Green Buildings in India: Overview

The Green Building movement started in India in 2001, with the establishment of the Indian Green Building Council (hereafter referred to as IGBC). The IGBC was initiated by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) along with the World Green Building Council and the USGBC. The USGBC is a popular Green rating system which has been adopted by the IGBC to suit the Indian green building requirements. Since then, India has been intensively working on developing Green Projects all over the country right from home projects to LEED certified factory buildings. IGBC data has shown completion of several LEED certified buildings including hotels shopping centers, office spaces and the state infrastructural project such as the Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3 located the capital city of New Delhi.

The first Green Building in India the CII- Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad was completed on July 14^th 2004. Apart from the business of information technology the building makes $137,610.017 through carbon credits earned.

         

    TERI’s (The Energy and Resources Institute) Green Building Rating system GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) is the National rating system of India and  used for the evaluation of the performance of new as well as existing buildings. GRIHA has developed inputs from the codes and guidelines developed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Resources, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India and Bureau of Indian Standards.

The real estate industry is one of the largest emitters of the Greenhouse Gases (Ministry of Power).  Although the Green Building Concept is being widely adopted in India efforts are not enough and more encouragement is required in order boost sustainable development in real estate.

      

     In terms of appearance there is not much difference between green buildings and conventional buildings. . One would wonder as to why one should go in for green construction especially when the cost of construction is higher. But that is a fallacy the cost of construction of Green Building is about 6-20% higher than that of a conventional building. Green Buildings offer certain tangible and intangible benefits. A tangible benefit such as economic advantage is not observed immediately. But over the life of the building the payback is much higher as compared to that offered by the conventional buildings. This is a result of operational cost savings, reduced emissions and a higher capital value. Intangible benefits would include positive impacts of green buildings on the neighborhood environment.

Table: Performance of Green Buildings in India:

Name of the Project	Location	Built up Area	Rating Achieved	Increase in cost (%)	Payback Period
CII- Sorabji Godrej GBC	Hyderabad	20000	Platinum	18	7
ITC Green Centre	Gurgaon	170000	Platinum	15	6
Wipro	Gurgaon	175000	Platinum	8	5
Technopolis	Kolkata	72000	Gold	6	3
Spectral Services Consultants offices	Noida	15000	Platinum	8	4
HITAM	Hyderabad	78000	Silver	2	3
Grundfos Pump	Chennai	40000	Gold	6	3

The above table indicates that the Platinum rated buildings in India have had a higher payback period than the Silver and Gold rated buildings.

      In terms of the use of ecofriendly materials construction is resource efficient and call for the use of green construction materials. As result several local and renewable materials have developed in response to the fact that buildings have often had a negative impact on the environment. These materials ranged from rammed earth construction which involves clay based material mixed with water, to straw houses since straw is a great insulator a breathable material that filters the air passing through it, is fire resistant when compressed and low cost. Hence the Government of India has been encouraging the use of fly ash products as ecofriendly and durable construction material mainly due to the abundance of fly ash reserves available in India. Among the fly ash products available are the cellular light weight concrete blocks that have better strength to weight ratio, reduce dead load resulting in saving of steel and cement, reduce foundation size and provide better  thermal insulation are cost effective and environment friendly and fly ash based  composites can be used as substitute for wood.

From point of view of green construction India has been rather slow in catching up with this trend. However it has shown a significant progress from 64583 square feet in 2004 to 3283000 square feet in 2009. The IGBC is promoting and fostering their construction. The key challenges for development of Green Construction mostly lie in the awareness on the benefits of green buildings, the materials and technology.