But the eco-friendliness is not just restricted to his room. In fact all the interiors of five floors of office space owned by HUDCO in the Habitat Centre buildings have been designed that way. ``We have used material like gypsum, agricultural waste and other such products which do not harm the environment,'' says Suresh.

All the partitions for workstations have been created using phospogypsum board, while the partitions which are 6 ft high and the full length ones have been made with gypsum board. The furniture and cupboards too have been made with agricultural waste boards. ``We have kept the use of wood to a minimum and use these different kinds of material which arenot sourced from forests or other endangered areas,'' says Manju Safaya, assistant chief architect of HUDCO. This agricultural waste board, Nuwud, was a programme that was supported by HUDCO as an alternative to using wood for partitions and furniture.

Of course, HUDCO has to use some wood in its interiors especially for the door frames. ``We have used teakwood but the thickness of the wood is just enough to support the gyp board doors,'' says Safaya. But in the chairman's office the partitions and the furniture are from teak wood. ``But here too we ensured that the amount of wood used was at least 20 per cent lower than most government offices,'' says Safaya.

The flooring too conforms to the norms. Instead of using ceramic tiles or granite, HUDCO offices have floors from tiles made out of granite powder.

The powder waste from the granite quarries is made into tiles by bonding them with a phenol-based adhesive. ``The cost of these tiles is much higher than the usual tiles, but we decided to go for itas they are easy to lay, maintain and are thin and do not add thickness to the flooring,'' says Safaya.

Most of the lights too are the energy-saving bulbs and not the regular fluorescent ones. ``Some of the rooms have good lighting and there is no need for lights during the day as Habitat Centre has been designed in this way,'' says Suresh.

Suresh is now also planning to implement steps to reduce use of paper in the office. Already, instead of sending out office circulars to every employee, announcements are made over the public address system. ``One copy is put on the notice board, too, which is there on every floor,'' says Suresh.

Employees are also being asked to throw their waste paper in separate bins, which are being sent for recycling to Development Alternatives. The NGO will provide HUDCO with stationery, files, memos, etc, on recycled paper. One of the first items of stationery to change to recycled paper was Suresh's letterhead. Soon, most of the stationery will be on only recycled paper, saysSuresh.

HUDCO, for long, has been promoting housing material and projects that are environment-friendly. In fact, Jammu housing project for Kashmiri refugees has been selected for an award for being a completely environment-friendly township, where even the waste water is recycled for garden use. With HUDCO leading from the front on its policy of being a pro-environment company, not surprising then that these same principles are being adopted in their own offices, too.

Beginning this week, The Financial Express on Sunday profiles offices of CEOs, which are eco-friendly.