Green buildings take strong root in India

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: The construction industry in India is the largest sector after agriculture, contributing around 7% of India’s GDP. The sector is predicted to grow at a rate of over 10% per annum for the next five years, against the world average of 5.5%. This means construction of over 12 million homes, 600 shopping malls, 80 million sq ft of offices and 200 townships, along with airports, hotels, hospitals and schools, by 2010. However, the boom in its wake has damaged the environment. Thus, it is very important to design and build green buildings.

The concept of green buildings is not really new, though the terminology green may be nascent. The three top reasons often cited by occupants of these buildings worldwide are:

Operational savings: Green buildings may consume up to 40% less energy and 20-30 % less water vis-a-vis conventional buildings. This comes at an incremental cost of about 5-8 %, which gets paid back in 3-5 years.

Daylights and views: According to various studies, working in an environment with access to daylight and outside views increases the productivity of people by 12-15 %.

Air quality: Green buildings are always fresh and healthy as they use materials with low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions.

Another prevailing perception is that green buildings take more time for construction. But thanks to the green building movement, now there is absolutely no difference in the time involved in constructing a green building vis-à-vis a conventional building.

The green building movement gained tremendous momentum during the past 3-4 years since the CII-Godrej GBC embarked on achieving the prestigious LEED rating for its own centre in Hyderabad.

Along with using natural resources, green buildings also use efficient electrical and mechanical systems for minimum energy consumption. This increasing energy demand can only be achieved by designing building envelopes to reduce heat transfer by conduction and solar radiation and with the correct building orientation and use of natural ventilation as far as possible. However, all buildings need out-side air for ventilation, which increases the air-conditioning load and thus energy costs. Incorporation of energy recovery systems can account for about 30-45% of the total energy consumption of a building.