The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has recently published “LEED in Motion: India”, a report that provides an interesting picture of the green building sector in India.
To date, there are 553 LEED certified projects and 1375 registered projects, in India, with a total of 77.3 million square meter (833 million square feet) of space ranging from office, retail, and government buildings to factories, airports, and hotels.
USGBC’s partnerships with the Indian Green Building Council and India’s Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) have helped LEED advance in India. TERI’s Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) rating system focuses on accelerating the development of green, high performing buildings across India and Southeast Asia. USGBC’s strategic partnerships are instrumental in mobilizing the green building movement and establishing LEED as a key driver for market transformation. According to 9 out of 10 industry senior executives in India, the LEED-related work will increase over the next five years.
The demographic trends of India indicate a consistent rise in urbanization. It is estimated that by 2030, over 33% of the total Indian population would be in urban areas. The rising population and the rapid urbanization would push the demand for housing and commercial spaces, providing a further impetus to the rising growth of the construction sector in the country. Opportunities will span across the sector embracing both new build and refurbishment of existing building.
“The building segment has grown significantly in the last six to eight years in India and with more awareness about green buildings and LEED, more and more projects began exploring these areas. Moreover in the last ten years, a lot of multinational corporations have moved into India. They started saying: “We want to lease spaces in LEED-certified buildings” because they were sure that these buildings would perform better in terms of energy efficiency, water and indoor air quality. This has led to many builders and developers who wanted these good, multinationals clients to pursue LEED certification for their buildings. If the developers had a LEED certification, they had an edge. That’s how most of these commercial buildings started going with LEED. But as time evolved and many clients started occupying LEED buildings, they were able to feel the benefits and since then LEED has grown even more in India.” says Deepa Sathiaram, Executive Director at En3 Sustainability Solutions and Past President of ASHRAE South India Chapter.
LEED best practices in India include the LEED Gold rated HOK’s Bangalore Airport Terminal 1; the LEED Platinum-certified ITC Windsor Hotel where 100% of the hotel’s energy demand is met through self-owned wind farms; and the LEED Platinum-certified Volvo-Eicher Group Headquarters with a 50,000 liter-capacity sewage treatment plant that recycles water for use in the HVAC cooling towers, landscape irrigation, washing cars, and toilet flushing.
The LEED Gold Bangalore Airport Terminal 1 in Bangalore (Photo: HOK)
The LEED Platinum ITC Windsor Hotel in Bengaluru (Photo: www.skyscrapercity.com)
The LEED Platinum Volvo-Eicher Group Headquarters in Gurgaon (Photo: Romi Khosla Design Studio)
The LEED in Motion: India report is now available for download
Source: USGBC