The building industry is achieving a new first in Bangalore with a campus of 100-plus homes securing Carbon Credits for all its resident families. City-based Building Technology Company, Biodiversity Conservation India Limited (BCIL), has launched a project, ‘BCIL Collective’, which offers several new features and benefits to customers that reduce carbon dioxide emission, both in the building process and later in routine life in these homes.

Explaining the immense significance of the project, Mr Chandrashekar Hariharan, CEO, BCIL, said, “The carbon values are mapped on the basis of the differential in carbon emission between regular materials used in the building industry for building blocks, for air-conditioning, and for natural daylighting, among other things. The carbon matrices are certified by professional consulting bodies that help position the ‘carbon credit’ on the world market. Price for such carbon tonnage varies from USD 10 to 12.”

Located in Yelahanka, off the Doddaballapur main road, BCIL Collective offers around 120 homes with an average of under 40 homes to an acre, against the market norm of over 65 to 90 homes (to an acre). The lesser density translates to greater security for residents on water availability into the far future. The energy back-up is planned to be fuelled by biofuels, Hariharan said.

Energy efficient

The homes are being built with not a single brick, clay tile or burnt clay block being used — because all three materials are energy-intensive in manufacture, apart from using precious top soil that threatens agriculture. This project also uses energy-efficient building blocks that reduce heat gain in every house.

“Mainstreaming sustainability is the challenge before all of us, into the future,” Hariharan said. “We believe that BCIL Collective will be an example for the industry to emulate, in creating sustainable urban settlements.”

Anup Naik, architect, BCIL, said dependence on urban infrastructure was going to come down drastically, specially in this case, with a 40% reduction in power bills and 100% fresh air systems. A unique feature at this residential campus are the low-maintenance, low-cost energy-saving ‘air-conditioning’ systems that are ecologically sustainable. The air conditioning system at BCIL Collective is a combination of earth tunnel ventilation, night cooling systems as well as ‘a forced ventilation system’ called ‘Stack Effect’. All of these are simple in creation and high on energy saving and comfort brought to every home.

 “The design of the campus also ensures that all families are encouraged to grow a few patches of vegetables (greens, gourds, legumes, tubers and corn among cereals), which are organic, and produced in controlled, micro-irrigated land patches in the campus under a one-of-its-kind Zero Food Miles programme.” Hariharan added, “When you buy vegetables that have travelled 100 to 500 km to reach the marketplace, it all adds to the transportation energy of the food. This is a small but significant initiative that heralds portents of the future.” It would also be possible to grow 7 tonnes of vegetables per annum, he said.

Global solutions

BCIL homes are about building systems and designs that address global warming solutions with a proactive approach. Campus lighting, for instance, is done with a combination of CFL and LED lighting systems, with no incandescent lamps, fluorescent tubes or halogen bulbs used anywhere in the campus, said Mr Harsha Sridhar, senior architect at BCIL. Homes offer automation that save energy for every user. The energy saved with such sustainable architecture values means that every home saves about 30 to 70 per cent on different energy appliances.

Grow your own water’ is another technology employed at BCIL Collective. This ensures that residents do not have a water crisis anytime in the long-term future. Central to this plan is treatment systems that reuse 70 per cent of the water needs for house and campus water needs.

BCIL Collective has designed other elements at the project in a manner that they lead to a softer ecological footprint in the process of construction. Even the commonplace taps and showers offer a staggering saving of 35,000 litres a year for every home, without compromise on comfort for the user, with use of carefully designed aerators and water flow devices. Homes offer competitively priced wood flooring options that are certified ‘green and sustainable’. There is recycled stone grit plaster on all external surfaces, that reduces the building’s maintainance cost. While there is gypsum based plaster from inside, stamped concrete floor finish ensures a solid foundation.

BCIL Collective is one of several such projects that BCIL has created over the last 13 years. The company has won many awards for sustainable architecture over the years.

Biodiversity Conservation (India) Limited is an alternate technology enterprise dedicated to creative ‘green’ solutions for urban living. BCIL has grown from Rs 20 million in 1995 to Rs 800 million in 2008, offering housing solutions that are pioneering, and demonstrable models for the future. It is more a prototype company, with building innovations that raise environment thresholds with every new project it creates. From 20 homes in a year, BCIL has grown to 150 houses a year in 2007, all of them with no compromise on the green values.

BCIL mainstreams ecologically sustainable real estate options for urban home-buyers — with focus on localised energy generation; water solutions that reduce/eliminate dependence on State infrastructure; waste management systems that ensure residential communities take responsibility for responsible disposal or reuse.

BCIL is also into creation of green tourism destinations that are grid-free on energy, water-positive in the long term, and built with building methods and values that are energy-efficient and offering the best in urban convenience.

BCIL's firsts

*No bricks, no clay blocks or clay tiles used for all construction. ‘BCIL Collective’ is built with energy-efficient building materials.

* Ecologically sustainable air-conditioning & lighting systems — save about 30 to 70 per cent on various electrical appliances ranging from ACs, home lighting, campus lighting, and water heating.

*Designed to save 35,000 litres of water per home per year; treatment systems reuse 70 per cent water. Fresh water need is reduced by about 40 per cent; amounts to about 40,000 litres saved per family per year.

* Organic vegetables with Zero-Food-Miles as a demonstrative model for the future