The objective of green buildings is to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment. Though its concept is being rapidly popularized in India, there are still a few hurdles that prevent mass scale adoption by project developers.
The aim of a green building design is to minimize the demand on non-renewable resources, maximize the utilization efficiency of these resources, when in use, and maximize the reuse, recycling, and utilization of renewable resources. India has seen strong economic growth in recent years. In 2007, its gross domestic product was US$1.1 trillion on a nominal basis.
Construction is a major economic driver in India.According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the buildings sector accounted for the largest share of India’s final energy use between 1995 and 2005. In 2005, this sector consumed 47% of the total final energy use. Residential buildings accounted for the lion’s share (93%) of the total building energy use the same year. However to steer global commerce onto a more sustainable path; the green, energy efficient building concept can prove invaluable for India and need to be addressed with a more collaborative approach.
Steps towards sustainable path 
Recognizing that energy use and air pollution are important issues in India’s buildings, Indian government enacted the Energy Conservation Act (ECA 2001), which promotes energy efficiency and conservation domestically. ECA 2001 mandated the creation of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), authorizing BEE to establish an Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC). Under BEE, National Building Code of India (NBC) first issued in 2005, but the issues of energy efficiency were marginally addressed.
However, in 2007, the Ministry of Power and BEE issued ECBC —the first stand alone national building energy code in India. While it is currently voluntary, ECBC establishes minimum energy efficiency requirements for building envelope, lighting, HVAC, electrical system, water heating and pumping systems. To develop ECBC, BEE collaborated with a diverse group of domestic and international technical experts.
Nonprofit organizations like The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) are actively promoting green buildings in India. Promotion for a whole-building approach to sustainability by addressing performance in the following five areas:
- Sustainable site development
- Water savings
- Energy efficiency
- Materials selection
- Indoor environmental quality.
In addition, LEED-India has adopted several benchmarks for building performance. The rating levels “Platinum,” “Gold,” “Silver,” and “Certified” indicate the extent to which a building excels the requirements of the national codes.
Over last few years, IT/ITeS has been the primary contributor in the acceptance and development of ‘go green’ philosophy. A case in point is Turbo Energy Limited’s (TEL) R&D and Administration block in Paiyanur, Chennai, which has been certified by LEED as the greenest building in India and 2nd greenest in the world. Other prominent green projects would include ITC Green Centre (Gurgaon), IGP Office Complex (Bengaluru), Kalpataru Square (Mumbai) and CII-Godrej Green Business Centre (Hyderabad), though the concept is yet to catch on a wider basis. Also a key supportive role is shown by India’s biggest bank, SBI is offering concessions on constructing green developments (lower upfront margin up to 5-10%, and reduction in interest rate by 0.25%) that could start similar trend across industry.
Some challenges in mass scale adoption of sustainable architecture in India 
With recent drive initiated by private and government stakeholders, green building development is expected to pick up momentum in India as illustrated in a survey by DTZ showing one million square feet of land down under green concept under different benchmarks specified by LEED. But along with these milestones there are some hurdles in the path of energy conservation addressed below which are to be resolved.
First and foremost requirement is the implementation of ECBC.Till now, ECBC is currently voluntary, but in the future, either the central or state governments should decide to adopt it as a mandatory standard. No states have adopted it yet. BEE is working closely with national and state-level government agencies to promote ECBC.Once ECBC becomes mandatory at either the central or state level, one can assume that the implementation and enforcement approach will be similar to that employed for other mandatory building codes.
- Lack of seriousness and leadership
All these initiatives towards conservation measures taken by the government remained as an appendix to the long term energy policy (if there was any!). All the measures taken were reactive to certain events, not proactive by nature. The establishment of the BEE in March 2002, coincided with the Rio+10 summits at Johannesburg. Moreover, even after three years of its formation, BEE remained almost non operational. Until September 2005, it did not even have a full time head!
A more mobility is needed from administration side so that long term goal for India as an energy efficient, developed economic giant can be traced on realistic grounds even if in short term we have to pay for it.
- Awareness for global Marketing needs
Signs of improvement in the energy intensity figures were only observed with the opening up of the economy during the last one and half decades. Increased competition both at home and abroad, has compelled the business leaders to look into alternative options to save energy cost. In this new century, when most of the industries were gearing up to boost exports, they realized that the cost of energy was robbing off their competitive edge in the international market.
In India, the cost of power has escalated three fold in the last ten years. This probably can explain better why the green buildings which are estimated to reduce energy cost by 40% are likely to be the fighting front in the global markets.
- Addressing with economics perspective
Arnulf Grubler recently wrote in Environment, “To minimize environmental impacts by significant orders of magnitude requires the blending of good engineering with good economics as well as changing consumer preferences. Recent experiences, provides a valuable lesson on how to avoid the common pitfall of “green buildings myopia. While noble, the benefits of the concept appealed to only the deepest green niche of consumers.The vast majority of consumers, however, will ask, “If I use ‘green’ building concept, what’s in it for me?” In practice, green appeals are not likely to attract mainstream consumers unless they also offer a desirable benefit, such as cost-savings or improved product performance.
Conclusion
Therefore, ways to fulfill consumer needs and interests beyond what is good for the environment are needed to be deciphered. Efforts in crafting effective green marketing and product strategies are the leading ways to achieve the concept. Moving on, it is expected that the trend of green building would see better acceptance and implementation in India, but a collaborative approach not only from the government perspective but from the industries, real estate firms, nonprofit organizations and most importantly from the general mass is required to blow away the tag of energy inefficient country from India.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building
http://www.igbc.in/site/igbc/index.jsp
http://www.igbc.in/site/igbc/tests.jsp?event=22869
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Environmental_Design
http://mnes.nic.in/website-green-buildings/national-rating-system-green-buildings-GRIHA.pdf
Image(s) Courtesy:
Bindaas Madhavi
g_gauri
sarah abel
Shumon Huque
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