National Technological Congress, Kerala - 2011 College of Engineering Trivandrum, January 28-29, 2011

Sustainable building construction practices A study of Indian green building rating systems.
S.J Vijayadas BSNL Civil Construction Wing Trivandrum, Kerala [email protected]

ABSTRACT Sustainable building construction practices, popularly known as green building practices are widely gaining acceptance due to the tangible and intangible benefits to the environment and industry. The rating systems act as evaluation tools and bench marking systems to assess the greenness of the projects claimed to have undertaken following sustainable practices. The qualitative comparison of such systems by analyzing the various features is attempted in the study. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Construction activity is the back bone of any economy and its growth has been considered as a measure of development of an economy. In India the construction sector contributes 10% of GDP and it is growing at an average of 9% against a world average of 5.5%. Massive initiatives in the infrastructure development and rapid growth of urban habitats are leading to tremendous construction activities. India constructs buildings of the order of 1% of the total constructed floor area of the world habitats every year. Building construction activities have a far reaching impact on the environment specifically due to the use of natural materials and construction practices. 50% of the global consumption of raw materials is consumed by the building industry considering the various materials involved in manufacture, construction, operation and maintenance of buildings. Consumption of water, energy and other resources in construction and operation of buildings have been identified as those areas which needs urgent attention. The pollution due to the manufacturing of building materials, their transportation, utilization and disposal are other areas of concern for the building industry. CPCB has estimated that 25% of the solid waste generation in India can be attributed to the construction industry. Along with our march towards infrastructural development and urbanization it is our responsibility to keep an eye on the impact on the environmental damages associated with such development. Green buildings offer an innovative remedy to the problem by way of using lesser resources, creating less waste and consuming less energy during construction and operation. The green building concepts direct the professional society to adopt sustainable practices in planning, designing, constructing, operating and maintaining buildings throughout its lifecycle. The sustainable practices naturally lead to economy, efficiency and reliability in all aspects by way of appropriate integration of technology and management. Green buildings are expected to ensure proper safety, health and sanitation facilities during construction and thermal, visual and acoustical comfort for the

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occupants while in use. The potential of reducing ODP (Ozone depleting potential) and possible reduction of greenhouse gases in the sector are well acknowledged. The solution to the heat island effect due to uncontrolled urbanization also lies in the green building concepts. The biggest challenge before humanity is to develop a sustainable global economy, which can support the development of the world indefinitely. The most widely accepted route to meet that challenge is to change the technological practices to create goods, services and facilities. The emerging economies like India need to focus more on sustainable practices in development activities considering their environmental impact; especially those associated with the construction industry. The need to adopt sustainable practices in building construction is based on this concept. Sustainable practices identified include selection of site with least ecological impact, use of non renewable resources in a most limited way, encouraging the use of rapidly renewable materials, adopt techniques which facilitates a pollution free and safe construction and make sure that the buildings are constructed around the nature and not against it. The sustainable design and construction shall also ensure that a building constructed is well integrated with the existing infrastructural systems in the urban context without becoming a burden on them either due to their presence or functioning. Green buildings are being constructed worldwide and Indian initiatives are also appreciable with buildings of area 70 million sq ft is already built in the past few years by following the green concepts. The green building rating systems are intended to measure the greenness of the building which is being designed. They are evaluation tools to measure the environmental performance of a building through its lifecycle. Some of the successful

international rating systems are BREEAM (Building Research Establishments Environmental Assessment Method-UK), CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency-Japan), GB Tool (Developed by International Framework Committee for Green Building Challenge), LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-US)and HKBEAM(Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method) . In India we have two rating systems: they are LEED-INDIA (promoted by IGBC) and GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment-promoted jointly by TERI and MNRE). Most of the internationally devised rating systems have been tailored to suit the building industry in the country and based on their concept of sustainable development considering the prevailing social, economical, environmental and technological framework. Indian systems adopt a holistic approach with high degree of emphasis on optimizing the building design for sustainable performance. They also address the various agro climatic regions of Indian geography differently. The central theme and primary focus on all rating systems are to conceptualize, design, construct, operate and maintain a sustainable built environment. 2.0 SUSTAINABILITY ENVIRONMENT AND BUILT

Sustainability is defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. According to UNEP Sustainable Buildings and Climate initiative 2006, the sector is a major contributor to global warming. They are responsible for 3040% of global greenhouse gas emission. As per the report titled State of Play-Sustainable

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National Technological Congress, Kerala - 2011 College of Engineering Trivandrum, January 28-29, 2011

buildings in India, the energy performance of commercial buildings in India in terms of the energy efficiency is poor by international standards, which has the effect of locking Indian cities in to inefficient and potentially uncompetitive building stock for decades. Unchecked, greenhouse gas emissions from electricity used in existing buildings alone could increase by 247% by 2050. If the energyefficiency of new-buildings constructed over the same period are not improved, the total electricity related emissions from buildings could be more than 390% higher than current levels. Green house gas emissions associated with building material manufacturing are also likely to spike over the next decade, increasing the need to consider lower embodied energy approaches to construction. The Indian cities are most vulnerable to climate change and considering that more than 50% of Indian population will be living in cities by 2050;the role of buildings in climate change adaptation options is fundamental to well being and prosperity. The understanding of sustainable practices are often open to individual interpretation and contextual description; where the requirement of one building in one country or location may not be applicable in another case. However the issues listed in Table 1 are relevant in all built environment cases. The issues listed are broadly categorized into five areas for evaluation purpose. They are sustainable sites, energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor environmental quality, materials and construction practices, The reduced load on the infrastructure systems like water supply, power supply, communication, transportation, waste disposal systems and access to socio cultural institutions etc are some of the areas which are positively affected while adopting the sustainability principles in planning and developing built environment both at micro

and macro levels. The Studies have also indicated that the built environment developed following core principles of sustainability promotes enhanced productivity of the occupant.

Table 1: Major issues to assess sustainability performance of buildings 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. consumption of non renewable fuel water consumption Material consumption land use impact on site ecology green house gas emissions other atmospheric gas emissions solid waste/liquid effluents indoor air quality acoustics lighting longevity adaptability flexibility Operation and maintenance.

The measure of carbon footprint of built environment is an indication of the extent of sustainable principles followed in building it. As building sector is responsible for major GHG emissions, the sector can provide quick and efficient way of mitigation than other sectors. Success of national carbon reduction targets relies heavily on the potential of the building sector to avoid further global warming and impact on climate change. There is a progressive reduction of CO2 emission levels when the building practices improves from standard to green as graphical presentation in picture-I shows.

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rating for the Godrej GBC building in 2003, there was a considerable enthusiasm in the industry which has ultimately led to the development of a rating program referred as LEED India Version 1.0 with its launching in October 2006. The variants of LEED India are LEED India NC (New Construction) and LEED India CS (Core & Shell). LEED India is a performance oriented system where credits are earned for satisfying criterion designed to address specific environmental impacts inherent in the design and construction. Different levels of green building certification are awarded based on the total credits earned through compliance of various parameters like sustainable sites, water consumption efficiency, energy use, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation in design. It is also proposed to release LEED EB(existing buildings), LEED Residential etc. GRIHA has originated from the need to have a totally indigenous system and was initiated by TERI; an institution deeply committed to every aspect of sustainable development. This tool by its quantitative and qualitative criteria would be able to rate a building with degree of greenness. GRIHA is a five star rating system with emphasis on passive solar techniques for optimizing indoor visual and thermal comfort. GRIHA encourages optimization of building design to reduce conventional energy demand and further optimize energy performance of the building within specified comfort limits. GRIHA being an indigenous building rating system, focus more on the non-air conditioned or partially air conditioned segment. GRIHA also insists on the adherence of all relevant Indian codes of practices. The principles of sustainable construction practices are well embedded in both

Picture-I

3.0 INDIAN RATING SYSTEMS Green building concept in Indian context is not a nascent one as most of us think. Integrating natural elements in the built environment through various traditional practices was well practiced from ancient times on wards. The growth of building construction industry and rapid urbanization has diluted the traditional wisdom and unsustainable practices became dominant. Interestingly the initiatives were also from the organizations towards sustainable built environment in order to promote healthier habits and to reduce the impact of their operations on the environment. Organizations have also realized that sustainable building practices enhance employee productivity. The organized efforts of industry and policy level initiatives of government along with the global initiatives have led to the formalization of practices in the sustainable building sector. With the formation of IGBC in 2001 and completion of CII-Godrej GBC there was a realization that one of the priorities for the sustainable building industry was to have a system to define and measure green buildings. The achievement of prestigious platinum LEED

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the rating systems and the methodology adopted in evaluation only is found different. For the purpose of comparison the various sustainability issues can be catagorised into the following

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Site and location Energy Water Material resources Design for specified comfort Impact system on public infrastructure

Construction process

The study conducted is to analyze the various methods adopted to satisfy the above cited areas of sustainable practices. While discussing about the credit points it may be noted that GRIHA evaluation is out of 104 points and LEED India is out of 69 points.

LEED India has a comprehensive evaluation mechanism which is fundamentally similar to GRIHA. The issues are classified into environmental, economical and community related. The steps suggested to reduce sedimentation control and erosion are mandatory. While discouraging the use of primary farm land, LEED India recommends to consider development density and community connectivity as important aspects. In addition to the brown field redevelopment and reduced site disturbance norms, LEED focus on issues like storm water management, Heat Island Effect etc are considered in the site selection process.13 credit points are earmarked for sustainable site selection. 3.2 Energy and related issues. The core aspect in the green building concept is energy conservation. Conservation leads to reduced generation and dependence on renewable sources further helps to reduce the generation. The generation of energy from conventional sources has multiple impact on the environment and being a major consumer the buildings have the potential to reduce such impacts by way of efficient consumption and internal generation from environment friendly sources. Another mode of reducing the energy consumption at macro level is to promote the use of material with low embodied energy. GRIHA gives maximum weightage to this option by providing 49 points to this section alone by incorporating various norms for enhancing the energy consumption performance of the building. These include, optimizing the building design to reduce the energy demand, by ensuring the energy utilization to the specified comfort levels and promoting the use of low embodied energy materials. There are specific clauses to encourage the use of renewable energy including direct use of solar power like water heating etc.

3.1 Site selection & protection GRIHA rating system insists on the adherence of all local development plan, ecosensitive zone regulation, coastal zone regulations, heritage areas, water body zones and various hazard prone zones. There is a strong preference for using contaminated brown field after suitable rehabilitation in order to reduce the pressure on virgin land including agricultural land. Protection of top soil, natural vegetation, replanting, preventing soil erosion, sediment control, confining the disturbance on land due to construction by confining areas of activity are some of the steps advised by GRIHA. Soil conservation by preserving the top soil, designing to include natural features, reducing hard paving etc are additional steps included in the norms. There are 5 listed criteria in this group with credit points totaling to 14.

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LEED India gives a total points of 17 points in this area and the focus is relatively on the performance of the energy consuming systems and appliances. Though there is thrust on renewable energy option, the importance of building design to reduce energy consumption like solar passive design etc are not clearly explained in the norms. There is an apparent indication that building may require energy consuming systems to maintain desired comfort levels and the focus is on optimizing their performance rather than trying to avoid using them by design interventions. 3.3 Water use and Efficiency The use of water in buildings are expected to be controlled through effective water management practices by reducing the landscape water requirement, using low flow fixtures and efficient use of water during construction. The waste water recycle, recharge and reuse are the additional options for enhancing the sustainable practices in water sector. GRIHA has given 13 credit points for adhering to the related practices. LEED India has 6 credit points for water use efficiency including water reduction in air conditioning system and gives credit for innovative waste water treatment systems. 3.4 Use and control of material resources. Both the rating systems have comprehensive provisions for promoting the use of materials in construction, operation and maintenance of buildings. LEED India promotes the use of used building materials, reduction of wastage during construction, use of certified wood etc including use of regional material. The total credit points are 13. GRIHA norms provide for certain norms which are directly linked to the energy category. In addition to that there are 4 credits for using low VOC paints and minimum ODP substances.

3.5 Design for Specific Comfort Levels Though this may appear to be a technical issue, the basis is to ensure that the operational economy of a building is achieved by using optimum level of resources. By ensuring the lighting, temperature, humidity, air quality and noise levels appropriate to the climatic zone and within the comfort level, it is possible to optimize the use of energy and enhance the productivity of the inhabitants. GRIHA standard refers to the CPCB norms for acceptable noise levels and air quality related aspects.4-6 credits are exclusive to such aspects in GRIHA rating system. There are inbuilt provisions in other areas like using daylight options and using the natural elements to enhance the indoor quality. LEED has given high weightage to the indoor environmental quality, by earmarking a total credits of 15 points. The areas include outdoor air delivery monitoring, increased ventilation, low emitting material, indoor chemical and pollution control, system control for thermal and lighting facilities. Ensuring daylight for maximum possible areas are given special credits in the rating system. In both the systems the glazing design is given special attention by ensuring that desired levels of heat and light are made use from solar sources. 3.6 Impact on public infrastructure system A building constructed will have both immediate and long term impact on the existing public infrastructure system especially on the transportation, power supply, water supply and waste handling system both solid and liquid. The green building concepts in the areas of site selection, waste reduction, storm water management, water conservation efforts etc will have a positive impact of reducing burden on the public infrastructure system.

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LEED India give specific thrust on alternate transportation options, including provision of alternate fuel filling stations, car pooling practices, restricting and minimizing parking space etc. GRIHA insists on segregation of waste, reduction of waste load on the public waste conveyance system etc. 3.7 Sustainable Construction process In spite of the use of green materials and integrated design efforts, the building can turn out to be an unsustainable one if the construction process adopted do not follow the sustainable practices. The inefficient transportation of material into and outside the project sit, the site level pollution, the inefficient use of water, energy, unhealthy labour practices, irrepairable damage to the land and ecosystem in and around the site etc can lead to an unsustainable building. Both the rating system addresses all the above issues with slightly varying degree of importance. GRIHA gives significant importance on the site level disturbances, pollution and the labour issues. The reduction of water and power during construction by appropriate technological and capacity building interventions are advised in the GRIHA standards. LEED system gives importance to the waste reduction process during construction by providing certain credits for its adherence. 4.0 CONCLUSION The sustainable practices are the basis of both the rating systems. The difference is in interpretation of various methods in achieving them. GRIHA being a national rating system provides a good reference basis for construction of public buildings and common purpose

buildings preferably with natural internal environment. LEED being an offshoot of an international practice, gives more importance on the system efficiency and more quantitative in approach which makes it popular among the industry experts. References 1. LEED INDIA NC REFERENCE GUIDE VERSION 1.0 Published by IGBC in January 2007 2. GRIHA manual Volume 1, published by MNRE & TERI 2010 3. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILTY IN BUSINESS, Preetha M Banergy, Vanitha shastri, SAGE Publications 2010 4. BUSINESS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT , Richard Starkey and Richard Welford, Earthscan Publications,2005.

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