Green Real Estate | Green Building Constructions in India

The concept of ‘Green Real Estate’ is booming nowadays. ‘Going Green’ is a part of the high-end lifestyle of the urban upper middle-class. However, the real estate economy cannot actually progress without it. According to the ‘National Institute of Construction Management and Research’, the overall investment towards the urban building construction in India is estimated to be Rs 5,000 crore p.a. Thus, ‘Green Real Estate’ holds significant importance in years to come.

There are already 151 fully functional green buildings across the country. The 151 certified ‘green buildings’ project amounts to over 694.93 million square feet¹ of green building foot print. Of these, numerous green buildings have installed one or more renewable energy technologies like solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, and onsite and offsite wind energy².

These functional Green Buildings will annually abate more than 0.31 million tones of carbon dioxide and save energy by 30 to 40 percent and water by 20 to 30 percent as compared to conventional buildings. Many of these certified Green buildings are naturally-ventilated. These are spread across six climatic zones including Legislative Assembly, government buildings, airports, corporate offices, educational institutions, hospitals, banks, IT Parks, individual houses, factories and SEZ among others.

Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), set up to facilitate Green Building construction in India, has recommended that it be made mandatory for all buildings above 20,000 sq feet to incorporate green features and why not? The long term advantages of Green Buildings cannot be overlooked. Going Green is definitely the most important phenomenon for combating climate change.

It’s hard to imagine but by 2030, the average temperature in India will rise by 1.7 to 2.2 degree Celsius in India and extreme temperatures by 1- 4 degree Celsius in comparison to 1970s. The hotter summers and warmer winters will lead to substantial changes in agricultural production, water flows and cause dramatic changes in the country’s weather.

Even the coastline will reduce. The 7,500 km coastline will face its own problems with sea levels along the coast rising at the rate of 1.3mm per year and the intensity of cyclones is expected to increase. Floods will intensify by 10-30 per cent in all the regions of the country, says, Assessment Report by Indian Network for Climatic Change. And if this is not enough, 41 percent of India’s population would be in cities by 2030. So just imagine the usage of resources in terms of amount of water, electricity, and land among others!

Fortunately, Real Estate sector has realized the magnitude of deficient resources, which our country could face in future. Therefore, they have started to adopt Green practices. Studies show that cooling, heating and lighting systems used by smart buildings can save 30 per cent on energy consumption, cut down 50 percent of water consumption and minimize up to 90 percent of waste produced by buildings.

Even people these days prefer to buy a ‘Green’ or energy efficient house. It could be costlier in terms of prices, but the overall results are greater than the conventional ones. 

According to the ministry for commerce and Industry, India is the 5^th largest wind energy producer in the world and 8^th in terms of investment made in clean energy technologies. Surely, the day is not far away, when Green Real Estate in India would also top the charts!