Analysis of green buildings in India

Abstract

Conventional Buildings have significant adverse environmental footprints over their entire lifecycle such as depletion of water, ground cover and energy resources. They constitute the second biggest source of GHG emissions (almost 40%) and contribute heavily to environmental pollution during construction and operation phase. Occupants use water continuously and consume energy for heating, lighting, space conditioning. On the other hand, green buildings cause very minimal depletion of resources throughout their lifespan while increasing the resource utilisation efficiency. They reduce the demand on scarce non-renewable natural resources by using less energy, water and generates less waste. Green Buildings are about cleaner environment and healthier living, thus optimising local ecology, use of local materials and while simultaneously cutting down material requirements. According to TERI, if all Buildings in urban areas start using green Building concepts, India can potentially conserve more than 8400 MW of power which is sufficient to meet power requirements of half of Delhi or over 5.5 lakh homes a year.