Green Buildings Need Of The Hour In the wake of human impact on the environment, the increasing international thrust towards sustainability and the rising pollution levels, green buildings have gained prominence over conventional buildings and are slowly becoming the norm. The need of the hour, the demand for green buildings is being increasingly felt amongst consumers, developers and policymakers. Every stakeholder in the industrial ecosystem is beginning to realize the potential for green building. And the estimated market for materials, equipment and services for green building India had surpassed $100 billion by the year 2015. Today, it continues to grow at a promising rate. A green building is also known as a high-performance building, whose energy efficiency and environmental performance is substantially better than the standard practice. The benefits of green buildings can range from environmental to economic to social. Theoretically, green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact on the environment and human health by reducing trash, pollution, and the degradation of the environment.
Green buildings are a growing trend, primarily because of the benefits they offer. Green projects primarily work towards energy saving, water conservation and optimum utilization of natural light. Such structures help combat challenges such as energy costs, water shortage, global warming, etc. 1. Long-term cost reduction and improved health and productivity. 2. Less resource consumption - energy, water, materials, and land. 3. Healthier working, learning and living environments with more natural light, cleaner air and improvement in occupant health, comfort, and productivity. 4. It also helps in saving money for the owners by reducing operation and maintenance costs and lowering utility bills. 5. For instance, compared to conventional buildings, green buildings are designed to not just save energy and resources, but also to minimise the emission of toxic substances throughout their life cycle – during the construction as well as operational phases.
The shift in government’s attitude in favour of green over the conventional buildings has led to a number of real estate projects conforming with standards of sustainability. Authorities are even considering incentives such as granting extra floor space index (FSI), to green projects. In spite of this, not all realtors have adopted green initiatives, due to an overall increase in costs of construction by 2-5% of the total. Having said that, it must be realized that this cost can almost always be recovered within the first year of construction because of the reduction in operational costs incurred by such homes.
Moving on, developers are running out of options and have to shift their focus on developing environment-friendly buildings in the wake of consumer expectations and government policies. Green building is going to have a positive impact on the lives of residents and reduce the environmental impact of humans. The design for the residential development Waterfall Residences by Krisumi Corporation has received the GRIHA Gold star certification, which is the second-highest rating for sustainable integrated habitat. At Krisumi, the endeavour is of providing a healthy living environment, and contribute to the growth of society in the best way possible. The design and construction of our maiden project, Waterfall Residences subscribes with LEED Green Building specifications.