India Aims to Clinch World No. 1 Spot in Green Buildings by 2022

HYDERABAD: At a time when Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg’s speech at the United Nations has the world talking about tackling climate change, India has pledged to play its part – to become the global leader in green buildings come 2022.

At present, India is third on the charts, only behind the US and the UK, with a green footprint of 7 billion square feet (sft). Its target: 10 billion sft in the next three years.

India’s total built-up space stands at about 40 billion sft. Of the total green area, the largest share is occupied by homes that cover approximately 1.9 billion sft.
“This is a tremendous achievement, considering we started on this path only in 2001. Right now, there are 5,400 green projects across the country,” said V Suresh, chairman of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), speaking on the sidelines of the 17th Green Building Congress, in Hyderabad on Thursday. “We have 10 villages across Haryana, Gujarat and the north-east. I hope that the number of participating towns will touch 5,000 by 2022,” he added.

Rough estimates suggest that green buildings reduce water usage by 30% to 40% while consumption of energy per structure ranges between 40% and 55%.

Within India, Maharashtra continues to lead the way with green buildings covering a staggering 1.7 billion sft in the state, even as Telangana comes in at the sixth spot with 0.24 billion sft. The 29th state has 360 green projects, as certified by the IGBC.

But even as India races ahead towards the world no. 1 spot, challenges continue to be aplenty. “Globally, the adoption rate (to green building practices) is below 10%. This means 90% of all our buildings are still environment-unfriendly and adding to pollution levels,” said Tai Lee Siang, former chairman of the World Green Building Council. “ The problem is more critical for Asian countries that are developing fast and building more structures,” he added.
IGBC records show that the green concept has managed to penetrate through only 5% of India. “That’s a very low mark and we hope to push it up to 25% by 2022. We also need more professionals who are educated and trained in green practices. That can happen if we weave it into engineering and architecture courses offered by major institutes in India,” said the IGBC chairman.

Source: ToI

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