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No wonder some of the top companies, including ITC, Apollo, Wipro, L&T, Bhel, LG Electronics, ABN Amro, NEG Mecon, Maurya and Claridges hotels are moving into or setting up green buildings. In fact, the number of such buildings in India has been sharply rising. The Indian Green Building Council (IG-BC) has targetted 1,000 buildings by 2010 compared with 140 last year. The area covered by green buildings, existing and under construction, is 67 million sq ft and is expected to grow to 200 million sq ft by 2014. It was 20,000 sq ft in 2003.
Green buildings are essentially rated under a standard called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), developed by the US Green Building Council. Since its debut in 1998, LEED has rated more than 14,000 projects in 32 countries. In India, LEED certification is given by the IGBC. The standard ranks buildings based on management of energy, waste, materials, site and indoor air quality. Under it, the construction has to be environmentally-sustainable.
Take ITC’s Green Centre in Gurgaon, for example, which the visiting US secretary of state Hillary Clinton called a “monument to the future.” The building has cut its water need by 40 per cent by recycling and using rainwater that lands on it. By using bio-blocks in toilets, it saves 300 kilolitres of water every year. It has reduced its energy consumption by 51 per cent. Its insulated glass keeps out heat and lets in natural light. Room sensors detect the number of people present and adjust the cooling.
Says Niranjan Khatri, general manager, WelcomEnviron Initiative of ITC: “While conventional buildings use 630,000 units of energy a year, the Green Centre uses 130,000 units. We have a ‘beyond-compliance policy’, in which we constantly strive to better our eco-initiatives.”
Although green buildings are more expensive to construct, its operating costs are lower. Says Vidur Bharadwaj, director of architecture firm, The 3C Company, “The initial cost of developing a green building is four to five per cent higher, the extra cost can be recovered in two to three years. It saves 40-50 per cent of operating costs and provides a healthier living.”
The biggest challenge for builders is to use materials that are eco-friendly. The basic building blocks — steel, cement, sand and brick — impact the environment during production. Manufacturing one tonne of steel adds nearly 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere. Sand and stone excavations damage riverbanks and hills, resulting in floods and landslides.
Green building technologies and designs help mitigate some of this impact. It includes using internationally accepted technologies such as foam-based thermal insulation, hollow fly-ash bricks, high albedo materials, which reflect sunlight, and low volatile organic compound paints. Cost of green materials is also coming down.
According to Sachin Sandhir, managing director and country head of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the prices of high-performance glass, wall and roof insulation and low volatile organic compound paints are coming down. So are adhesives, sealants, carpets and energy efficient equipment such as in elevators, chillers as well as occupancy sensors. “There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that a green building now costs only 10-15 per cent more compared with 30 per cent higher three years ago,” he said.
Some believe that total cost can even be similar to conventional buildings. Says Apoorv Vij, associate fellow of green building technology at Teri: “a green building can be built at zero additional expenditure if the specifications used by the client are already good. Cost depends on extent of technology and design interventions.”
Green buildings are supposed to follow a convention of four Es – environment-friendly, ecologically appropriate, energy-saving and economic growth, says former Hudco CMD V Suresh. Perhaps, Wipro’s headquarters in Banglore, perhaps meets this standard apart from being rated LEED platinum.
According to information given by the company, Wipro saves Rs 1 crore in power costs annually, or 55 per cent of its consumption. The offices are made up of recycled material – wood for door frames was sourced from an old ship in Jamnagar while the staircase railings came from a flea market. A water body and vegetation in the centre allows evaporative cooling and the building’s insulated rooftops and terrace gardens reduce solar heat. The eight per cent extra cost of construction is expected to be recovered in five years.
According to Manit Rastogi of New Delhi-based architecture firm Morphogenesis, which designed the corporate headquarters of Apollo Tyres in Gurgaon, “The building is designed as a series of bands or ‘striations’, that ensure that all occupants of the building receive enough daylight to make artificial lighting unnecessary. The walls have cavities to capture the heat, not releasing it into the building, thereby keeping it cool.” Terraced gardens also insulate interiors.
The new Claridges hotel at Surajkund in Haryana is an intelligent building using recycled and recyclable materials. “The hotel has an insulated rooftop, recycles water and uses lots of mirrors to reflect natural light inside. We also reuse wasted laundry steam for heating purposes, said Clardiges chief engineer Vijay Sharma. The hotel woule be applying for LEED cerification soon.
Developers are also getting on to the green bandwagon. The Olympia Tech Park in Chennai claims to be the largest gold-rated green building in the country. “There will be at least Rs 7 to Rs 10 direct savings in terms of occupancy cost on a per sq ft basis,” says Ajit Kumar Chordia, managing director, Khivraj Tech Park, the company promoting the 1.3 million sq ft Olympia.
Bangalore-based RMZ is constructing a gold-rated bui-lding in Chennai and a platinum-rated one in Kolkata, both pre-certified by the IGBC, with another four to five such buildings in the pipeline. Its 1.9 million sq ft mall, RMZ Galleria, is coming up in Bangalore as a green development.
So is K Raheja’s Min-dspace projects in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The company is planning to develop around 14.5 million sq ft of green space across the country. Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure’s Palias Royale at Worli and Mittal Builder’s Mittal Gra-ndeur, coming up at Cuffe Parade are the only residential LEED-rated buildings in Mumbai.
Even as several eco-friendly buildings are coming up across the country, the awareness about such buildings is low. Companies are still facing a dearth of designers and construction firms. To meet the demand, there’s need for 5,000 architects. “Even if one per cent of India’s architects became green specialists, it would make a big difference,” says Suresh.
According to the new and renewable energy secretary Deepak Gupta eco-friendliness as an idea has yet to take firm root in the country. “There is a lack of awareness between consumers, architects and developers about the importance and benefits of green buildings,” Gupta says.
That’s true. But more high-profile visits like Hillary Cli-nton’s to green buildings will trigger widespread awareness, and demand for such buildings.
(With inputs from D Govardan)
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