JOIN USGreen landmarks
Energy-efficient green buildings are all the rage across the country. The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) which is part of CII- Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, is actively involved in promoting the concept of green buildings in the country.
Stakeholders of the construction industry comprising corporate, government and nodal agencies, architects, product manufacturers and institutions are all part of the IGBC.
The council operates on a consensus based approach and member-driven.
The vision of the council is to usher in the green building revolution in India to ensure that the country becomes one of the world leaders in green buildings by 2015.
What’s a green building?
A green building is one which uses less water, optimises energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building.
In terms of the number of green buildings in the country, Maharashtra ranks as the leading state with over 221 projects creating a footprint of over 154 mn sq ft.
Mumbai is the leading city with over 143 projects creating a footprint of over 102 mn sq ft.
Till date, the IGBC has 800 registered green building projects amounting to over 500 million sq. ft of green building footprint, of which 125 buildings are certified and fully functional.
Some of the landmark green buildings in Bangalore include:
* ITC Hotel, The Royal Gardenia, Bangalore
* T-ZED Homes, Bangalore
* IMTMA, Bangalore
Today, Bangalore has over 65 green building projects amounting to a footprint of over 33 mn sq.ft The most well-known green buildings in the country include:
* CII-Godrej GBC, Hyderabad
* Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Building, Chennai
* ITC Green Centre, Gurgaon
* Wipro, Kochi
* ITC Royal Gardenia, Bangalore
Ratings
The two key ratings for green buildings are LEED-India (The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System and GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment)
LEED-India is a nationally and internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
This rating recognises performance in the following five key areas:
* Sustainable site development
* Water savings
* Energy efficiency
* Materials selection and
* Indoor environmental quality
GRIHA was introduced by TERI and later used by the government too, to rate green buildings. Among the key certified projects developed by GRIHA include the Centre for Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building, IIT Kanpur; and Suzlon One Earth, Pune.