Green buildings achieve a major landmark
Mr. S Raghupathy, Executive Director of CII-Godrej Green Business Council, says that this is an important development in the country and has caught the attention of commercial buildings, Government offices, heritage buildings and homes as the price has decreased over the years.
He also concluded that the price of establishing a green building varies upon its utility like whether it is a commercial office, a housing township or an individual house. The cost used to be about 10-15 per cent higher for commercial buildings about 10 years ago, with the payback period being 8-10 years, but has now come down to nearly 3 to 5 percent higher with payback in less than three years
Heritage buildings
Heritage buildings will attract people to choose the rating system. In this new approach, the Tata Group headquarters Bombay House which is a heritage building has become the 1st building to get Green Existing Building Rating under the Indian Green Building Council.
He also mentioned that there are corporate entities and people who are determined to achieve this and create an example for others to follow. He also added that it has taken about 9 years for India to register base of one billion sq ft of green buildings after the first green building was developed in 2003-04. After 2 years, this figure has doubled which shows that there is an increased interest to take movement forward across different segments.
He further says that all these registered buildings are likely to be completed in next 2 years. He also concluded that with the current speed the CII-GBC expects to have green building cover of 10 billion sq ft by 2022.
Leading the charge
The start of the green building ratings was started by large corporate houses like Godrej Group, the Tatas, M&M. All the 4 Airports in Bangalore and Mumbai managed by GVK and Hyderabad; and New Delhi managed by GMR have been rated for their environment-friendly design.
Source: The Business Line
Bangalore, CII-GBC, CII-Godrej Green Business Council, Commercial buildings, Delhi, GMR, Godrej Group, GVK, Heritage buildings, Hyderabad, Indian Green Building Council, M&M, Mumbai, S Raghupathy, Tatas
