Green Buildings Lure Premium Buyers

Green seems to be the latest buzzword in the construction industry. “There are 1,046 green projects currently underway across India,” said Shabbir Kanchwala, vice-president, project coordination, K Raheja Corp, which is developing six commercial green projects in Mumbai. “Spaces in these buildings cost marginally more than regular projects.”

“Today a green property is priced 2-25% higher, depending on the rating,” said Gulam Zia, national director, research, Knight Frank. “The ratings are based on guidelines set out by Leed-India, run by the Indian Green Building Council and based on a system developed by TERI and the ministry of new and renewable energy.”

As recently as 2000, buyers had to pay about 30-40% higher for green buildings.

“Though the initial cost for developing a green building may be higher than that of conventional buildings, the long-term benefits are many. This extra cost can be recovered in 2-3 years through energy savings and low maintenance costs,” said Brotin Banerjee, managing director and CEO, Tata Housing.

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Source: Hindustan Times, 2011-04-25, Link

Green building space at 648 mln sq ft

The country’s green building space has been growing exponentially since 2003 when it started with a registered green built-up area of 20,000 sft to the current level of 648 million sft. The figures suggest an average of 40-fold increase each year over the last eight years.

According to S Raghupathy, who heads the CII Godrej Green Business Centre (GBC) here, India now has a variety of certified and registered green buildings including airports, convention centres, hospitals, hotels, banks, factories and government buildings.

Green buildings save 40-50 per cent in energy and 20-30 per cent of water. Among intangible benefits are enhanced ventilation, better views and day lighting.

India currently has 1,050 registered green buildings and 147 certified ones, the CII Godrej GBC said in a release on Friday (April 22), which is observed as the Earth Day worldwide.


Raghupathy said green buildings are financially attractive. “For a platinum rated green building, the construction cost would be five to eight per cent higher but the incremental cost gets paid back in three-four years,” he said.


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Source: Business Standard, 2011-04-25, Link

Maharashtra Considers More incentives to Green Buildings

Committed to promoting green homes in the state, the Maharashtra government is considering various incentives and subsidies, including granting extra floor space index (FSI), to green projects, a top official said here Friday.

"We have many plans to encourage green homes, by giving both financial and non-financial incentives to these projects. We will give top priority in giving environmental clearances to green projects," said Valsa R. Nair Singh, the state's environment secretary.

The government would also announce reduction in the consent fee for green buildings and in some cases, even waive it altogether, Nair Singh said at a conference on eco-friendly projects, organised by the Indian Green Buildings Council (IGBC).

The government would also give a longer duration of consent validity for such green buildings, she added.

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Source: TwoCircles, 2011-04-09, Link 

Iconic Buildings Change the Skyline of India

The skylines of India's major cities are changing fast as iconic new office buildings and luxury apartment blocks serve the burgeoning business elite.

In Chennai, an office complex shaped like six giant butterflies with a central spine will soon house 24,000 employees of Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest technology firm.

The huge glass and steel structure, called the Siruseri complex, cost $500 million and includes water features, landscaped gardens with 146 kinds of trees, solar panels and has a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Chandra Sekaran, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, said: "It represents our scale, it represents the aspiration of our people, it represents the success of the Indian IT industry. It represents the future.

"Many of our customers who visit here for the first time are absolutely awed and impressed by what we have been able to achieve."

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Source: CNN, 2011-04-07, Link

New Delhi Airport Terminal Achieves LEED-Gold Rating

The Indian Green Building Council has awarded the vast Terminal 3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport LEED-Gold certification for new construction.

Built in just 37 months, the 5.4 million-square-foot integrated domestic and international terminal opened in July 2010 and is designed to handle as many as 34 mln travelers a year, more than doubling the facility's previous capacity.

Indira Gandhi International is the second largest airport in India and the eighth largest in the world. Designed by HOK International, Terminal 3 is the first airport building in the country to receive a LEED-Gold rating. Earlier, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad received a LEED-Silver rating.

Terminal 3 at the international airport in Delhi emphasizes natural light, construction materials and interior finishes with high recycled content and battery-operated vehicles for transporting travelers between terminals.

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Source: GreenBiz.com, 2011-04-07, Link

Need for re-look at Green Building Rating Systems

Buildings, accounting for 30-40 per cent of global energy use, are known to be energy guzzlers. In India, buildings account for 30% of total energy consumption. With growing concerns about the increasing energy water and material use in the building sector, green building movement started in early 90s in US and Europe. However in India, it gained momentum in India a few years back only.



A green building is an outcome of a design which focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use – energy, water and materials – while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment through better sitting, design, construction, operation, maintenance and removal. In India, a few rating systems exist currently which assesses the building design and operation on different categories like energy consumption, water consumption, material use, air quality etc. Depending on the measures taken, points are awarded under each category. Points obtained under each category are further added to arrive at the total points, which decide the final green building rating.

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Source: IndiaInfoOnline, 2010-03-04, Link

ITC's Hotel Royal Gardenia Becomes the World's Largest LEED Platinum Rated Green Hotel

ITC's new luxury hotel in Bengaluru, the ITC Hotel Royal Gardenia was conferred the highest rating for green buildings in the world - the LEED India Platinum Rating. This recognition makes it the world's largest platinum rated hotel and is yet another manifestation of ITC's leadership in Sustainability Practices. ITC is the only company in the world to be carbon positive, water positive and solid waste recycling positive.

The LEED Platinum Rating for the ITC Hotel is one more green milestone close on the heels of the ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon which was the world's first largest green building. This Centre was chosen by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to announce her vision on Indo-US collaboration on Climate Change during her last visit to India. After a tour of the building she called it the "Monument to the Future". ITC's exemplary commitment to green practices have also enabled its hotel in Kolkata - the ITC Hotel Sonar - to be the only hotel in the world to earn carbon credits. In keeping with the ITC Commitment to the "Triple Bottomline" philosophy, ITC Hotels has aspired to be an 'exemplar' in the service sector and truly provides leadership to positive environmental action in a sustainable manner.

The ITC Royal Gardenia is an inclusive blend of contemporary design and international green practices, a beacon in a bustling urban environment. Built on the ethos of "Responsible Luxury" the hotel has adopted contemporary 'Green Practices' that harness the element of nature in an inspired setting to deliver unique guest experiences.

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Source: PRNewsire, 2009-12-24, Link

IGBC's Workshop On Energy Simulation

The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US, is organising a two-day software training workshop on “Energy Simulation” at Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.

The objective of this workshop is to introduce EnergyPlus to users who are familiar with the basic concepts of HVAC systems and energy simulation.

The course will cover the mechanics of using EnergyPlus with an emphasis on basic concepts that provide a foundation for more advanced applications. Time for question and answers will be provided for each topic.

The target audience includes LEED facilitators, architects, designers, HVAC consultants, mechanical engineers, building engineers/researchers and Thermal Engineers. The faculty includes experts from National and NREL, US, on Energy Simulation.

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Source: Business Line, 2009-12-13, Link

KBL's Office is India's 2nd Greenest Building

Kirloskar Brothers Ltd's (KBL) new corporate office - Yamuna - at Baner, in Pune has qualified as ‘Platinum’ rated green building – the highest level of LEED certification. This is the second greenest building of the country.

Occupying an area of 12,000 square meters, ‘Yamuna’ is aesthetically designed and has ergonomic furniture with an open plan office to provide maximum comfort while working. Landscape terraces, atriums with indoor plants and the use of glass provide a scenic view to people at work. This is a major stress buster. A well equipped café serving hygienic and nutritious food, medical facilities with a doctor within the premises, intelligent firefighting equipment helps boost productivity of employees. Other amenities like an auditorium, library, a well equipped gymnasium, badminton court, swimming pool and an amphi-theater open up opportunities for employee engagement and networking. The building provides working space for approximately 500 people abiding to the KBL’s people policy of gender balance.

Source: Construction Week Online, 2009-12-11, Link

Going Green, Brick by Brick

India is witnessing tremendous growth in infrastructure development. Hence, the need to minimise use of natural resources for the buildings construction and their associated impact on environment. 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.”

The green measures adopted by the recently constructed green buildings include preservation and reuse of fertile top soil, reduced building footprints, central courtyards, day lighting, ventilation, roof gardens to reduce heat-island impact, use of treated grey water for irrigation and air conditioning cooling water makeup, root-zone treatment for wastewater, efficient envelope, use of energy efficient air-conditioning systems, on-site renewable energy, wind towers, monitoring procedures, post-occupancy, careful handling of construction waste, use of materials with recycled content, resource reuse, use of paints, sealants and adhesives with low VOC and resource reuse.

The Green Building movement in India is pioneered by the CII- Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The vision of the council is to usher in a green building movement in India and to become one of the global leaders in green buildings by 2012. With a modest beginning of 20,000 ft2 green built-up area in the country in 2003, today 436 green buildings with a built-up area 312 mn ft2 are being constructed all over India, of which 54 are certified green buildings. Prominent ones include the CII-GBC, Hyderabad, ITC Green Centre, Gurgaon, Grundfos Building in Chennai and Wipro in Gurgaon among others.

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Source: The Financial Express, 2009-12-06, Link

Green buildings rapidly evolving as best design standard

PANELLING MADE from plastic waste, wood recycled from old ships, carpets of recycled plastic and CO2 monitors that regulate the proportion of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the room. These are just a handful of things you are likely to encounter if you walk into the ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon or the Patni Knowledge Centre in Noida, alongside more ‘conventional’ green measures like solar panels and fully day-lit office spaces. These two buildings , along with a few others across the country, have been among the early adopters of the green building movement in the country; a direct result of the increasing awareness on sustainability.

Quiz most people on why they are greening their buildings, and you can be guaranteed that the answer will touch upon them wanting to do their bit to save the earth and trying to cut down on emissions. So one tends to sit up and take notice when Anirudh Patni says, “We started going green because it makes imminent business sense. Using green intelligently can be beneficial to the bottomline.” The senior vice-president for strategy and corporate development at Patni Computer Systems says the company’s green spaces also make for healthier employees, directing impacting productivity.

A green building, by definition, is one which conserves natural resources, is energy efficient, and a healthier space for its occupants as compared to a conventional building. In India, the green building movement has been pioneered by CII which set up the Indian Green Building Council in 2001 at the behest of then US President Bill Clinton. “We decided that the headquarters of the CII-Green Building Centre in Hyderabad would be housed in a green building that would showcase all the different technologies which could be used in such a building,” says Jamshyd Godrej, chairman, CIISohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre.

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Source: Economic Times, 2009-11-27, Link

Asia Enjoys The Highest Growth In Green Building Market

Indian and Chinese building sectors are the major growth drivers in this region. The Chinese building market is chiefly driven by demand for commercial building space. The commercial office buildings with an area between 100,000 and 150,000 square meters and residential developments spanning across more than 500,000 square meters of construction area will be in demand in China over the next 15 years. A growing market combined with favorable government policies mark the Asia-Pacific region as the next growth driver for the global green building industry in the coming years.

Green buildings help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through low consumption of energy. The global carbon offset trading market stood at around US $100 billion in 2008. Globally, buildings account for 39% of total energy usage and 38% of the carbon dioxide emissions. Green buildings use 30% lesser energy than the conventional buildings and thus help to reduce CO2 emissions. Reduction of each ton of CO2 will lead to generation of one Certified Emission Reduction (CER) valued at around US $16 in the United States and around US $22 in Europe.

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Source: PR Log, 2009-10-21, Link

Goa May Soon See Green Infrastructure

Architects, planners and others with green caps and fingers are unveiling a plan to promote use of green principles for eco-friendly infrastructure, necessitated by climate change.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII, Goa) and Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) Goa chapter have initiated a joint effort towards creating a cell in Goa to promote green buildings for housing, industries and commercial sector. "We are working on the building design, incorporating the green concept and doing computer test models to ensure that the buildings are really energy-saving before we actually build them," said Dean D'Cruz, architect and former chairman of IIA (Goa chapter).

Conceding that awareness is just building up in Goa at the moment, D'Cruz said research shows that conventional buildings consume 40% of the energy used on earth. "If we are to address the issue of climate change, green buildings are important for Goa," he explained. Raya Shankhwalker, a Panaji-based architect, said that "in Goa, nothing is being done on an organized level, but as a private initiative some architects are consciously moving towards the green building concept".

As a first step, Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) is trying to set up its Goa cell with assistance from Goa chapters of CII and IIA. "IGBC has been successfully nationally and if the Goa chapter is set up it will help in spreading the green building concept," Shankhwalker said.

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Source: The Times of India, 2009-10-15, Link

Green Building On The Rise In India

Green building development has gained momentum in India despite global economic slowdown, with its supply rising manifold to 6.8 million sq ft in the last seven years, a study said.

“The supply of green space has seen substantial jump from 20,000 sq ft in 2002 to 6.8 million sq ft in 2009,” property consultant DTZ said in a report.

The total supply of green space has increased to 6.8 million square ft till September from 3.8 million square ft in early 2007, mostly contributed by IT/ITeS sector, the report said.

Green buildings are designed to have a longer life-cycle, and help conserve natural resources such as water, while consuming minimal power and energy.

“The concept of green building development in the country has witnessed a sustained momentum despite the overall weakening macroeconomic environment, witnessed in the last one year,” the consultant said.

The supply of green space has been contributed by various industrial segments but IT/ITeS sector contributed the maximum at 58 per cent of the total supply in the country, it said.

The report highlighted that Turbo Energy R&D and administrative block in Paiyanur, Chennai, has been certified by globally renowned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) as the greenest building in India.

Other prominent green projects include ITC Green Centre (Gurgaon), CII-Godrej Green Business Centre (Hyderabad) and Kalpataru Square (Mumbai).

Source: Hindu Business Line, 2009-10-11, Link

India Gears Up to Reduce Carbon Footprint

While, policy makers around the world are negotiating an effective post 2012 international framework to deal with climate change, many Indian companies under stewardship of CII are adopting technologies, practices and approaches that will help to build a carbon constrained economy. Most of the Indian companies have been adopting carbon mitigation actions to reduce their cost and gain reputation and a competitive edge.

Through the services of its centres of excellence - the Green Business Centre in Hyderabad and Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Development, New Delhi, CII has been able to contribute to an emission reduction of 44,29,000 MT of CO2 per annum. Both the Centres have been providing key services such as energy audit, energy management, green building consultancy, water management, technology incubation, renewable energy services among others towards building increased climate responsiveness amongst the Indian Industry.

In the Green Building space, CII has successfully facilitated certification of several LEED Platinum rated buildings, which are now being built across India. As a remarkable commitment, K Raheja (a real-estate developer) has proposed all his future projects to be LEED certified. MNC's like HSBC, ABN, AMRO, WalMart, Microsoft, Gillette and Carrefour among others are opting for green complexes in India. The available statistics indicate that over 45 million sq.ft. of green building space has already been registered, while the target is of 1 billion sq.ft. of registered space by 2012.

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Source: CommodityOnline, 2009-09-29, Link

Tata Housing to Unveil New Low-Cost Housing

Tata Housing Development Company, the realty arm of the Tata Group of companies, is set to launch a new scheme, titled New Haven, in the affordable housing segment. This follows the company's successful launch in May of low-cost apartments in Mumbai under the brand Subh Griha.

The new project will be launched at Boisar in Mumbai.

It will offer 1,300 apartments, including two-and-three-bedroom apartments.
These would be available in the price range of Rs 12.73 lakh to Rs 26.22 lakh and size range of 670 sq ft to 1,380 sq ft, a company's statement said on Thursday.

New Haven will set up a pan-India presence across Tier-I and Tier-II cities. Like all other properties of Tata Housing, New Haven will also be constructed under the guidance of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).

Source: India Today, 2009-09-25, Link

Eco-friendly Buildings Gaining New Ground In India

India's expanding real estate sector is posing a major threat to the environment. But there is hope as more and more people are becoming aware of the need to design eco-friendly buildings.

Leh is a remote mountainous region in the Himalayas with freezing temperatures throughout the year. Children studying in a school there are lucky to receive warm sunrays all through the day.

The "green school", as it is called, uses solar panels to trap sunlight from all directions. It is also designed to withstand earthquakes.

Jack Armitage, architect of Druk White Lotus School, said: "We use woodwork construction for the inner skin of the cavity walls. The solar panels were installed last year. The school is now running on those solar panels, so we don't have to rely on the grid. It is very good for the environment, too."

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Source: Channelnewsasia, 2009-09-22, Link

Green Building Grabs Eyeballs

Among many projects displayed in the three-day property show, Gujarat's first green residential building in the affordable housing category has attracted many people. The green project has also addressed the possible parking problem looming over many existing building with the launch of common man's dream Nano car.

For the first time in the state, the developers have come out with a solution with multi-level basement parking facilities for around 350 dwelling units situated in four 12-storeyed towers in Motera. Of the 17,000 sq yard area of the project (Solaris), 75 per cent land has been kept open for adequate ventilation to each housing unit and to provide lush green landscaping garden, children play area, club house among other facilities, said Jaxay Shah, developer of the scheme. "Instead of using normal bricks made of soil, we will use flyash bricks. Installation of sewage treatment plant for the recycling of water will be used for maintaining landscaping. Top solid conservation for deck gardens and water meters will add value to the green concept," said Shah.

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Source: The Times of India, 2009-09-13, Link

Kolkata Gets its First Green Building

The first commercial green building with international standards in Kolkata — Infinity Benchmark— tailor-made for the needs of IT and ITES industry, is ready to house national and multinational biggies with high saving on energy front.

Infinity Benchmark, inaugurated on Friday in Salt Lake Sector V, the hub of Bengal’s IT sector, has about 5,60,000 sq feet of space spread over 20 floors.

It is the second green building outside the US and the seventh in the world to get a platinum rating by the renowned US Green Building Council under the LEED Core and Sheel Version 2.0.

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Source: ExpressIndia, 2009-08-29, Link

Bajaj Electricals Forays into Green Building Solutions

"A green building uses less energy, water and natural resources, creates less waste and is healthier for the people living inside compared to a standard building" as defined by Indian Green Building Council.

Bajaj Electricals, through its Luminaires division, has introduced Green Building Solutions, a conscious effort to minimize the adverse effects of modernization on the global environment. The diversified and distinct green building solutions come from the use of modern lighting systems, both interior and exterior. These lighting systems act not only as energy savers, but also keep a watchful eye on environment pollution.

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Source: MyNews.in, 2009-08-20, Link