Opinion: With urbanisation, India needs green buildings to conserve energy

Today, on December 14th, India is celebrating its 27th National Energy Conservation Day. On this day Hon’ble President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind will give away National Conservation Awards to industries that have demonstrated a measurable reduction in their energy use as a part of National Energy Conservation Awards Programme. He will also present the National Painting Competition Prizes and visit the exhibition of the prize-winning paintings.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has earmarked December 14 as ‘the Energy Conservation Day’, which is aimed to demonstrate India’s achievements in energy efficiency and conservation, within a larger goal of holistic development of India’s overall effort towards climate change mitigation.

Such mitigation measures largely limit the further rise in global temperature wherein steps, such as phasing out fossil fuels, embracing renewables, pursuing electric vehicles and pushing for green buildings, are taken. The role of green buildings in energy conservation and efficiency is, thus, important in controlling emission levels, significantly.

According to the World Green Building Council (WGBC), a ‘green’ building is a building that, in its design, construction or operation, reduces or eliminates negative impacts, and can create positive impacts on our climate and natural environment. Green buildings preserve precious natural resources and improve our quality of life. According to the UN-Habitat, green building can include energy efficiency along with features, such as healthy materials, water efficiency, sustainable waste management, resource efficiency, and land use.

India, which is observing robust urbanisation, is adding around 11-12 million people to its urban population every year, making every sixth person in India urbanised.

India, which is observing robust urbanisation, is adding around 11-12 million people to its urban population every year, making every sixth person in India urbanised. In 2011, India also entered a different demographic trajectory wherein its net increment to urban population exceeded the net increment to the rural population, signifying increased migration to urban centres. The United Nations (2014) has estimated that India would add 164 million people to its urban-based between 2015 and 2030, thereby necessitating the need for managing its urbanisation very well.

Thus to rejuvenate urbanisation process, the government has launched programmes including, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities Mission (SCM) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), mapped under Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-11 on “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.

These initiatives have the potential to transform India’s building and infrastructure sector, being critical to the Indian economy. Moreover, India is projected to become third-largest construction market globally by 2030, contributing 15 per cent of India’s GDP. Thus given these projections there is an urgent need to push for sustainable growth through green buildings under these missions.

These missions, which aim to ensure access to adequate, safe and affordable housing, basic services and upgrade slums, better air quality and waste management, besides, provision for financial and technical assistance in building sustainable and resilient buildings significantly enhances the potential of green buildings, thereby, improving the surrounding environment.

In India, building accounts for 40 per cent of the total energy consumption, of which residential real estate accounts for over 60 per cent of it resulting in environmental degradation due to rapid urbanisation.

Moreover, incorporation of the green building concept in these missions would not only facilitate in achieving SDG-11 but will also help to expand its scope to cover other SDGs as perceived by the World Green Building Council (WGBC). Thus, embracing green building concept would effectively help in meeting other SDGs as well to include, promoting good health and wellbeing; ensuring affordable and clean energy; promoting decent work and sustainable economic growth; building resilient infrastructure and promoting sustainable industrialisation, combating climate change, etc. Green building concept would also help in achieving SDG#6, which ensures availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

According to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the building sector is the largest contributor to GHG emissions, emitting 30 per cent of GHG emissions, while using 40 per cent of the global energy. In India, building accounts for 40 per cent of the total energy consumption, of which residential real estate accounts for over 60 per cent of it, resulting in environmental degradation due to rapid urbanisation.

The current stock of green buildings, which accounts for 5 per cent of the total buildings in India, offers the great potential of green building markets with an opportunity to expand and tighten efficiency standards on building sector, ensuring future demand for energy services being met without putting undue strain on energy supply.

Further, according to the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Dodge Data & Analytics World Green Building Trends 2016, the green building industry in India will grow by 20 per cent by 2018.

Paris Climate Agreementhas prompted several governments to lay greater emphasis on low carbon development of their cities. India too has formulated several mitigation strategies under different sector in its Nationally Determined Contribution submitted for Conference of Parties - 21 (COP) of United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCCC) to develop climate resilient urban centres.

To implement energy efficiency, BEE has introduced the Energy Efficiency Building Code (ECBC) to improve the energy performance of buildings and curb emissions.

In addition, to curb energy intensity of the Indian economy, the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) has been introduced to replace all incandescent lamps with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs in the next few years leading to energy savings of up to 100 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). Further, to implement energy efficiency, BEE has introduced the Energy Efficiency Building Code (ECBC) to improve the energy performance of buildings and curb emissions.

To stimulate the large-scale replication of energy-efficient buildings, India has also developed its own building energy rating system, namely, Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) based on 34 criteria like site planning, conservation and efficient utilisation of resources etc.

Thus, pushing for green buildings by linking it through its urban missions would go a long way in accelerating sustainable growth path.

(Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).