Affordable green is way to go

From baby steps in 2001, India has come a long way in the green building movement. The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) aims to make India a global leader in energy-efficient buildings by 2025. Earlier last year, India crossed the magical 7 billion sq ft of green building footprint and aims to go past 10 billion sq ft by 2022, potentially seeking to displace the US and China to take pole position.

The 7 billion sq ft green footprint covers 1.4 million homes (1.9 billion sq.ft), over 250 factories, 1,800 offices, 48 townships, 12 cities and even 24 villages. In going green, these have contributed to energy savings of 15,000 MW of energy per million sq ft per annum, reduced Co2 emissions by 12,000 tonnes per million sq ft per annum, brought about savings of 4,50,000 kilo litres of water per million sq ft and diverted 450 tonnes of construction waste from landfills every year, according to IGBC data. CII-IGBC is exploring GreenPro certification for industrial and consumer products/technologies.

Construction cost down

Most green building products are available in India at a competitive price, leading to reduction in cost of construction. By 2025, CII-IGBC estimates that the market potential for green building products/technologies will grow to about $300 billion. The incremental cost of a green building is 2-3 per cent, down from about 15 per cent two decades ago. And the pay-back for additional costs is within 2-3 years.

While the estimates for green buildings and products have been made for 2022 and 2025, their contribution towards the SDGs is likely to be significant by 2030.