in its kitty and home to the world’s most polluted cities, India is the 4th largest country in terms of carbon emission. And a major contributor to this problem has always been the real estate sector.
Developing and constructing any project not only consumes a lot of natural resources, but the whole process impacts the ecology of the surroundings in more than one way. It is high time that developers adapt to more eco-friendly ways of construction and planning to come up with Green Buildings.
Green Buildings
The buildings that are created using environment-friendly and energy-efficient methods throughout their lifecycle – right from design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation to deconstruction- can be termed as Green Buildings.
A green building can reduce energy consumption by 20-30%, water usage by 30-50% and reduce waste generation significantly by extensive recycling. Sadly, a very low percentage of the buildings constructed in India was registered for green technology.
Essentials of Green Building:
A building can be called Green Building only when the following criteria are met:
- While construction, preserve the natural environment of the location as much as possible.
- The construction materials must be sourced ethically and be recycled as far as possible. Example: recycled steel, straw bales, etc.
- Designing the buildings in a way to make maximum use of daylight to minimize the use of electricity.
- Special provisions are made for rainwater harvesting.
- Use energy efficient lights and high-performance HVAC equipment and systems to reduce energy use.
- Ensuring good indoor air quality so the use of AC is optimized, without hampering thermal comfort or occupant well-being.
- Use renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, biomass to reduce use and dependency of fossil fuels
As of now, about 800 projects in India are with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a global green building rating system. The system is gaining popularity among affordable housing projects in Kolkata and Hyderabad and is perhaps the most inexpensive of all rating systems, Green Building Certification Inc (GBCI) Managing Director told Money Control.