“As India makes its international presence felt as a growing economic powerhouse, there is a need for the country to evaluate how it is also perceived by the international community with respect to progressing and developing in the field of sustainable development. In my opinion, GRIHA, the national green building code needs to be promoted on a global scale, not only to generate awareness but also garner recognition from the international community on India’s on-going commitment to address concerns related to energy efficiency, specifically within the built environment.”
Mr. Mike Holland FRICS
CEO, Assetz Property Services, and
Member, RICS India External Affairs Board
Key Recommendations and Suggested Areas of Action
- More focus on passive architecture. The driving principle needs to be low energy consumption followed by low carbon emissions. With the promotion of passive design, approaches for water, heating, and lighting emissions can be reduced by up to 46% in the case of retrofitting and 54% in the case of new buildings.
- Greater focus on residential sector and individual homes. 80% of construction in India is in the residential sector and is responsible for maximum consumption of embodied energy. This highlights a need to promote energy efficient mass housing programmes within the low- and mid-income segments.
- Retrofits of existing buildings. Energy Audit Studies have revealed a savings potential to the extent of 40% in end-use such as lighting, cooling, ventilation, refrigeration, etc. While rating systems such as LEED and GRIHA predominantly focus on new buildings, there is a need for having rating tools for retrofit buildings as well. RICS ‘SKA Ratings’ tool for office fit out projects in the UK market, could help bridge this gap in the Indian market.
- Capacity building and skill development of architects and other building professionals. The science of low carbon buildings is more advanced than our capacity to implement these technologies and designs. It is, therefore, critical to build capacity and train existing professionals – architects, civil engineers and builders – in the techniques and technologies of green buildings. Considering only 2-5% of the total population engages an architect, basic knowledge needs to be imparted to contractors and semi-skilled labourers as well.
- Data collection and monitoring using Information, Communication and Technology (ICT). Indian building sector suffers from a lack of organized data (only anecdotal evidence exists) that demonstrate the cost savings, along with a high degree of unawareness on the potential of ICT to intelligently collate and use building data to reduce energy consumption. More ICT, metering and monitoring mechanisms are needed to demonstrate financial benefits.
- Tools for whole life-cycle costing approach. It is highlighted that there is a lack of tools and evaluation models that enable analysis of life-cycle cost and energy efficiency parameters on the same scale. RICS research ‘Lifecycle Costing on Sustainable Design’ aimed to address this gap has uncovered many different approaches in the evaluation of sustainable options on a life-cycle cost basis and recommends areas of further research.
- Value of sustainability. Not all aspects of sustainability translate easily or demonstrably into market value, yet they nevertheless exist. To promote investments in sustainable development, a method needs to be established for the explicit statement of value for money in the context of sustainability. RICS research titles – ‘Doing Well by Doing Good’, ‘Effect of Eco-Labeling on Office Occupancy Rates’; ‘Is Sustainability Reflected in Commercial Property Prices’, are starting to address this gap.
- Awareness building campaigns and knowledge sharing forums are important. There is a need for knowledge transfer across stakeholders from the design to completion stage for greater understanding of the need for energy efficiency and associated savings. In the regard, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is working on supporting capacity building and awareness generation programmes. Awareness generation through development of web-based tools, e-learning modules, is also planned.
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