New Delhi: Imagine working in an office that uses sunlight instead of artificial lights for illumination and that has in place central air conditioning instead of the split or window air conditioners.
In an increasing revolt against over-urbanization, companies are opting for eco-friendly options.
The concept of environment-friendly buildings, or green buildings as they are popularly known, is catching on in India. While the green building movement has been around globally since the 1970s, it has picked up momentum in India only in the last couple of years.
The ITC Centre in Gurgaon has got a platinum ranking from the US Green Building Council. The council rates buildings as silver, gold or platinum based on certain parameters such as water and energy efficiency
A green building essentially uses better design and construction material to minimize the consumption of power and water within the building. Such buildings are eco-friendly and energy-efficient. But in most case, the external appearance of green buildings does not differ very much from that of normal buildings.
Green buildings are steadily increasing their footprint in India with an increase from 6,000 sq. m of green space in 2003 to 304,800 sq. m expected by the end of 2008, according to the Indian Green Building Council, which is promoting the green building movement in India.
The first green building in India was the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad. Kolkata’s Technopolis lays claim to be the country’s first green building for information technology.
A mix of green building projects is coming up in the country, which includes residential, commercial and hotel properties. As cities get hemmed in by concrete buildings and green spaces rapidly disappear, companies are looking at green buildings to do their bit for the environment. In turn, some of them can earn carbon credits for the clean buildings.
“Corporates feel that they are fulfilling corporate social responsibility by opting to make their buildings eco-friendly,” says Varun Pahwa, assistant vice-president of Desiccant Rotors International Pvt. Ltd, which supplies green building materials.
“Also, as green buildings use less power and water, the cost of running the building is less.”
There are other ways in which such buildings pay off.
Technopolis, for example, makes money through trading carbon credits—about Rs75 lakh a year. Technopolis is also the first green building in the world to be registered under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as a clean development mechanism project. The clean development mechanism allows companies to obtain carbon credits for initiating projects that reduce carbon dioxide emissions while enhancing sustainable development in countries.