An eco-friendly mantra for buildings

As the country targets an ambitious 10-plus billion sqft of green building footprint by 2022, green building materials will be much in demand.

G Raghupathy, Deputy Director General, CII, and Chairman of the Asia Pacific Network of the World Green Building Council, estimates demand for credible green products and technologies would touch ₹18 lakh crore by 2025.

The green building initiative in India is largely driven by the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad. It has over 6,287 green building projects coming up with a footprint of over 7.75 billion sqft. All these are registered with the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and is one of the largest green building footprints in the world.

The green consumer offerings include steel, cement, boards, panels, tiles, paints and glass, and come with the GreenPro Ecolabel. This helps end-users select sustainable construction materials and technologies.

As many as 25 product categories and over 1,800 products from over 125 leading companies have so far received the GreenPro Ecolabel. Now CII hopes to make more than 5,000 products and materials available in the market by 2025.

The ‘go green’ movement started with the construction industry wanting to adopt eco-friendly products. That led the CII to launch the GreenPro Ecolabel based on IS014024 standards and accredited by the Global Ecolabelling Network. GreenPro is also recognised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

The label helps in selection of products and materials with a lifecycle approach and free of toxic and hazardous substances. GreenPro’s popularity has grown and government and private organisations specify this label as a criterion in their tenders and procurement requirements. In fact, NITI Aayog has identified ‘sustainable public procurement’ as one of the key strategies for promoting resource efficiency at the national level and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to ParasuRaman R, Chairman of CII-Green Products and Services Council, GreenPro focuses on building materials. The plan is to extend it to industry and consumer products.

Companies that have already got their products GreenPro certified include Aditya Birla Group, ACC Cement, Dalmia Cements, Tata Steel Ltd, Nippon Paint, AkzoNobel, Gujarat Guardian Glass, Saint-Gobain, Supreme Industries, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Ltd, Honeywell Home and Building Technology, Kesoram Industries, and UltraTech.

Experts feel the number of companies following the green path can grow substantially if a GST incentive is given. And why not?