The government is planning to revise the energy codes for both commercial and residential buildings in order to reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions in the building and construction sector.
“We are expecting that by the end of this year we will have the revised codes. Currently, codes are mandatory for commercial buildings in 25 states and Union Territories. In the amendment act, we have included residential building as well. So residential building code will also become mandatory in future,” Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) director Saurabh Diddi said.
Diddi was speaking at a Call for Action event as part of the Decarbonization Business Charter, a joint effort by WRI India, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), EcoCollab and Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd (MLDL) at the Embassy of Switzerland on Wednesday.
Building and construction industry is responsible for 35-40% of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Currently, Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) is for commercial buildings and Eco Niwas Samhita is the ECBC for residential buildings to promote energy-efficient buildings.
However, the codes are being revised to move beyond just a green building. These will now also look into embedded carbon, net zero and sustainable buildings. ECBC will get converted into Energy Conservation and Sustainability Building Code.
“India is unique in a way as most of the developed countries and even China have fully built their infrastructure, so part of the challenge they face is how to retrofit and improve the energy efficiency or decarbonization of the existing building.
“In another 20 years time, we will double the footprint of residential and commercial buildings that will be in India. We have the opportunity to build it right when the building is getting constructed,” said AEEE president and executive director Satish Kumar.
The Eco Niwas Samhita ECBC for residential buildings was initially drafted with help from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). SDC head Jonathan Demenge spoke about the collaborative initiatives between the governments of Switzerland and India in the decarbonization space.
“We are modifying that code to look at embodied carbon, waste management, water management in building and make it holistic so that we can move towards the net zero codes that are now coming up — net zero energy, waste, carbon, water, and others,” said MLDL head of sustainability Sunita Purushottam.
The next step for developers would be to adopting beyond green building code, which is going towards net zero and this action is an urgent action, she said, adding that only 5% of the buildings in India are green.