It is necessary to sensitise the construction industry as well as the general public on the concept of a green home, as India is getting rapidly and haphazardly urbanised, according to Praveen Kumar Soma, counsellor (green buildings), of Shorabji Godrej Green Business Centre of the CII in Hyderabad.

He was speaking at a session on green buildings at the one-day seminar on emerging trends in construction industry organised here on Thursday by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Visakhapatnam zone. He defined a green home as “one which consumes less water and less energy, conserves natural resources, generates less wastes and provides healthier spaces for the inhabitants,” compared to a conventional home.

Externally, a conventional home and a green home may look alike, but functionally they are different, he remarked. The tangible benefits of a green home, he said, were energy efficiency by 20-30 per cent and water saving by 30-50 per cent.

The intangible benefit was a healthier atmosphere and ambience for the inhabitants. To build a green home, a holistic approach would be required and it should be green in all aspects — site, water, energy, materials and other things. Finding green materials should be the immediate task to be addressed by the industry.

Deepa More, chief consultant of Green Feathers, said a bio-diversity index should be developed by Visakhapatnam like many other growing cities in the world to give its development a proper direction. He said the index, which could be prepared with the assistance of a UN agency, would serve as a self-assessment monitoring tool. She advocated promotion of eco-tourism in Vizag, with proper care of the flora and fauna and nurture of local cultures. “There are disturbing reports that olive ridley turtles are shying away from Vizag coast. Such development is disastrous. Let us take care of the turtles and they will take care of the tourists,” she pleaded.

Blended cements

Shamsundar Mouray, Assistant General Manager of My Home Industries Ltd, said the use of blended cements should be encouraged in construction, as they are more eco-friendly. He said his company had set up a 2-million-tonne cement grinding unit at Elamanchili in Visakhapatnam district, making use of 50,000-60,000 tonnes of slag per month. “We also use one lakh tonnes of flyash a month in our cement units and make use of toxic sludge from pharma units as fuel in our burners in the cement plants. We are doing our bit to mitigate pollution,” he said.

R.V.S Raju, the former chairman of the Vizag zone of the CII, presided over the session. sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

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