Rating mechanism for green homes soon

After tasting success in propagating green concepts for commercial office buildings, the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) is now working towards developing green homes and will shortly announce rating mechanism for them.

Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar on 'Energy Efficiency in Building Design and Construction', S Raghupathy, senior director and head CII-Sohrabji Godrej Business Centre, said "Rating mechanism for green homes is being worked out in Bangalore and it is likely to be finalised by mid 2008. It will come into effect early 2009."

Currently about 10 to 20 green homes are planned on pilot scale in different geographical regions to showcase and educate the public about green principles. "Materials are also being developed and tested to standardise them. A few companies are working on materials which are acceptable by rating agencies," he added.

For office or commercial buildings, energy consumption is the single most area of concern. Where as for green homes, it is the household gadgets and right building materials which are needed.

"The right use of green plants and penetration of sunlight inside homes eliminates the use of air-conditioners and lessens power consumption. Also since Indian homes are dusty, good air filtration is required," said Raghupathy.

At present there are 156 registered LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rated buildings in India with an area of 70 million square feet and has seen reduction of 840,000 tonnes of CO2 emission per year. India, currently, is ranked fourth after United States (which has 1,800 to 2,000 buildings), Australia (500 to 600 buildings) and Canada (500 buildings).

Market penetration for green buildings in India is just under 2 per cent and it is expected to touch 15 per cent after 2010, when green homes roll out.

"India is aspiring to be one of the key players in green buildings by 2010 and has set a goal to achieve one billion square feet footprint by 2015. There is also a plan to have about 1,000 green registered buildings by 2012. This growth is likely to facilitate tapping of building materials to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore by 2010," said Raghupathy.

According to Raghupathy, another area of concern for India is the acute shortage of accredited professionals.

"Currently only about 100 professionals are on the job whereas the demand is for 500 professionals. It is estimated, we need about 5,000 professionals by 2010 to achieve our goal of one billion square feet," he said.