Green Saviour by Dhiraj Jain, Director, Mahagun

With increased consumer consciousness about environment, developers have started incorporating green practices as a means of sustainable development. Both material and processes contribute towards making a building green. Given the plethora of advantages of going green, business can ill afford to ignore adopting the green style statement.

Buildings are our biggest asset for improving how the cities perform. They are not only the largest physical element in cities, occupying 50 per cent or more of urban land area, but are also where people spend most of their time. With consumer interest in green buildings growing extensively, developers have jumped on the green bandwagon, thereby incorporating green practices as a means of sustainable development.

Green building is not a simple development trend; it is an approach to a building suited to the demands of its time, whose relevance and importance will further continue to increase in time to follow.

With green building becoming a critical part of today’s world, more and more new construction technologies are being developed to keep up with this escalating shift to sustainability. From maximising the use of renewable resources to minimising carbon footprint, whether in constructing a new sustainable building or retrofitting existing infrastructure for greener upgrades mainstreaming sustainability has become the need of the hour.

The urban green building movement is growing rapidly as developers learn to maximise on the- ground benefits. Pre-defined rating councils in India like GRIHA, IGBC, LEED and BEE assess building performance against set criteria and standard points of references and certify green buildings. New tools and policies announced by the authorities are helping to encourage development of green buildings.

Going green brings in a host of advantages that businesses simply cannot ignore. A green building focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use energy, water, and material while reducing building impact on human health and the environment during the building’s lifecycle, through better design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal. It’s not just the material which makes these buildings green however; the building process is just as important.

Green building isn’t just a style statement today ; it h s become the saviour for sustainability and a better tomorrow. Building green is becoming more and more important as our resources swindle, and we become more aware of the sensitivities to to ins that many people have.