India’s First Corporate Sustainability Magazine A Saaga Interactive Publication
www. sustainuance.com Volume 01 • Issue 02 • Mumbai • 68 Pages • October 2012 • Price `100
India’s leading architect Hafeez Contractor on Green Buildings
ESTATE OF THE
green art Green-rated buildings are the new rage but not without a fair share of debate around the costs, the benefits—and the rating standards too. What works best in Indian context? Know what experts say!
Basics of creating a GRI Sustainability Report
How the new Mobile Radiation Norms will pan out
DJ Pandian, Principal Secretary, Gujarat on the renewable revolution
ED’s Note
The dark clouds
Shashwat DC Editor -in-Chief
A silver lining is that India has the highest number of LEED-rated buildings after the US
Recently, a post on my Facebook wall read something like this: the Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Scaling it to 46 years, we’ve been here for 4 hours, and our industrial revolution began just a minute ago. In that time, we have destroyed more than 50 percent of the world’s forests. Indeed, the veracity of the facts presented in the post can be debated and discussed, but we can’t debunk them anymore. It is a no-brainer that the current model of growth and progress is no more sustainable from an economic and ecological point of view. India stands to be impacted relatively more severely, if a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report is to be any indicator. The annual Global Competitiveness Report by WEF underscores the co-relation of sustainability and economic well-being. For the first time, WEF has come up with sustainability-adjusted Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), a metric that intends to assess the “the set of institutions, policies and factors that make a nation remain productive over the longer term while ensuring social and environmental sustainability”. India, the world’s second-largest country by population, scores rather poorly on the new metric. Of the 144 countries ranked on the GCI scale, India slipped in rank from 56 to 59. That’s not the worst part though. When the sustainability metrics—social and environmental—were integrated, India’s overall score fell from 4.32 to 3.73, on a scale of seven. Moreover, India was the worst performer among the BRIC nations, far behind others in the group. The writing is clear on the wall, and indeed our government needs to draft thorough legislations that also incentivize the corporate sector to accelerate the green uptake, but the industry too needs to proactively find ways and means in which they can cut their carbon footprints. This requires a holistic approach, inside-out and outside-in. A good place to start would be the green buildings. Over the past couple of years, green buildings as a concept have gained momentum, thanks to the financial windfall it brought with certified emission reductions (CERs). The good thing is now it’s going apace, simply because of the sheer savings in terms of energy consumption. The movement has caught up so much these days that outside of the US, India has the highest number of LEED-rated buildings in the world. Considering this, SustaiNuance decided to dedicate a whole issue to green buildings, discussing the benefits, the how-to and even the controversies around the rating standards. Celebrated Indian architect Hafeez Contractor too shares his candid views on the green building movement, and why he thinks (or rather not) that the rating business is a joke when it comes to India. Needless to say, we are all ears to whatever comments, quips or thoughts that you have on the subject or on the magazine. I would encourage you to drop me a line at editor@sustainuance.com. Green regards till we meet next month.. External links on sustainability http://www.weforum.org/reports http://www.sustainability.com/blog http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/blog October 2012
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CONTENTS
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October 2012 • Vol.1 Issue 2
08 L ong View
Ganesh Natarajan
20 Twilight Inspired! Why not?
Green buildings, once the hallmark of homes that our great grandparents lived in a matter-of-factly manner, are back into visibility for all the right reasons
16 S unshine
Creativity
A Solar Annual Report wins adverting award
38 A million-footfall opportunity
Cut energy expenses using plug-on techs
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Hafeez Contractor
Why one of the best known architects calls green buildings a joke in India
44 G reen comes
home in India
58 S olar price could come down
A photo-feature on the greenest buildings
DJ Pandian shows how political will and bureaucratic fervour can go a long way in achieving renewable revolution
Chairman & Managing Director: Uday S Surve Editor-in-Chief: Shashwat DC Printer & Publisher: Sameer P Gore
Consulting Editor: Deepak Kumar Associate Editor: Abhijit D Content Manager (Web): Jigna Khajuria
40 A personal
Special Correspondent: Pratima H
Journey
Senior Correspondent: Saikat Nandi
Prasanto Roy sheds light on how India’s first Griha green home happened and the road ahead for others. The bonus of going green:you stand out from the crowd
Correspondent: Sailee Karnik Neha Kumari Tanu Kaur Ankur Verma Design Director: Nirmal Biswas Senior Designer Graphic: Mahesh Walunj Head Web Solutions: Amit Patil
54 G ujarat Focus
A glance at the solar power projects
Senior Sales Manager: Mahesh L Shetty Sales Manager: Ameeta Shah Online Marketing Manager: Imtiyaz Rashid Ad Coordinator: Roshan Fernandes Operations Manager: Rahoul Teli Accounts & Admin Manager: Gajpal Rana Assistant Manager (Subscription) Pooja Gondhalekar
62 A big-picture framework
How India fares on GRI standards
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Viewpoint
Deepak Kumar seeks best answers to India’s sustainability needs
Circulation Manager: Vishal Ladkat Production Head: Riken Manseta Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission from Saaga Interactive Private Limited is prohibited. The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher. Copyright: All rights reserved. Published and Printed by Sameer Pradeep Gore on behalf of Saaga Interactive Private Limited. Published at 510, Western Edge-1, Western Express Highway, Borivali (East), Mumbai - 400066. Printed at Amruta Print Arts, JR Boricha Marg, Opp. Kasturba Hospital, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai - 400 011. Editor: Shashwat Dinesh Chaturvedi
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INBOX
@ INBOX A Saaga Interactive Publication
www. sustainuance.com Volume 01 • Issue 01 • Mumbai • 70 Pages • August 2012 • Price `100
Gujarat’s Renewable Revolution A roundup on how the state is going green
CEOs from across verticals share their opinion on the need, necessity and practicality of a chief sustainability officer within their enterprise Burning daylight oil Telcos grapple with Diesel
Green-touch banking Banks look anew at green
Namaste London! Celebrating the greenest Olympics
Magazine is making the best efforts to educate all sections of society about the green and it has created an awareness in masses about green and need to turn towards green. Wonderful work they are doing for making this planet worth living.
Rakesh Bhardwaj,
Sr. Manager international Business, Manu International
Green and Sustainability are areas which impact each one of us - be in our professional lives or personal lives. In this context, Sustainuance comes across as a very lively magazine which covers the topic of Green and Sustainability beautifully. I liked the quality of articles and also the layout and quality of magazine in general a lot. My compliments to the editorial team and I am sure you will not only Sustain the quality of magazine but take it to even higher levels
Many congratulations on launching the magazine and I find myself a passionate reader saw that this is one of its kind and unique initiative by your team. I feel by the monthly quality contents and insight of industry you will create a different wave in the industry which will create a platform, strategies and let the industry think of adopting sustainability more than its definition.
Vijay Choudhary,
Head IT, HRH Group of Hotels
My heartiest congratulation to you. This is something new other than the regular magazines either for IT or otherwise. I would like to receive copy of this. My address is mentioned below. If the online edition became downloadable, I will prefer that to support green.
You magazine looks good in terms of design and content. It makes for a real good read, as well. Await the next edition.
Preetham Venkky,
Ravish Jhala,
Business Head - Asia, KRDS
Rishar Raviraj,
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This is a much talked subject in corporates; however I feel there is lack of knowledge in the area. I wish and hope the magazine will help address that.
Awesome effort. The magazine looks great and the articles are quite potent. I loved the cover story on the CSO.
Daman Dev Sood,
CIO & Head- Sustainability Practice, Continuity and Resilience
CIO, KNP Securities
Jethin Chandran,
VP IT & Operations at Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd
It was very nice to have the magazine in hands today. It looks like a class magazine. And all the articles are simple, informative and useful. I hope Sustainuance continues the same way and wish all the best to the team who created this.
VP and CIO, Hero MotoCorp
Vivek Dharia,
Atul Bansal,
Congratulations on the launch of Sustainuance. I’m happy with this initiative to focus on sustainability and wish you and your team the very best. Hope to see this magazine to be very successful in India and even more importantly, hope that this magazine inspires companies and individuals and of course the government to take positive steps for a better future. I must say that the articles in the magazine were very interesting and kept gripped to read more.
Vijay Sethi,
Congratulation for the launching of India’s first monthly magazine on corporate sustainability. Corporate Sustainability is a new mindset for Corporate Responsibility. It emphasis on innovation as the means to add value to the environment and society at large. For this there should be a body at board level with the power to make a firm rules with people power align with all business systems with the company’s vision of sustainability. Sustainability also includes extensive re-engineering of the corporate structure.
Senior Account Manager, Waggener Edstrom
Assistant Vice President, Hexaware Technologies
Systems Manager at Oberoi Hotels & Resorts
I went through some of the articles of the magazine. Really commendable job. Looking forward for next edition.
Vaibhav Patni,
Program Manager at Setu Net Pvt. Ltd
Write to us @ contactus@sustainuance.com Connect on Facebook @ facebook.com/Sustainuance Twitter updates @ twitter.com/sustainuance Read more @ www.sustainuance.com
LONG VIEW
Let employees be torchbearers! Sustainability initiatives can be driven well if led by a community of volunteering employees Ganesh Natarajan & Ruchi Mathur
“The organization should be an enabler and not a doer, and facilitate direct involvement of employees”
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any chief executives believe that the topic of environment and sustainability is a specialized one and cannot provide opportunities for employees to participate. Nothing could be further from the truth. With organizations spending a significant amount of money on CSR activities including environment initiatives, it is worthwhile to review the returns and also to question whether the potential of employees is being leveraged adequately. The area of environment sustainability offers immense scope for individual-led initiatives, be it in terms of following best practices at a personal level, advocating in one’s society, community or neighbourhood school, or leading organizational initiatives. In Zensar’s own early initiatives on environment protection advocacy in collaboration with ALERT – an organization set up by Vandana Chavan before she became a Member of Parliament – there were more than a hundred employees actively involved. Even today, in various initiatives at our campus and external investments like the Bio-Diversity Park coming up on a prime Pune land, it is the employees led by our Sustainability & CSR group who are making a big difference! Communication to employees on CSR initiatives and their impact can be through regular e-newsletters, the organization’s intranet, or even formal training programs that also inform employees how they can contribute. Ideally the organization should be an enabler and not a doer, and facilitate direct involvement of employees. This requires a concerted effort to create relevant volunteering opportunities geared to the specific interests, skills and convenience of employees. Every opportunity should be taken to encourage volunteerism whether as
part of internal company communiqués or a large ‘volunteer now’ button on the intranet home page. Direct employee intervention not only builds engagement but also unleashes the resources of thousands, thereby multiplying the impact of CSR and sustainability. Doing this through change-maker communities is even more effective and sustainable as it leads to best-practice sharing, ideation and team work. It is important to recognize and reward employee contribution. Moreover, recognition would be most effective coming right from the top – leadership plays a strong role in setting the tone. While most organizations have caught on to the external marketing potential of green (building brand image), there is a lot to be gained by internal marketing as well. Involving employees in these initiatives can also lead to more engaged employees and can be a critical weapon in the war for talent by aiding recruitment, motivation and retention. The time to make it happen is now! Zensar for one strongly believes in employee involvement in CSR activities and targets direct involvement of nearly 20 percent of its employee base in India through education, health and environment related activities. In the area of environment, employees have participated directly in events such as cycle rallies, spreading awareness on global warming, and most recently, development of a biodiversity park close to the office location. Ganesh Natarajan and Ruchi Mathur are with Zensar Technologies Ltd. Ganesh is also the Chairman of the Knowledge Committee of CII and a member of the Chairmen’s Council of Nasscom.
NEWS
Sustainable transport – need of the hour
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f you live in a metro city, you would totally understand the need for a good public transport system. And if you live in India, whether in a metro or a small village, you must have felt the need of efficient transportation - or the lack of it. Transportation is one of the primary public services and hence, becomes crucial to the sustainability of our economies, societies, and natural environments. Whether we live in a developed or developing nation, moving safely from one place to another is part of our daily lives. Without sustainable transportation, children cannot go safely to school, goods cannot reach markets on time, and the harmful emissions will only worsen climate change. improved operations and performance of the The present system of growing motorizaSlum dwellers system and more accountability. Governments tion is highly unsustainable. It leads to increasmust realize the requirement for low-cost, or high-rise ing use of fossil fuel, traffic jams, air pollution, energy efficient, easily accessible transportapeople, urban greenhouse gases and more road accidents. tion system and investments. However, we must also understand that susThe recent Rio+20 provided a major opporor rural, rich tainable transport is a developmental issue, tunity to unite various governments to commit or poor and is not limited to a single group of people. to sustainable development, including transconveyance Slum dwellers or high-rise people, urban or portation. This success was largely achieved is intricately rural, rich or poor, conveyance is intricately by the Partnership for Sustainable Low-Carbon linked to the life of each and every one. The Transport, a coalition of over sixty diverse linked to the urban population is going to increase rapidly in transport-related organizations. life of each the next decade, putting more pressure on the The Rio+20 conference was a breakand every one. through for sustainable transport because the existing means of conveyance our cities have. That the transportation sector needs to shift Partnership coordinated 16 voluntary committo a more sustainable path is very well underments from NGO’s and multilateral institustood everywhere. tions. Most notably, the world’s 8 largest multilateral banks (MDBs), What we really need is sustainable transport policies world- committed to invest $175 billion over ten years to advance more wide. Active citizens, corporates and environmentalists can do sustainable transport, with annual reporting and monitoring. their bit by pushing national governments to enforce sustainable Great plans are made and some targets are achieved, yet a lot of transport policies, standards, and funding schemes. Transport work remains to be done to ensure that this drive for sustainable being a public utility, its efficiency and sustainability should be transport from Rio+20 translates into real change. determined by the government laws and investments. So what is the solution to get sustainable transport system in our cities? They can be summed up as follows:-
1. Avoiding: automobile travel through denser, mixed-use urban development.
2. Shifting: transport to more cost
effective, low-carbon modes like bicycling and rapid bus transit. 3. I mproving: the energy efficiency of vehicles. These factors, however, do not depend so much on technology or usefulness as on political will and the capacity to implement them. No doubt strategic investment in transport is needed, but these need to be accompanied by governance reforms, 10
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The proposed plan will include private investments as well.
$4 billion plan to endorse hybrid vehicles in India
T
he Government of India has approved a project for the promotion of environmentally-friendly electric and hybrid vehicles. The cost of the plan is estimated at Rs.20,000-Rs.23,000 crore ($4 billion), which will be invested over a period of eight years. “The first meeting of the National Council for Electric Mobility (NCEM) has adopted the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 (NEMMP 2020),� Vikram Gulati, director in the ministry of heavy industries and public sector enterprises said. The project predicts generation of 60-70 lakh electric and hybrid vehicles, including passenger cars, two-wheelers, trucks and threewheelers by 2020. Currently the electric and hybrid vehicles have less than one percent of the overall 17 million units per annum automobile market in the country. The use of hybrid vehicles will
lower the use of fossil fuels and will lead to cost savings, which is estimated to be triple the actual amount invested in the scheme. The objectives of NEMMP 2020 include setting up of manufacturing units and infrastructure, acquiring technologies, and creating awareness and demand, added Gulati. The NEMMP 2020 is part of the automotive mission plan (AMP) 2016 under the national mission for electric mobility. Automobile manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor, General Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Mahindra and Mahindra are already working on using electric and hybrid technologies. Two-wheeler manufacturers like Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor had also displayed hybrid models of their scooters at the Delhi Auto Expo held earlier this year. The proposed plan expects collaboration between the government and industry in rolling out initial projects. It will include private investments as well. Gulati said that the ministry will soon finalize several schemes under the NEMMP 2020 which will then be sent for a final approval of the government. October 2012
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NEWS
Solar, nuclear power can sustain India’s energy needs: Kakodkar
Avoid cheap Chinese materials: Abdullah
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uclear energy is safe, says Anil Kakodkar, The only former chairman of other form of Atomic Energy Commission energy that of India. Contrary to the belief that older methods of is as safe generating energy are safer as nuclear compared to nuclear energy, energy is research proves otherwise. Data says that the fatalities solar energy. per kilowatt-hour are least in nuclear energy “even accounting for Chernobyll”. He pointed out that environmental radiation that people are exposed to even in normal rooms is 100 times higher than the radiation at the fence post of a nuclear plant. He cited that people are afraid of nuclear energy because they’ve only heard about nuclear weapons. Kakodkar also added that the only other form of energy that is as safe as nuclear energy is solar energy. He said this at a lecture on “Challenges of promoting a green economy” at Goa. Existing resources like coal are not going to last long, hence, India needs to make the transition from fossil energy to green energy quickly. The former chairman of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre also said that thorium and solar energy, both of which are green, are the only answers to India’s energy demands. Though the potential for hydro power is huge, it will contribute only about 7% of India’s increasing energy needs. Once the grid is freed from the non-paying consumers, electricity tariff will reduce and benefit the economy. He suggested the use of solar energy for lighting in rural areas. If this is done, not only will India save on huge subsidies given on kerosene, but emissions polluting the atmosphere will also be eliminated. Kakodkar added that we need to create eco-systems in education, in government and in industry. Kakodkar said that if garbage is segregated at source, recycled or treated as applicable, it can generate methane, manure, etc. “There is no waste. Every waste is a resource,” he said. 12
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hat the world has had to deal with lots of duplicate Chinese products is a known fact. Now the solar energy equipment manufacturers are also facing a similar dilemma. The Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah, has asked the manufacturers to avoid buying “cheap” materials from China to boost their profits. The minister made these remarks at a time when the native solar industry is facing tough competition from Chinese manufacturers. He urged the industry to provide good quality equipment and services in the sector. “India will have to fight with the oil lobbies to come up strongly in the renewable energy sector,” the Union minister said while addressing a workshop on Solar Water Heaters organised by the MNRE. Abdullah also added that Army was one of the largest users of diesel in states such as Jammu and Kashmir. But now it plans to switch over to renewable sources for its various requirements. The minister also appealed the solar industry to provide post-installation services such as repairs and maintenance.
India Inc less transparent in sustainability reporting: Survey
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ndian companies seem to hold a poor track record compared to Brazil, China and South Africa when it comes to sustainability reporting, according to a non-profit organization working for a sustainable global economy. However, 80 companies in India that have set up a reporting mechanism come up with the best disclosures worldwide, says the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Among the lead adopters of this practice in India are Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel and the Mahindra Group. A review of the annual reports of Sensex-listed companies reveals that most Indian companies dedicate at least some space to summarize their CSR activities and other initiatives to conserve energy and environment. But for the GRI, these disclosures are not up to the The GRI has mark it has set for sustaina standard ability reporting. It has strategic framework partnerships with the United Nations Environment Programme, for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation sustainability and Development and International reporting Organisation for Standardisation. “We have a standard framework — guidelines. the sustainability reporting guidelines or GRI guidelines. It must be a separate report from companies,” said Aditi Haldar, Director of the GRI’s Focal Point India. A sustainability report is an organization’s report on its economic, environmental, social and governance performance. According to GRI, sustainability is based on performance in these four key areas. The Indian authorities also seem to be thinking on the same line as GRI. Market regulator SEBI on August 13 announced a comprehensive format for sustainability reporting by Indian companies. It has directed the top 100 companies to bring out sustainability reports from the next financial year and the requirement will be gradually expanded to other listed entities.
Fresh water out of thin air – an experiment!
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ringing fresh water to the remotest and driest parts of the world seems a possibility now. Marc Parent, a French inventor, is experimenting on the same. Inspired by the mechanics of a dripping air conditioner, Parent created wind turbines that literally pull fresh water out of thin air. His experiment, called the WMS1000, uses electricity generated from a windmill to collect and treat water without using any existing water source such as a river, lake or well. His company, Eole Water, is testing the invention in France and Abu Dhabi. “Each unit can create 1,000 liters of drinking water using only moisture and powered only by wind. Let me highlight this word : CREATE. All existing solutions (wells, desalination, lakes/rivers pumping, etc.) only treat an existing source of water,” said Thibault Janin, Marketing and Communication Director of Eole Water. The technology integrates water creation, water collection, water treatment and local distribution. The WMS1000 can produce and distribute water everywhere. “Today, people only use centralized distribution, from a centre point to others. With our turbine, we wish to decentralize the water access,” Janin said. The company claims that the logistic and process of this project are The testing easy to install and operfor this ate. It can be an answer to various issues like massive invention is population movements, going on in swelling cities, increased France and diseases and health care Abu Dhabi. costs, or a solution to agriculture.
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NEWS
US firm’s Rs 580 crore solar power gift to Bihar
CSR guidelines not obligatory for companies: Govt
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his news comes hot on trail of reports claiming India’s The annoyance with US for investment damaging its solar energy industry. is expected Schanti Partners, a US-based agency, has shown keen interest in investing to create Rs 580 crore for a solar energy project in numerous Kaimur district of Bihar. jobs for The firm intends to set up a 10MW unit local people initially. The agency will sign a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with and boost Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) at the economic proposed rate of Rs 12.50/kWh. The phasedevelopment. wise project will produce 50 MW in future. Bihar gets 330 sunshine days in a year and has one of the highest solar insolation rates in the world. The Kaimur district has strong electricity infrastructure, with grid connectivity and electrical substations. The project will use photovoltaic technology. This technology is based on Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) system, which is PV technology with an optical system that focuses sunlight over a large area onto each cell. The Export-Import Bank of the US will be financing the project. The letter of intent provides for about $30 million in financial support, depending upon various factors, including the extent of US-made solar power equipment. The US agency will procure land privately for the project, without depending on Bihar industrial land bank. It will lease land directly from the owners for a 30-year term, in lieu of annual lease payments to them. All relevant government agencies, like the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB), the Bihar State Investment Promotion Board and the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA) have given their approval for the project. State officials expect that this investment in Bihar will create numerous jobs for local people and boost economic development. “With the setting up of this solar energy plant, Bihar will emerge as a leader in solar energy development among eastern states of India,” said an official.
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he Centre stated that it has not done any assessment to determine whether companies are complying to the various corporate social responsibility (CSR) guidelines. Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the government has not made it mandatory for the corporate sector to spend two percent of the companies’ profit on CSR activities. These guidelines are for the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), and there are no mandatory guidelines or provisions for spending by Indian companies on CSR activities, Moily added. The Department of Public Enterprises had issued guidelines in April 2010 for CPSEs to create a CSR budget as a specified percentage of net profit of the previous year, he said. Market regulator SEBI also directed top 100 listed entities by market capitalisation at the BSE and NSE to include ‘Business Responsibility Reports’ as part of their annual reports. Other listed companies may voluntarily disclose their Business Responsibility Reports, the minister said.
The guidelines are mainly for the central public sector enterprises.
Read more at:
www.sustainuance.com
COUNTER POINT
Is measurability diluting sustainability efforts? Acting responsibly towards the environment is foremost; instead there is an overemphasis on measuring the impact of ‘green’ acts By Shyamanuja Das
W
e often use the words “responsibility” and “accountability” interchangeably. The words— while broadly meaning the same—differ from each other in two important ways. Accountability clearly denotes some sort of answerability to a distinct person or group of persons such as a superior authority, a set of investors, or the electorate, while responsibility can be assumed without any such answerability. The second difference follows from the first. If one has to be answerable, there has to be a measure to evaluate whether a pre-decided promise or expectation has been fulfilled. So, measurability is essential to accountability. It is not surprising that the word in fashion in the corporate world is accountability; every action must result in something that is clearly measurable. Inherent to that expectation is an implicit assumption that one has access to the knowhow, tools and techniques for measuring the impact of every action. Most of the champions of measurability won’t even acknowledge that something that cannot be measured exists on this earth. There is probably a consultant out there who has developed some tool to measure it; if not, it can be developed. For those who are sensible enough to realize that not everything is measurable with the existing human knowledge, often want to steer clear of those “immeasurable” things and want to proceed with only those that are clearly measurable. That is okay, as long as people want to measure their efforts. The Global Reporting Intiative (GRI) is a very nice initiative but it measures efforts. And that is how it should be. Problem arises when people believe they can measure the impact of every action that they undertake, within a limited time span. This ‘measurability syndrome’ is doing more harm to sustainability efforts than one can imagine.
Consider this. Today, investors and customers expect corporate entities to be environmentally responsible. And that is fair. But how do you impress them? Just efforts don’t suffice anymore; companies also want to show off the impact of their environment friendly efforts. And numbers always score. So carbon footprint and the progress in reducing emission is a big plus. It can be measured exactly. Use of water, generation and use of renewable
The ‘measurability syndrome’ is doing more harm to sustainability efforts than one would imagine
energy, as well as waste management—all the things that can be measured exactly can show the progress year by year! But that’s not helping the tribals to nurture their indigenous knowledge to protect the environment. You can always talk about what you are doing. But it is almost impossible to show in a span of two-three years what has been achieved because of that. Sustainable agriculture is another area that is outside the radar of the corporate world, because “it is too slow to measure the impact within a reasonable timeframe.” They don’t want their time and resources to be “wasted” on these kind of efforts. In the age of instant gratification, few have patience to invest time and resources in areas that will take 20 years to show some result. Unfortunately, they are equally important. And sustainability efforts cannot be complete without those pockets being addressed. Like it or not, sustainability is still a philosophy. Many of us pretend it is an exact science. And by trying to define it by its measurability quotient is taking it a little too far along that path. While measuring efforts and continuously striving to measure the impact of those efforts is a journey that must continue, to pretend that nothing else exists is fooling ourselves. If we label these efforts as “social responsibility”, let us be responsible. Investors and customers are, at the end, human beings. By giving them and their future generations a better earth to live in, you are creating value for them. Not every initiative should result in a better or cheaper product or in your stock price rise. Shyamanuja Das, is a renowned journalist, editor and social commentor. His current designation is Director, Analyziz Advisory and he can be reached on shyamanuja@analyziz.com October 2012
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IMPACT
Sunshine
creativity! Why a solar energy provider’s annual report, filled with routine financial data, won a Cannes Advertising Fest award By Pratima H
F
or the design jury deciding on this year’s Grand Prix at Cannes Advertising festival, it was literally a blank spot at first: a nomination staring them on their desk was blank. The case study presented to them was strange, and did not sound convincing. So one of them went out, flipped the pages open again in the sun and came back with gooseflesh and a finally-convinced exclamation, “You’ve got to see this, it’s amazing!” An annual report that shows nothing unless
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opened in the sun! What else could quintessentially convey what the client does? A thumbs-up by the jurors may be, and an award won hands-down. For Alexander Schill, Chief Creative Officer and his creative team at Serviceplan, the brief at first was anything but exciting. An annual report for a solar energy provider, understandably, is not the kind of product with any precedence or scope to spark grey cells of advertising folks.
To think outside the box gets a tad challenging when there is no box to start with. How do you inject radical approach inside the veins of a space where both the product and the category have always been despairingly anemic to breakthrough thinking? If the word solar energy did not sound geeky enough, the word annual report consummated the ‘boring’ effect. Schill and his creative team comprising Christoph Everke, Cosimo Moeller, Alexander Nagel, Moritz Dornig and Matthaeus Frost (all Art), Mathias Noesel (copywriting), Stefen Meier (print shop) and Waldmann, (bookbinding) took the challenge. The team did manage to utter a ‘Eureka’ amidst all yawns, and with some great partners and an encouraging client, even shocked the world with what the people from creative universe call ‘the Oscar of Advertising’. At Serviceplan, the Munich, Germany-based agency, the envyinspiring ride started the day when this client wanted to develop a remarkable medium that could portray Austria Solar as an innovative player of the Austrian solar industry. The team knew it had to be something remarkably different to make enough noise in a world where the category itself is labeled as weary. It took a while but when the idea finally flashed through their mind, it was like a sun shining generously. How about a report that could only be read under sunlight! It took a while to come to the right mixing ratio, and eventually they struck the gold (literally so with the award), with the use of environment-friendly photochromatic colors in just the precise ratios. The result, anyone who wanted to read a page out of the report could not do so, unless under the sun, that is without ultraviolet rays.
Creative agency Serviceplan was tasked to portray Austria Solar as an innovative player in the Austrian solar industry
“Awards for green ideas should be in all categories” Why do environmentally-oriented products, services and initiatives fail to get the traction that looks like a duck soup in theory? One often blames viability, perhaps without ever considering about the conspicuous gap called creativity. The unusual annual report that took home an award at Cannes Advertising fest 2012, urges green leaders to unlock the power of creativity. Christoph Everke, Managing Director and Partner Serviceplan Campaign, helps discover more about creativity mandates around green ideas: Congratulations on the gong! How exciting was the brief at the initial stage? Tell us about the Eureka moment? T he brief itself was not exciting, as an annual report normally is not really exciting. We are talking about numbers, aren’t we? But as in every creative process there was a special moment when something special happened. That was when the basic idea and the how-to idea came together. I presume that by now you have received more than 400 requests from all over the Christoph Everke, world, e.g. Ernest & Young, the Austrian Managing Director and Partner office of the Federal Chancellor, the TED Serviceplan Campaign Conference and Greenpeace to name a few. And interestingly, the printing company Mory & Meier is being overwhelmed with orders. How does it feel for effectiveness, the cliche argument against creative advertising? Was it as smooth and wellreceived at the stage where you were navigating the idea initially? To be honest it was not smooth and we are still trying hard to handle the requests. We are now planning to print the third edition, which we may sell publicly. Nobody could foresee the amount of reactions because after all it is still only an annual report of an Austrian solar energy association, which is very well done but never was planned for a global audience. E xecuting a creative epiphany is often easier than done. How easy was it? I t was a hard way but not because of unwilling partners or the client. It was simply so because it was new. So we had to test again and again and again, and thanks to our partners it finally worked. Do you think that lack of creativity is more of a challenge than viability when it comes to green ideas not taking off as much as they should, for such things as hybrid cars, fuel cells, solar lanterns, organic clothing? Green ideas often are hip but not made for the mass market. That makes them expensive and so it is not easy to realize them. Should there be a separate and more apt green category at Cannes too? o. I don’t think so. It is better to have green ideas in every category since N they should be part of our life and not something special. When you look around, do you find any other piece of work (legacy or contemporary) impressive enough in this space? Yes, there are very good examples like the “wwf-print-app” that was made by Jung von Matt last year. A ny next set of briefs or clients in this space that you can talk about? here is a project we are working on at the moment, but since it is at a very T early stage of development I can’t talk about it right now.
October 2012
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FEATURE
The airwave
overkill
There’s a pending need to embrace holistic models wherein wireline and wireless techs complement each other towards sustainability goals By Deepak Kumar
I
f anything could come close to planet Mars in terms of being storm ridden, it would be India’s telecom sector! One of the lesser storms brewing these days is rooted in the new electromagnetic radiation norms effected by Department of Telecom (DoT) from September 1. What is more, DoT didn’t lose much time in taking on-ground measures to enforce the new norms, something that didn’t seem to have made mobile operators particularly happy. Exactly 12 days after the new radiation norms became effective for mobile towers in India, DoT officials decided to run Telcos can a random check for a mobile tower choose to see new in a Mumbai locality. The findings revealed that the radiation levels in the radiation limits as opportunity to nearby houses were way above the new prescribed limits, following which DoT move to greener said it served spot notices to the seven alternatives that mobile operators who had their antennas hosted on the tower. can drastically In a release issued the very next day, cut down carbon DoT said the checks had been carried footprints of out by a high-level delegation of its officials, led by Advisor – Technology, mobile towers DoT. Also, spot orders were issued to all 18
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seven operators to stop radiating from the tower with immediate effect till the time the radiation levels were brought in compliance with the new norms. At short notice, DoT said its officials also organized a meeting with all the 11 mobile service operators in the Mumbai circle, well represented and attended by officials from the telecom companies. DoT says it was conveyed to the telcos that they should comprehensively carry out checks to determine which base transceiver stations (BTS) were non-compliant and to either make them compliant or shut them down.
Arguments and counter-arguments
Telcos responded through the industry body, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), reportedly saying due time should be given to ascertain the noncompliant towers. Various other arguments, direct or indirect, were also fielded against a seemingly determined enforcement of the new radiation norms by DoT. One ‘logically valid’ argument was that reduced radiation levels along with shutting down of BTSs would lead to weakened signals and degraded quality of services, something that would not be in the good interest of subscribers. A counter-argument has been that telcos could
have gone for smaller form factor cells in place of tower mounted macro cells. Options in the form of femto cells and pico cells have existed for several years now and there has been the required awareness, too, in the industry on the benefits of these micro cells. I myself remember first writing on the merits of femto and pico cells at lease more than two years ago. Ashok K Aggarwal, Director General, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers’ Association of India (TEMA) points out, “Instructions were issued in November 2011 by DoT to mobile operators for limiting the norms of radiation from mobile towers across the country to 0.9 watts per sq. meter (1,800 MHz). In spite of this, mobile operators have been delaying the implementation of norms and ultimately DoT came out with a firm decision for implementation from September 1, 2012. However, these have to be implemented in true sense by having a strict checking through the TERM Cells of DoT.” Typically, femto cells come in form factors akin to the Wi-Fi access points so commonly used in offices and campuses. These don’t require huge tower structures and can instead be mounted on rooftops. More importantly, these are low-powered devices and don’t require diesel gensets to run when the utility supply is not there. An in-building low-power source like a battery attached to a UPS or an inverter can suffice. Imagine the savings telcos could realize by implementing a network architecture that maximizes use of such small form-factor cells. Doesn’t it make good business sense for telcos?
It makes sustainability sense too
Any technology that potentially compromises public health cannot be termed as sustainable. It is good therefore that just a month after Delhi High Court heard a petition seeking that the cellphone towers be installed at least 50 meters away from residences, and more so from schools and hospitals, DoT had implemented a new set of norms for mobile tower radiations. With that, the exposure limits for mobile phone towers were lowered to one-tenth of the then existing levels. The fact that DoT has categorized tower distances based on the number of antennas they host, makes the new norms meaningful. More needs to be done though. There is a need to systematically progress towards a scenario where the base stations only minimally exist in their present forms and are instead taken over by smarter, greener and nominally radiating antennas with smaller form factors. Aggarwal adds, “Mobile operators in other countries are following a safer technology which does not require structured towers on the roof tops. These mobile operators, some of which are operating in India also, follow the practice of installing small sizes low power radiating antennas on roof tops which are installed on masts. This automatically results in emission of very low radiation.” An obvious solution is to increase the use of femto cells, pico cells and even Wi-Fi networks. “In future, we must insist for migration of the high-power
radiating antennas installed on towers to micro cells BTS with low power radiating antennas. Accordingly, these towers with high power radiating antennas must be removed progressively within next five years,” Aggarwal notes.
A need for integrated approach
After the mobile services boom, there has been an overemphasis by telcos on cellular growth, while other network technologies have been largely neglected. In particular, there has been little attempt by telcos to leverage the vast cable TV network assets across the country. Policy makers too have equally failed to take holistic approaches towards development of various access technologies. The same is true when it comes to various other network technologies including Wi-Fi, fiber or DSL, even though DSL is the dominant wireline broadband technology in India. In fact, with good network planning, Wi-Fi mesh networks could deliver significant benefits to both consumers and service providers. That all notebooks and tablets and an increasingly large number of mobile phones have native support for Wi-Fi access makes its usage practicable. Various wireline networks can effectively complement cellular networks in the backhaul, and a planned integration of wireline and wireless networks is indeed the way to go. In this context, it is also time to blow the dust off the National Broadband Plan recommendations submitted by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India By moving to (TRAI) way back in December roof-mounted, 2010. Rollout of the plan, along with a constructive governmentlow-powered industry dialogue, can open up novel cells and ways of wireline-wireless integration, to access points, contribute towards sustainability. No other industry perhaps has as large a telcos can community as the telecom industry today, address public in the form of hundreds of millions of health issues registered subscribers. Unfortunately, it has and bring down also been discredited as being among the least sustainability friendly industries. their costs too
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COVER STORY
Twilight inspired! Why not? Rating systems need to adapt in the light of the environment around, without which a building would lack harmony and only be pseudo green By Pratima H
I
realized, as he drove my truck out of the main part of town, that I had no idea of where he lived. We passed over the bridge, the road winding northward, the houses flashing past us growing further apart, getting bigger. And then we were past the other houses altogether, driving through a misty forest. I was trying to decide whether to ask or be patient, when he turned abruptly onto an unpaved road. It was unmarked, barely visible among the ferns. The forest encroached on both sides, leaving the road ahead only discernible for a few meters as it twisted. And then, after a few miles, there was some thinning of the woods, and we were suddenly in a small meadow, or was it actually a lawn? The gloom of the forest didn’t relent, the trees had their protecting shadow right up to the walls of the house that rose among them. I don’t know what I had expected, but it definitely wasn’t this. The house was timeless, graceful, and probably a hundred years old. It was painted a soft, faded white, was three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned. My truck was the only car in sight, I could hear the river close by, hidden in the obscurity of the forest. If you haven’t already guessed, you just finished reading an excerpt from vampire romance novelist Stephenie Meyer’s popular work <Twilight>.
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Sunny Mornings make Good Nights
Shades of white, wooden floors, walls entirely replaced with glass, or removed completely to create one wide space, shadows of the cedars and a grand piano—Meyer is more than a popular author; probably a latent architect too. For Edward Cullen, the master of the house, it may have all been very natural, but not all vampires are that conscientious or so resource-sensitive. But wait a minute. Why are we talking vampire fiction in a magazine on sustainability? It’s because there is a parallel. Isn’t it that we all humans suck something out of our planet every single second? Inspired by the Cullens?
Initiatives from around the world
In the last few years, and for some obvious reasons, some people and even some institutions and governments have started almost itching to turn their surroundings green. Green buildings, once the hallmark of homes that our great-grandparents lived in a matter-of-factly manner, were wiped out by words like ‘progress’, ‘advancement’, and ‘fashion.’ But they have condensed back into visibility for all the right reasons. If you want to think of 100 percent day-lit workspaces, greenhouse-gas neutrality, and on-site treatment of solid and liquid wastes, there’s something in Vancouver, B.C., Canada with the Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability. In its neighboring country US, boasting not only recycled-content ceiling tiles and under-desk wormcomposting bins but also $1 million a year (reckoned once) in savings from its green features; is California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters, Sacramento, California, one of the greenest high-rise in the country.
Then there is the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, known very well for the fact that nearly 75 percent of the materials used here was sourced from within a 500-mile radius. Also, 50 percent of the construction waste was recycled. It’s smart enough to collect rainwater and use it in toilets, and uses solar photovoltaic cells on the roof to take care of a portion of its power needs. And why hover only in US? Shift your radar a bit towards East and you can find buildings like CIISohrabji Godrej Green Business Center, Hyderabad in India. Interestingly, it is the first building outside the U.S. to earn a LEED platinum rating. The headquarters for Indian Green Building Council, it collects rainwater, relies on natural lighting and makes use of solar power, to name a few features.
Now and in future • At present, India’s green building footprint is 1.21 billion sq. f t. with 1,745 buildings registered with the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). • A n additional 105 million sq. f t. are Griha-certified buildings completed or under construction. • I ndia’s total built-up space is 25 billion sq. f t., and it is expected to increase to 80 billion by 2030, according to IGBC. • Green buildings are gaining momentum and could account for 20% of all construction by 2030. • A s on September 2012, over 1,745 registered green buildings projects with a built-up area of over 1.21 billion sq. ft. are registered with IGBC, out of which 276 green building projects are certified and f ully f unctional.
October 2012 September
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COVER STORY
Made from Concrete (Plans)
Green building evolution • P robably when the oil price increases of the 1970s shook us up, it spurred some early experiments with contemporary green buildings that galvanized into something more solid towards the 1990s. • A merican Institute of Architects (AIA) formed the Committee on the Environment in 1989. • E nvironmental Resource Guide was published by AIA, f unded by EPA in 1992. • E PA and the U.S. Department of Energy launched the Energy Star program, also in 1992. • T he introduction of first local green building program or founding of U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) • T he “Greening of the White House” initiative launched by Clinton Administration in 1993 • U SGBC Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) version 1.0 pilot program in 1998 and then the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that included federal building sustainable performance standards in the US. • U S President Bush signed Executive Order 13423 Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management around federal goals for sustainable design and high performance buildings in 2007, the same year that saw The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 include requirements for high performance green federal buildings. The key factor that is driving the market for green buildings, as per some experts, also originates from the US and European companies that are setting up shops in India. These companies are the ones generating demand for certification of buildings such as offices, factories, and other commercial buildings.
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One can also travel to Rajarhat, when one thinks of a near-zero energy satellite town (ZEST), or to any of Gul Panag’s homes that have started attracting a lot of attention from both media and TERI, GRIHA bodies. In the same breath, one can utter names like the ITC Green Center, Gurgaon, where 40 percent of construction materials came from within 500 miles of the site (10 percent was reused from other buildings), and where the native-plant landscaping is irrigated with recycled water, while it even focuses to provide minimal distraction to nocturnal birds. There are many more green-mortar sights strewn across the atlas; from the aerodynamic wonder and 40-storey skyscraper Swiss Re Tower, London, UK; the landfill-construction waste idea masterpiece Centro Internacional de Negocios, Chihuahua, Mexico; Adobe’s office that works like an irrigation system (it self-adjusts according to weather conditions) at Almaden Tower and East & West Towers, San Jose, California, US, to a building in New Zealand that spun out soundproof panels made from milk-bottle tops and a rooftop tearoom set in a garden of native plants at Conservation House, Wellington. There’s even an airport that took off with 90 percent recycled steel and 100 percent recycled or sustainable timber. It was made with the intent of harboring 70 percent of its energy from solar power and using far less water than its counterparts. Brindabella Circuit, Canberra International Airport, Canberra, Australia will certainly catch your attention when you are in the sky. So will Shiodome Tower, Tokyo, Japan; Pacific Controls Headquarters, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and so on. The list thankfully, keeps growing.
COVER STORY
Beauty lies in the eyes of the pencil-holder
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But beware that it’s not a green coffin!
tonnes of carbon or when these buildings score low on Yes, it doesn’t help much if you just paint the walls Walk scores or Abogo tools. Green is beyond solar windows and insulated pipes. green. A coffin is a coffin even if it’s daubed in fluorescent tints. Having a building made of green materials It should be about something that can be taken way forward into future. Something does not necessarily mean the that is livable for years. Yes, we job is done. Abracadabra? are almost talking in Cullen’s Not if one pays attention context here. Think of a house to what architects like Joshua LEED India that will last for eternity. Prince-Ramus, Randolph requirements have A report from the National Croxton, and Tuomas Toivonen Academy of Sciences, titled have to say. As reportedly highbeen copied from Climate Change, the Indoor lighted by them very poignthe US version Environment, and Health purantly, it does not serve the green and suffer from portedly argues that energypurpose when a green building inadequacy; in efficient buildings can even have still makes only a diluted impact ill-health effects. Ventilation, because it continues consumthe US a federal energy transfer, indoor air qualing energy in carbon-intensive code exists that ity and concomitant changes in ways, or entailing complicated provides mandates climate have been picked out technologies, hard-to-maintain as areas of health concerns for systems, or for the simple reason on air quality, of making their occupants drive pollution and noise those inclined towards living in a green building. long distances for work and rouunlike in India To quote from some lines tine chores. of a media announcement in ‘Created in isolation’ is the this context: “The Institute main stain such uber-green buildings are splashed with. Even if a building is cer- of Medicine report warns that the effort to counter tified or constructed with green-friendly materials, climate change has spurred a shift to untested new the baby is out with the bath water when lifestyles materials and building retrofits that could limit being lived in them are not sustainable or when and alter the air flow inside buildings.” It said this people traveling to and fro these green-scrapers emit may concentrate indoor pollutants such as chemical
October September 2012 2012
emissions and tobacco smoke. Indoor dampness, poor ventilation, excessive temperatures, and emissions from building materials and equipment such as backup power generators can all contribute to health problems, the report says. As if there was dearth of any more reasons to make people sit on the fence! The world has not exactly been scurrying for green certifications or falling over each other to make their homes green. This gives them one more reason to stay ‘indoors’. Green buildings are good coffee-table talk. But they are not everyone’s cup of tea yet. They are not comfortable bets. There’s something else needed, like their ability of making the inhabitants feel warm and cozy.
At the moment, a lot of it is more theoretical than practical, the boards should consider covering the gaps and ensure that the standards are implemented in totality” Jaslene Bawa,
Research Services Analyst, ValueNotes
It’s also about right skillsets, and more
Jaslene Bawa, Research Services Analyst from ValueNotes has a lot up her sleeve when it comes to detailing the gaps often seen in green building approaches. Dipping into her deep experience in covering energy
How about the money, honey? In a normal building life cycle, the operating cost would be around 80-85 percent of the capital cost while an additional one-time cost is only about eight to 10 percent. The incremental cost of constructing a green building would be five to eight per cent higher than a conventional building. But this incremental cost can get paid back within a period of two to three years.
Year awarded
Built-in area (sq. ft.)
Rating achieved
% increase in cost
Payback (years)
CII-Godrej GBC, Hyderabad
2003
20,000
Platinum
18 %
7 years
ITC Green Centre, Gurgaon
2004
1,70,000
Platinum
15 %
6 years
Wipro, Gurgaon
2005
1,75,000
Platinum
8%
5 years
Technopolis, Kolkata
2006
7,20,000
Gold
6%
2 years
Spectral Services Consultants Office, Noida
2007
15,000
Platinum
8%
4 years
HITAM, Hyderabad
2007
78,000
Silver
2%
3 years
Kalpataru Square, Mumbai
2008
3,27,000
Platinum
2%
2 years
Suzlon Energy, Pune
2010
8,20,000
Platinum
< 2%
2 years
Kohinoor Hospital, Mumbai
2010
2,30,000
Platinum
< 2%
2 years
October September 2012 2012 Sustainuance Sustainuance 25 25
Source: CII - IGBC
Building
COVER STORY
Size doesn’t matter, but scale does
and power sectors, she attempts to answer the uncomfortable question: why are we still not green enough? To start with, there are many yawning gaps in ensuring that green building concept becomes effective in essence and gets all pervasive. Bawa points out, “At the moment, a lot of it is more theoretical than practical, the boards should consider covering the gaps and ensure that the standards are implemented in totality.” To explain this further, one has to get a bit visceral. The problem as always is in the little details. When we talk about all the green progress, we tend to ignore questions around self-audits, corruption in ratings, outof-context criteria or skill sets. Bawa notes, “Issues like self-audits need to be
What’s up India? 1. L aunch of indigenous rating systems to suit five climatic zones of India, aligned with a national priority and rating program based on five elements of nature—panchabhutas 2. A n important development in the growth of green building movement is the launch of the following Green Building Rating System, developed by IGBC, with support and involvement of all stakeholders 3. IGBC is working closely with the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Ministry of Environment and Forest, (MoEF), town planners, development authorities and other stakeholders to promote green buildings. The buildings registered and certified by IGBC not only makes good business sense, by saving tremendous energy and water consumption, but also provide a better place for communities to live and enhance their quality of life. 4. O ne billion sq. ft. of building space going green in India
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incorporated in the system, which is kind of missing from the scene. Similarly, there are very few people with the required skill sets. Hence these two factors rank high.” M Anand, Senior Counselor, CII - Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), concedes to all the gaps and turning points on the so-called green tracks we are trekking. He reckons the Indian scenario on greenbuilding-related progress, “Today there is an urgent need to have adequate number of testing facilities to establish the greenness and applicability for green building products, which are project specific. This is one of the gaps and IGBC is working on it, with various leading institutions, like CEPT, IIITH, MNIT. ORNL, LBNL, etc.” Cullen, we lack some precious skills indeed! Green-masonry is one of those. As on date, India has over 860 IGBC-accredited Green Buildings professionals, Anand tells. IGBC has robust training programmes which would encourage more professionals to take up the exam and handhold the design and project teams across the country. That’s why we have already confronted the need for more green-building professionals to facilitate green building projects across the country. May be that’s why bodies like IGBC have launched the IGBC-Accredited Professional (AP) Exam. But stepping back and looking at the bigger picture is something humans can manage, too. When Anand does that, he reflects how going green or adopting green practices is not new to India. “This has been the practice adopted by our ancestors since ages - blend the traditional architecture and ancient wisdom with modern equipment and technologies to address the present day problems, to develop a greener world.
That, he explains is what spurred the Green Building movement in India. IGBC was formed by CII in 2001. Well, till about 2001, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a well-known US rating system for green buildings) for people in India, was a county in the United Kingdom, says Anand. “Today, LEED India is recognized as one of the most popular green building rating system in the country and across the world.” Many milestones dot the graph: the signing of first MoU between IGBC and USGBC in the year 2001, the launch of LEED India in 2007 to suit the Indian context, and that align with national priorities and the recent launch of ‘LEED 2011 for India’.
Indoor air quality is precious
Ratings, be it LEED or its Indian counterpart Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA), influence the adoption and penetration of green
buildings a lot. However, these rating systems are often the dart board for some sharp questions. For instance, does indoor environment design, which has been insinuated strongly by the National Academy of Sciences, come up rightly in the pecking order between water efficiency, energy management, cooling system, and heating system, among others? No it does not, Bawa tells, “According to IGBC, indoor environment quality (IEQ) typically covers indoor air quality (IAQ) with a focus on airborne contaminants, as well as other health, safety, and comfort issues such as aesthetics, potable water surveillance, ergonomics, acoustics, lighting, and electromagnetic frequency levels.” If one views it from the Indian perspective, IEQ credits are one of the most important focus points of LEED. However, India is affected by numerous pollution factors in the indoor environment. In addition to
Energy saved in green buildings The following table illustrates how green buildings do differently and result in energy and environmental benefits:
Feature
Conventional building
Green building
Electrical demand (1 mn sq. ft. )
8 - 10 MW
6 - 7 MW
Lighting power density (W/sq. ft.)
1.5 - 2.0
0.6 - 0.8
Equipment power density (W/sq. ft.)
2.5 - 3.0
1.5 - 2.0
Few of the green buildings that have been in operation for five years have been monitored for operational savings. The following table illustrates the energy savings achieved in some of the early certified green buildings.
Feature
Built-up area (sq. ft.)
Normal building (kWh)
Actual building (kWh)
% Reduction
Annual energy savings (in Rs lakh)
Wipro, Gurgaon
1,75,000
48,00,000
31,00,000
40%
102
ITC Green Centre Gurgaon
1,70,000
35,00,000
20,00,000
45%
90
CII Godrej GBC
20,000
3,50,000
1,30,000
63%
9
The above table demonstrates that green buildings would go a long way in conserving energy. Green buildings can also play a catalytic role in reducing the sanctioned demand (in kVA) for individual buildings and peak power demand. This would result in significant reduction in burning fossil fuels in power plants and its associated carbon emissions.
October September 2012 2012 Sustainuance Sustainuance 27 27
COVER STORY
Quite a jigsaw but not a puzzle
A building tick-marked as green makes only a diluted impact if its occupants employ carbonintensive ways, such as driving long distances to and fro work
GRIHA-PRAVESH: 1. A rating system need was felt to bridge the demand for the non-air conditioned and the partly air conditioned buildings. For this purpose, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) developed a system known as Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (Griha). 2. T he system was built to address the national concerns such as the resource shortages that the power and water sectors faced, coupled with a rapidly eroding biodiversity. 3. T he stress was laid on solar systems that would optimize indoor thermal comfort through temperature control that covers heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, and would resort to refrigeration based air-conditioning only if extreme discomfort was felt by the occupants. 4. T his system has been developed mainly for the largest energy consuming segment, i.e. commercial and residential buildings (new construction). 5. Gradually, similar standards will be built to address the requirements of other types of buildings such as existing buildings and industrial buildings.
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this, policies on protection of indoor as well as outdoor environment quality in relation to air quality, noise, temperature and odor are grossly missing. LEED India, as she suggests, should have laid out clear guidelines and emphasized on the control of dust, odor, and sound pollution by mentioning pre-requisites during construction. “For example, around 80 percent of the construction projects generate demolition or construction noise, often in densely populated and occupied areas. Dust generated leads to lung and other respiratory problems coupled with odors that are repulsive to humans.” It turns out that LEED India faces some valid question-marks when it comes to having specific and clear guidelines in place for controlling, or as a matter of fact, even addressing these issues. Bawa points how LEED India requirements that have been copied from the standards of the USGBC LEED thereby suffer from inadequate Indianized norms, because in the US a federal code exists that provides mandates on air quality, pollution and noise unlike in India. Anand from IGBC is in cognizance of the issue. The IEQ category is one of the five environmental categories created to provide comfort, well-being, and enhanced productivity of occupants, he explains. “The IGBC’s IEQ category addresses design and construction guidelines, especially IAQ, thermal and visual comforts for all the occupants across the different types of buildings. IAQ ensures to provide enhanced fresh air for indoors and seeks to eliminate/reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other air impurities such as microbial contaminants.”
Another factor that is often relegated to corners of the mind is the physical and psychological between architect- or design-level rating administration to builder- or operator- or tenant-level rating implementation. Commenting on this issue Bawa picks out the builder-level impact, “The builder has control over the whole system. He may enforce system requirements through a sales agreement or tenant lease, thereby influencing its design and/or construction. However, the tenant may have an authority only for the space he occupies.”
“Today, there is an urgent need to have adequate number of testing facilities to establish the greenness and applicability for green building products, which are project specific” M Anand,
Senior Counselor, CII - Indian Green Building Council
Tick-mark approach to rating?
Cullen lived alone, beyond the precincts of community life, making him free of need to adhere to ratings and certifications. In the world of humans, however, ratings become a necessity. When your boundaries affect other people’s spaces, ratings have their own weights to serve. There are also costs and processes associated with ratings. Hopefully, in future, ratings would become less complex, less expensive, maybe. Bawa supports the hope, albeit with some truth to confront, “The ratings at the moment consider a number of parameters, and many of them are new to the builders and designers who in turn are grappling in the dark.” She cites how energy efficiency is not a fully developed concept, “We need to establish guidelines for the same and make it more practical. They need to point out how it is going to help an individual and what will be the end savings in terms of cost.” At the moment, she cautions, it is more of a PR activity, but eventually spreading awareness among the
masses will help achieve LEED’s purpose. One more point that needs to be amplified here is whether India and US are the same baskets, and hence whether LEED can differentiate between apples and oranges. Ask Jaslene if there are any similarities in LEED US and India, and she points out how LEED requires a development density of 60,000 per acre, which is the exact standard used by US. Similarly, there have to be standards for testing contaminated soil and public transportation access. “However, unlike the US water Skyline is not always the bottom-line
September October 2012
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COVER STORY
efficiency credits, we do not have any prerequisite requirements. The only Indianised standard is the energy performance standard which is applicable to large buildings.” LEED is ten years old, but is facing criticisms in India on whether actual energy measurement and energy savings are bigger motivators or certification is merely about a green check list. The core 69-point LEED rating system addresses energy and water use, indoor air quality, materials, siting, and innovation and design. If one looks at LEED US ratings, the actual numbers of buildings that are granted a LEED certificate are relatively fewer compared to the ones that have applied for. The reason being they follow the ratings very stringently and leave no loopholes. For example, they have most of the laws and mandates in place for the factors considered in the IEQs unlike India.
Hence, while issuing a rating, if a building does not have a particular aspect in place; the certificate is rejected. “In India, we are mostly tick marking against a check list merely to comply with the standards. But these standards are not really plausible. They have not been adapted to the Indian setting; they don’t work as they are supposed to.” Bawa contends. Rules, regulations and whips work for many reasons. Are carrots for rabbits? It is always a good idea to inject more compliance in the system, but how about incentivizing things? Bawa agrees, “We definitely need to incentivize the ratings. Energy efficiency is still not largely incentivized in India.” However, some kinds of incentives are made available under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources schemes, she points out. Incentivizing will help the builders and designers take up the projects more seriously compared to just complying. For instance, if the government authorities provide a tax rebate to builders who help achieve eight to 10 percent energy savings, it may egg builders to take the concept of energy efficiency more seriously and implement it in totality. She sketches an analogy with SEZs to explain how government incentives boosted the level of interest among industrialists to set up shops in SEZ regions, simultaneously achieving the government’s aim of developing the region. Cullen, the super natural being that he was, may not have needed the force of compliance or the lure of an incentive to build his green castle. Compliances and incentives are needed though to guide the lesser mortals—humans! And of course, the parameters should be dynamic enough to be reflective of the surroundings. Given a suitable context, Cullens’ habitat can be a benchmark!
How India has progressed The following table illustrates the steady growth of green buildings in India
2001
Till date*
1
CEOs and senior people involved
50
10,000
2
No. of professionals trained on green building concepts
10
17,000
3
No. of IGBC green buildings registered
0
1,745
4
Built-up area (sq. ft.)
0
1.21 billion
5
Green building products and equipment
5
120
6
IGBC membership
0
1,315
7
IGBC local chapters
0
13
8
IGBC AP
0
863
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Source: CII - IGBC
30
Criteria
September 2012
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COVER STORY Some salient green building features Orient building to allow optimum sunlight and ventilation
Envelope
High performance walls, roofs, like fly ash bricks for walls, over deck insulation.
Glass
High performance glass – double glazed units, low e Glass
Appliances
BEE star rated equipment and appliances – air conditioners, refrigerators and geysers.
Lighting Systems
Energy efficient lamps and luminaries – T5, CFL, LED, high frequency electronic ballast.
Renewable energy sources
Solar photovoltaic, solar water heaters, biogas
Energy Monitoring
Energy meters and sub meters to measure, monitor and sustain building performance
Water Fixtures
Use ultra-low and low flow flush water fixtures –dual flush systems, high flush 4-6 LPF/low flush 1.5-2 LPF, water less urinals
Water Management
Provide rain water harvesting / storage structures
Sourcing of Building Materials
Treat 100% of waste water onsite
Certified Wood
Use water meters to monitor the consumption of treated grey water, irrigation water, rainwater reuse, domestic hot water
Sustainable Site measures
Use eco-friendly building materials and try to source materials that are locally manufactured (within 400 km) from project site
Transportation
Use wood certified by local forestry or rapidly renewable materials (plantations that can completely replenish within 10 years) for all wooden products and furniture
Landscaping
Retain and reuse fertile top soil during construction for landscaping, post-occupancy
Irrigation efficiency
Maximize the vegetated open space in the building
Interior Finishing Materials
Use alternate fuel vehicles such as electric cars for local conveyance and encourage car/ van pooling and public transport
Optimise ventilation & day lighting
Reuse treated waste water for landscaping
Views for occupants
Use drought tolerant and native species for landscape to reduce irrigation requirement
Use drought tolerant and native species for landscape to reduce irrigation requirement
Use drip and sprinkler irrigation systems for enhanced water efficiency
Irrigation efficiency
Use NO or low volatile organic compound (VOC) materials such as paints, adhesives, sealants and coatings
Interior Finishing Materials
Design openings to enhance cross ventilation
Optimise ventilation & day lighting
Ensure maximum daylight into all occupied spaces
Ensure maximum daylight into all occupied spaces
Design interior layouts that would provide a better connectivity to the occupants with the external world
Views for occupants
Design interior layouts that would provide a better connectivity to the occupants with the external world
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Source: IGBC, Hyderabad
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Building Design
Bayerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eco Commercial Building: A net positive building Bayerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eco-commercial Building located at Noida has been awarded with the prestigious LEED-India Platinum rating by IGBC. It is the first green building in the country that has installed renewable energy systems to cater to 100% of its energy requirement. The twostory building with around 900 sq. m. of floor area was designed and optimized based on comprehensive computer simulation. Some of the green building features include use of high performance envelope, energy efficient airconditioning and lighting systems, local materials and 100% onsite treatment of waste water.
Viswa Syamalam, Chennai Viswa Syamalam has exceedingly complied with all the prerequisites of making it a world class green home. For example, with rain water harvesting, recycling and adopting conservation methods and practices, Viswa Syamalam is a water positive home with least carbon foot print. 100% smart lighting: This ecofriendly home uses natural day light, with the result that from sunrise to sunset not a single electric lamp is required to be used in any part of the home Further, Suzlon One Earth, Turbo Energy, Delta Power and other green buildings have installed technologies like solar PV and BIPV that harness solar power, which has become the integral part of the building envelope.
Average benefits /
CO2 reduction
12,000 tons
Energy savings
15,000 MWh
Water savings
45,000 kl
Construction waste diverted from landfills
450 tons
October 2012 September
million sq. ft.
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Source: IGBC, Hyderabad
IGBC Green Homes Rating System is receiving increased acceptance. Over 560 green homes projects amounting to over 513 million sq. ft. of green building footprint are registered. IGBC Green Townships Rating System is also receiving encouraging response from the stakeholders. At least 20 projects amounting to over 78 million sq. ft. are registered under this rating system.
Environmental benefit category
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INTERVIEW
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“OPTIMUM LAND USAGE SHOULD BE PRIMARY CRITERION FOR
GREEN
”
BUILDINGS
A
mong the best known architects in the country, Hafeez Contractor undoubtedly has some of India’s best known commercial building designs to his credit. He has also been noted and cited as a member of the Bombay Heritage Committee and New Delhi Lutyens Bungalow Zone Review Committee. Known for having designed the tallest building in India, the Imperial Towers. Contractor has famously been quoted in the media as calling green buildings a joke in India. In a detailed interaction with Shashwat DC and Neha Kumari, he gets candid on why he still stands by what he said. You have called green buildings a joke in India. What prompted you to say so?
When and in what context I said so is very important. I said the manner in which we are giving recognition to green buildings is not correct. There are much more important perspectives than just the way green buildings are looked at. Today, how do we term a building as green? We just take into consideration that the energy is conserved. And only on this aspect or other such things, like the buildings are not getting heated, air conditioning usage is less, or material used in the offices is reusable, we term them as green buildings. What I am saying is that there is much more to add to the definition of a green building.
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INTERVIEW
What then is the real problem with the concept of green building in India?
Today our population is bursting. We are going to be among the countries that are going to have more population in urban areas. Everyone is wasting more food every day, everyone is consuming more energy every day, and everyone needs more space. The demands for housing, for space and for real estate are increasing and so are the demands for building materials. So what I’m saying is that conserving ground space, and conserving the land is most important. The way we are not giving enough importance to conserving land is a concern. Say, today I take a 10-acre plot which is a farm land or something similar to that and make a bungalow there. I use cycled material, get platinum rated material and take care of all such aspects. But then, the land has been wasted. And why I say so is because today how you are rating the land is important. If it is Mumbai, you have to see how much population is supposed to come here. If I make a bungalow with ground and upper floors, to me it is not a green building. The farm land will get converted into an urban space [without contributing to the city’s sustainability]. That’s why I’m saying that the green building [definition] is not enough.
km wide. Then you’ll make infrastructures that much. Where is your green building? That’s why I’m saying the existing parameters are not enough! Optimum usage of land should be the main criteria and this should be applied over a wide range. What according to you would be the ideal solution for green and green buildings?
See, for India, a green building should be evaluated not just from a building perspective. How you are using the land and other such aspects are also to be involved. Suppose I’m next to a station or I’m next to a highway, my land should be utilised in such a way that more people can benefit from it faster. We must understand why we are doing this. We want to conserve the land, we want to conserve the energy, and we want to conserve everything. It is not just about air conditioning. That is not enough! Ask around within your family. Ask your father or grandfather how many shirts he had? And how many shirts you have now? Earlier, people wouldn’t waste even a bit of food, but look around today: you will find food thrown away here and there. Who is cooking and who is taking so much of effort for everything? The same applies to anything and everything. We will not have enough land to house our people in future. We have to change our urban laws on how So are you saying that India can’t really stand on we are going to design our cities. We have to the concept of green buildings, conthink about green cities. Green does not just sidering the increasing population mean what is green in a given place. and infinite demands of people? “We have to change (It is more of the impact that you have on our urban laws. We the people and everything around.) Let me tell you. It’s a good start and it is The media wants to pick up only those doing well. It has started making many have to think about words that are interesting and will make people conscious about the making of green cities, not news. They don’t write the context in which a glass building with green elements just focus on what it was said. Now if you are considering only added to it. My only concern is that select aspects of green building and keep whatever we are doing as of now is not is green in a given talking about it, without enhancing and anaenough in the context of a country like place” lysing other aspects, it is a joke! This is what India. This is not the case for the US or I had meant. Germany and other such developed countries. There they have cities with so many buildings that are unoccupied. What do you feel about the kind of fascination that The population density ratio in India is very different. we have in India for LEED? What is your view on Today, out of our 1.15 billion people, 70 percent don’t these kinds of certifications? even have proper housing. What are we doing? We are just borrowing farm land and making it an urban land. Let’s be very clear. LEED is a global organisation. They Now here, what floor area ratio (FAR) are we getting? have a great support. I wish they take up this course Are we using enough in order to meet what should be and go forward as it will be much better. a green building criterion of “I use my land to the most proper extent?” You have been a proponent of vastu and ancient To illustrate the point, let me tell you about my famIndian wisdom. Where do you think we can draw ily. I come from a very poor family. My father died early. essence from it and do better? My mother was a school teacher. How she used to cook? She would get some vegetables, cook them and whatAgain, I would say vastu has to be understood properly. ever bits and pieces were remaining, she would prepare Now, what is vastu first of all? Let’s go 100 years back. a new dish out of it. So what I’m trying to say is it is like At that time there was no municipality; our society was sugarcane juice (using all the elements). Are we doing constituted of small villages. There were 20-30 houses that with the land? Now, just imagine, very soon you in a colony with 1,000 to 2,000 people in it. Cities were will realise that there is no land left. Then what will only a few. Now, for any system to work, people have you do? Then you’ll make cities that are 100 km to 200 to abide by that. How to achieve that? Well, religion is 36
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that there is more to be done. something that also teaches you how to “The way we are There is just so much more to be done. do things. Remembering the Almighty is one part and is very important, but it giving importance How many people are staying in slums? Is it right? Our FAR is not at all green! It is also teaches what to do, when to do, what to green building black! So many want to stay but you don’t to avoid and other such things. So, it says needs to be let them stay. All this should be taken you will dispose off in a particular way when into consideration before deciding what is somebody dies. That is a certain form of vastu. corrected. One green and what is black. I qualify for a four Then there is some kind of vastu at the time of should think and or five-floor building and on the same plot marriages too. So basically, for anything to everealise our FAR is I put around 20 floors, house more people. rything, there is a certain kind of vastu. And so not at all green! It Now, is it just because you are doing fourfor buildings, there is a vastu too! five floors that you are not green? No, you Now let us consider this. What does it say? Put is black!” don’t have a grading for that. That is where your building on west and south. Keep your east the difference lies. and north more open. Why? It will bring more We have scope. We are doing so much for our cities. light to your life as sun rises in the east. For most of the Are we doing it in the right manner? From green buildIndia, south west is the crease. So when any room or ing, we have to get qualified for a green city and then anything is on south west, you will have more breezes. only the green building movement is doing its duty. So I’m not saying we will follow vastu. First understand, and then follow it. Do you think green buildings can also be beautiful, and aesthethic rather than just focussing on the utilitarian aspect?
Of course! I am not against green buildings. But I’m saying it’s not enough. I have myself designed so many green buildings. We have so many projects going on for green buildings. But I’m stressing again and again that the way we are giving importance to green building needs to be corrected. One should think and realise
What about the corporate offices? What do you feel about them? Urban housing is there, but corporate offices waste a lot of land and energy.
Same thing. You should not waste your land. You should make optimum use of land. There is an infinite land quantum. Suddenly you will find that, ‘my God, so much of land is wasted!’ If you are using the campus to its potential then you are right, but everyone wants to make only two-three floors. Those are not green campuses. October 2012
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COVER STORY
A million-footfall opportunity Stores can make big cuts in water and energy expenses using plug-on techs and in the process also give out green messages to millions of their customers By Niranjan Khatri
E
mbracing the environment and creating awareness to protect it is not just a fad anymore but an urgent, burning issue. And no longer is it a romantic movement begun by the hippies in the late sixties and restricted to a few ideological groups, but a worldwide concern. Each industry now understands that resources available in Nature are finite. And so across sectors, there is an increasing consciousness to be sustainable. How can our retail sector too reduce carbon footprint significantly? Sky is the limit when it comes to going green, and retailers can be vital agents in bringing about an impact in their own organizations and to their customers as well. Retailers can begin by constructing a green building. The moment you say â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;green building,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; you are addressing the energy and atmospheric issues and the
38
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water footprint of the building, and also looking at your material content and seeing how green it is. You employ your mind to innovate. Considering the fact that the retail sector gets millions of footfalls every day, how do they use the opportunity to not only drive change within the store buildings but also create an impact on the customers? This could be partly done by putting up messages in different parts of their stores. Store owners could also look at allowing their customers to dispose the packaging of the items they buy, at the store itself. This way it can be taken for recycling from the shop. Sometimes the recycling is done, but it is not up to the standards. There is a need to strategize and create new designs whereby such waste is treated as wealth and recycled intelligently. If a retail chain exhibits appropriate communication as to what happens to the waste then perhaps the customers will be more willing to adopt such methods.
Water management opportunities
the store is receiving too much heat at what time, then accordingly change the glass to e-glass only in those If it is a new building, then constructing a ‘green buildareas and keep certain parts of the building the same. ing’ is fairly by the book. But what about the existing You have to be intelligent in using e-glass because it buildings that now need to go green? There are many is a bit expensive. Its use can have a cascading impact ideas that can be implemented in such cases. Plug-on on your air conditioning because if your heat load is technologies go a long way in reducing energy and less, then your air conditioning needs also become water intensity. For example, stores and malls can lower. On lighting, there are huge opportunities. If it wean themselves away from sensor-based urinals to is a new building, the design can be in such a way that waterless urinals. In sensor-based urinals, a certain you maximize the intake of day light. This not only amount of water goes down the drain when used. This reduces reliance on artificial light but also adds to the often is treated water which is not required for ‘C’ catbottom line. egory need. Using ‘A’ category water for ‘C’ category Many retailers are still using incandescent or haloneeds doesn’t make sense when the city doesn’t get gen lights – infamous for creating heat and consuming enough water to drink. high energy. Although LED lights are slightly more Usually the water flow rate in the taps in the wash expensive than CFL light, it is important that one does basins is as high as six to eight liters per minute. a lifecycle analysis and cost study. For example, I am Using easily available plug-on technology, this can paying Rs 100 for this light but within three years be effortlessly brought down to two liters per minute. I recover this money and after that it is all savings What is used is a strainer shaped object that allows for me. The advantage of LED light is that it is a cold the water to spray out instead of flow continuously. light. A normal bulb is hot when in use, so you won’t You can’t tell hundreds of people to turn the tap even be able to touch it. But LED lights are cold slowly so by design intent one can even when lit, so their usage brings down the reduce the consumption of water. energy consumption because they are not a The objective is to embed sustainheat source. ability into every process so that Bringing in as Therefore if LED lights are used by design others can see it without being much daylight as intent at the project stage then instead of told so. possible by using installing a big air conditioner, perhaps only a Departmental stores must put glass innovatively smaller one will be required. Holistic thinking up a sewage treatment plant and has to be brought about in the entire system reuse that water for air conditioncan have a direct while looking at the operations. ing and horticulture if they have impact on energy It is a known fact that forty-seven percent that and move away from supplylevels. E-glass of heat gain is from the roof tops. This can be side management to demand-side management. By doing so, the reliwhich brings in the reduced drastically by using high albedo paint ance on the municipality is also light but keeps the which is a reflective paint; it is a big saving on the air conditioning as well. reduced greatly. heat out may be The biggest challenge that many face is the Water harvesting on the store used intelligently cost of these items. When we were constructroof tops is feasible for existing ing ITC Green Centre, we had to import the stores because they have number of paint. But today things have changed and it pipes carrying the rain water into is available in many cities. But many feel that going the drains, depending on the size of the building. It green increases their expenses. So there are alternative isn’t too expensive to harvest rain water because most plans as well. There are heaps of construction debris of the work is already done. It is just that you need to lying at the sites and countless white broken tiles. ensure that the rooftop water goes into your recharge The broken tiles can be bought from the tile businesspits for which you need to make pits and there is a men and can be easily integrated on your roof tops, particular methodology of doing that. There is enough it is quite inexpensive. That again helps in cooling information on this and quite a few water harvestbecause it reflects the heat back in the atmosphere. ers are available today. This is something that can be And if someone doesn’t want to spend even that much executed without any trouble. then the simplest thing to do is to purchase around ten gunny bags and place those on roof tops and that Energy conservation potential will also effectively reflect the heat and keep it cool If a retailer is looking at saving energy then a profesduring summers. sional must do an audit of the energy profile of the If retail chains have the luxury of space, they can store or building and then he can use the green buildconvert their wet garbage into manure by using a teching principles to reduce energy consumption. Also, if nology called organic waste converter (OWC). They stores bring in as much daylight as possible by using could even be selling that manure. Remember, nothing glass innovatively, this has a direct impact on the is waste; waste is only wealth in the wrong place. energy levels. E-glass which brings in the light but keeps the heat out is an ideal product for this application. As there are five types of climatic conditions Niranjan Khatri is General Manager, Welcomenhere, an energy auditor can inform you which part of viron Initiatives, ITC WelcomGroup October 2012
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COVER
A Personal Journey How Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first Griha green home happened â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and the road ahead for others By Prasanto K Roy
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O
ur small planet looks a brilliant blue from outer space. Closer home, green is the favorite color – and the most politically correct today. So much so that there’s an explosion of “greenwashing” – green PR and advertising that promotes a perception of being green, whatever the reality. Strangely, India’s housing sector hasn’t been bitten even by the greenwashing bug, let alone by a real green bug. Green doesn’t matter in housing in India. Very few real-estate developers know – or care – what green means. So when I started hunting for a green-rated house or apartment in Gurgaon in 2005, it was no surprise that not a single developer had anything to offer. DLF, Unitech, Vatika… they all spoke about green lawns and trees. DLF officials even spoke glowingly about a giant green golf course in Gurgaon – the ultimate crime in a water-starved land. To cut a long story short, there would be no green housing in India for the next seven years. Meanwhile, commercial buildings were going green. Not by the hundreds, but by the dozens. Right next door to our office, in Gurgaon’s sector 32, was ITC’s Green Center, its Hotels Division headquarters. For several years, it was the world’s largest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum-rated green building. Green Center was impressive – at its time, at the cutting edge of building tech. I walked past it many times, and walked around in it several times, with my friend Niranjan Khatri, ITC Hotels’ passionate green evangelist. I asked, why can’t I do this in a small house? The answer seemed to be: it’s overkill, and way too expensive, to go all the way with a rating. LEED experts and architects said the same thing. A few years down the line, TERI introduced Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (Griha), a competing system that was more tuned to India. The cost wasn’t very different from LEED. Aimed at commercial buildings, it cost Rs 5 lakh just for the registration. In early 2011, I re-discovered an old friend from my school. Architect Nilanjan Bhowal had specialized in green buildings for his post-graduation, and was already working on a green building. We decided to go ahead and collaborate on a house with a Griha
certification – and we’d call it Green One. We had a first meeting with TERI. A few days later, on an NDTV gadget awards jury panel, I found that my fellow juror, actor Gul Panag, was already building a house with green features. But she wasn’t going in for a green rating, thanks to the cost and complexity. So the three of us went to TERI – Gul and her husband Rishi Attari came in straight from a Jet Airways flight from Milan that Rishi was piloting – and asked how they could simplify and make Griha more suited to homes. As it turned out, TERI had been thinking of the same thing, and was working on a simplified version. In two months, TERI launched Svagriha. Costing one-fifth of a regular Griha process, it would lead to a full-fledged Griha certification, while allowing for a simpler self-documentation process with fewer external audits. Nilanjan and I promptly registered Green One, my future home in South Delhi’s CR Park (built to replace a 30-year-old house), as TERI’s Svagriha pilot project in June 2011. It would be the first individual home in India to register for a Griha rating. Gul and Rishi filed their papers soon afterward, their upcoming weekend home in a Mulshi farmland, near Pune, becoming India’s second home to apply for Griha registration.
October 2012
Green One will use AAC (autoclaved aerated concrete) on the outer walls, and fly-ash bricks on the inner walls There’s recycled material used throughout Green One, such as this mezzanine structure which will be made completely with recycled metal Much of the steel in Green One comes from reclaimed, recycled steel rods and bars Removing and replanting a fullygrow tree requires a lot of skilled hands, and careful planning and execution
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COVER
Over the past year, I’ve spoken and written about green homes, and faced questions, curiosity, interest, skepticism. In the sidebar is a list of the top questions. And in the year since those two registrations in mid-2011, about ten more homes have registered for Svagriha, versus about 200 commercial buildings. That’s way too few for a billion-people country. But
with most of those registrations happening in 2012, the green home movement is beginning to pick up steam. Prasanto K Roy, editorial advisor at CyberMedia, is building India’s first Griha green home. Twitter: @prasanto
The Green Home FAQ Can I recover the spend? You get back some of it in energy cost savings, and others in softer benefits - like having water when your neighbors run out of it. (Do people ask if they can recover the spend on Italian marble or fancy fittings?)
Why a rating?
What’s a green home? A home that has the least impact on the environment through its life, from construction to demolition. It uses sustainable materials, less energy, recycles water. Ideally, it should be certified as green, by TERI or LEED.
Why green? How does it help? You save energy and water. You have better living conditions—with more natural light and cleaner, better air. You have the satisfaction of knowing that your house has had minimal environment impact. (Bonus: it’s different. You stand out from the crowd.)
What does it cost? About 5 percent more than a regular home, depending on how many features, and how much automation, you’d put in. (That’s less than the premium you’d spend on fancy bathroom fitting and finishing and Italian marble.) Plus the rating cost: about Rs 1 lakh for a home, under Svagriha.
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For validation that you have a true green home, and not just one with a few features. Sort of like why there are exams and other certifications. If you’re buying from a real-estate developer, it helps you screen the fake, greenwashed claims from a true green building. And there may be concessions for green ratings, now or in the future.
What do GRIHA or LEED evaluate? They give you points on over thirty parameters, such as materials used, energy consumed, lighting, and water conservation. Based on the total score, you can get one to five stars (Griha) or a platinum, gold, etc (LEED).
Can I do without a rating? Yes. You can simply take the detailed Griha guidelines as a reference and choose what you can or want to follow, out of it. You’ll still get those specific benefits – lower energy costs, for instance.
Can I do anything with an existing home? Yes – even if you can’t change its basic design, construction or materials, you can do quite a bit. For instance, cut energy use: use reflective paint to keep your house cool, move to lowpower lighting, find and fix energy leakages.
BOOK SHELF
Ecological Intelligence By Daniel Goleman
The author urges buyers to ensure that not just the product but also the process that brought it out is ecofriendly. Sailee K reviews the book.
“E
verything about what we buy and why is set to change” is the tagline of this book. Ethical shopping is one way to support the ecological system or intelligence. Daniel Goleman, the author, has highlighted the importance of ecologically intelligent shopping. The book says that while shopping, the background of a product, from its manufacturing process till its sales, should be transparent to the consumers. The buyers should be aware of its impact on the environment. This transparency has been coined as Radical Transparency. Goleman has stressed upon the malpractices of the corporate world whose impact can be seen on environmental, social, geographical and biological spheres. The author has given in-depth information about the health issues of workers and impact on environment by the manufacturing process of the factories. Many examples of the factories that were forced to go green and eco-friendly due to consumer pressure through social media sites have been mentioned. The book chases the personal journey of the author and various remedies to boost the ecological intelligence of shoppers while buying the products. According to the author, the consumers should have as much knowledge of the products as possible. It should answer the following questions: Is the product sustainable? Is it chemical free? Some important and reliable information regarding the products can be gained from social sites like Twitter or Facebook. One such prominent site especially designed for the shoppers is GoodGuide, which plays an eminent role in guiding the consumers by providing full report of the product. Social media platforms can guide consumers; they have the strength to change the brand loyalty of the consumer, which can affect the future prospects of
a company. The social sites have been the fastest marketing source delivering information to millions of people worldwide. The site, developed by O’Rourke’s, is a place where in-depth information is provided to consumers by the companies themselves. It has the facility of feedback or suggestions to the companies by consumers which is important for companies’ progress. One such example given by the writer is the community of mothers on the site which gives good or bad reviews of the baby products. Goleman asserts that consumers have taken the issue of green environment seriously. The labelling of ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘green product’ attracts consumers and they turn towards such products. This has been the trend of the companies to attract more and more sales and create major brand loyalty. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been designed to give the data base information of the company and the impact of its functions on environment, health of workers and consumers. The author has briefly discussed the remedies undertaken by some organizations and companies like Timberland or Coca-Cola and many others who try to contribute towards efficient use of energy and resources so that they can earn the confidence of their consumers. The book tries to cover all the economic fields and products, from the t-shirts we wear to the oils and the transport system used for selling the products. The writer has tried to give maximum details of the ill-effects the ecology faces in day-to-day life. The highlight of the book is the importance of shoppers to be aware and knowledgeable. It asserts that only ethical shopping will not serve the planet. The consumers should also be aware of the manufacturing process and disposal of the products they choose. October 2012
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COVER STORY
Green comes home in India A photo-feature on some of the greenest buildings in India.
W
ith the global awareness about going Green, almost all sectors, like transport, manufacturing, media or retail, are adopting sustainable practices in India. Likewise, the concept of sustainable architecture is also catching up fast with builders and designers. Due to its healthy features and long term savings, many of the commercial and corporate buildings are going green - be it for the sake of environment or for creating a good image in the corporate world. These buildings ensure efficient use of available materials and ecological balance in the surrounding environment. Green spaces have allowed 14 to 16 percent rise in productivity. Besides, it also minimizes the operational cost of the building, consumes less water, resources and energy and helps to lower carbon footprint which certifies the building as being more environmentally responsible. And if you thought green buildings would only serve ecological purpose, but actually look simple and boring, you are in for a surprise. Architects are coming up with astounding building designs and models that look ravishing as well as are environment-friendly. Have a look at the beautiful green buildings â&#x20AC;&#x201C; some of which are completed and already garnering praise.
HYDERABAD
CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business center This was the first building to receive the platinum certification outside US and also first in India, in 2003. It is designed in a way as to collect rain water, make use of the natural lighting and the solar power. The result - conservation of energy by 55 percent, compared to the other conventional buildings.
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PHOTO-FEATURE
PUNE
Suzlon global headquarters ‘One Earth’ The building received the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) Platinum award for its new corporate headquarters in Pune. Constructed on an area of 41,000 square meters (10.13 acres), it has a capacity to house 2,300 people. The award winning structure focuses on key areas such as human and environmental health; sustainable site development; efficient water; energy and waste methods, materials and resource selection; and indoor environmental quality and innovation. This made it possible to build the huge facility at a much lower cost compared to other facilities of similar size.
CHENNAI
Viswa Syamalam Viswa Syamalam, a house in Madipakkam, is one of only two individual homes in the country to have received a green rating. It was awarded platinum rating in 2009. Some of the interesting features of the home are that it boasts of least carbon foot print and lowest energy loads and consumption Utilisation of renewable energy. It also has the lowest operating and maintenance cost with positive life-cycle benefits, as well as 100% selfsufficiency in water. The house also has excellent ventilation for round-the clock freshness in the entire premises and to ensure that whenever ambient is less than 28°C there is no need to turn on airconditioners.
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COVER STORY
KOLKATA
Vedic Village Eco-Homes Vedic Village is a concept at Rajarhat in Kolkata that sprawls some 150 acres of green fields, fertile farmlands, sparkling lakes, coconut groves etc. and also boasts of migratory birds, plants, butterflies, squirrels. Some villas here are uniquely designed around landscaped lakes for making you feel close to nature, with the design incorporating unique eco-friendly features. The Eco Homes with grass-sloped roofs protects the home from summer heat and winter chill.
LADAKH
The Druk White Lotus School Situated 3,500 meters above sea level, this modest school is regarded as a live example of sustainable, green, cost effective building development. The building has received the Best Asian Building, Best Education Building and Best Green Building awards. Built with traditional materials such as locally excavated stone, mud bricks, timber and grass; it combines the best of traditional Ladakh architecture with 21 st century engineering excellence.
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PHOTO-FEATURE
CHENNAI
ITC Grand Chola South India’s largest super-premium integrated luxury hotel complex, ITC Grand Chola, has earned the title of world’s largest LEED Platinum rated green hotel. All hotels of the ITC group implement a carbon positive, water positive and solid waste recycling positive status to ensure that a guest’s stay at any of its luxury hotels contributes to a lower carbon footprint. The LEED Platinum rating is recognition of ITC Grand Chola’s commitment to perform to the highest standards of energy, water and waste efficiency and ITC Hotels’ commitment to continue to provide inspiration to the Green Building movement in India.
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COVER STORY
KOLKATA
ONGC ONGC, one of the largest PSUs in India, assigned renowned architect to design its major office building in Kolkata. The idea was to create an energy-efficient, green, intelligent and barrier-free office building (in around 32,000 square metres) at Rajarhat in Kolkata at an investment of approximately Rs. 228 Crore. The new complex aspires to secure a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Platinumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rating from the United States Green Building Council, to be the first such building in West Bengal.
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PHOTO-FEATURE
TRIVANDRUM
Infosys Campus Designed by Hafeez Contractor, the Infosys campus resembles a coconut frond when seen from the air. It looks like a ship when seen from the ground. The building has received LEED certification. The building has not been appreciated from an utilitarian perspective but also from an aesthetic purpose. Employees working in this campus have endorsed the same views in many a surveys.
Read more at: www.sustainuance.com October June 2012
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Sebastian Joseph
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Pratap Gharge
Daya Prakash
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Volume 01 • Issue 01 • Mumbai • 70 Pages • August 2012 • Price `100
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To me corporate sustainability is not only about designing strategy or road map for the organizational growth, cultivating resource power but also creating business value, maintaining transparency, social & cultural responsibility. This also implies to be able to efficiently adapt to rapid change happening in technology, business needs, environment, society and economy. - Comment - Like
Anurag Chaturvedi, Head IT, Reliance Spot Exchange Infrastructure Limited
Corporate Sustainability is business concepts that creates long-term shareholder value, improves performance by bringing in transparency, removing waste and manages risk thereby making a business survive even during odd times. Corporate Sustainability addresses the issues of socio-economic and environmental issues arise during the executing a business. - Comment - Like
SP Arya, Sr.Vice President Corporate(IT), Amtek Group
To sustain one has to set big goals and thinking about a differentiated strategy. The best way to get an idea and is to think about the problem first and then work backwards to the solution. There are plenty of problems to be solved and this means lot of opportunities. Look around yourself and find the problems that you feel for or look for a problem that is big or will be big. Just don’t copy and paste open your mind to the problems that exist around you. - Comment - Like
Pertisth Mankotia, Head IT, Sheela Foam
For us sustainability is more than mere term or objective, it is one of our defining purposes. Our core purpose is to facilitate the three great mantras; accepting no limits, alternative thinking, driving positive change in the lives of our stakeholders. - Comment - Like
Suresh Shanmugham, Head BITS, Mahindra Finance
Sustainability is one of the most important strategic initiatives enterprises will undertake in the coming decade. The goal behind most green business initiatives, including green IT, should be to promote environmental sustainability. - Comment - Like
Shailesh Joshi, Head IT, Godrej Industries
Sustainability has to be part of DNA of an organization– we need to consider long term impact of our actions and decisions so as not to compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. - Comment - Like
Vijay Sethi, CIO, Hero Motocorp
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What is your definition of Sustainability?
WALL POST
October 2012
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Sustainability to me is nothing but creation of long term value for the stake holders. It is all about having a healthy socio-economic and cultural environment keeping in mind that the next generation is not deprived of. This is definitely not “should be” but a “must be” part of corporate strategy. - Comment - Like
Daya Prakash, CIO, LG Electronics
A methodology by which we engage with all stakeholders in building an organization that includes employees, investors, suppliers, government agencies, media there by managing the commitment to the business via Financial, environmental and socio-economic development without losing the sight on business ethics. - Comment - Like
Shiva Shankar, Group CIO, SPIC
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In simple terms how do we devise strategies/practices to conserve and re-use various limited resources that we use in our daily life – such as water, electricity, gas, heat, fuel, energy, etc. - Comment - Like
Sebastian Joseph, Chief Technology Officer, DDB Mudra Group
The real definition of sustainability for the corporate should be balance between profitable growth without causing any damage to the environment, increase reusability of the product, packaging material etc., conserve energy, water and avoid all types of pollution, innovate in all the areas to have long term sustainable business model. - Comment - Like
Pratap Gharge, President & CIO, Bajaj Electricals Ltd.
Your today should complement tomorrow, better take actions to avoid reactions. Today “Sustainability” as a term is known to most of us and the credit goes to increased environmental awareness. Sustainability in business is measured by CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities but I don’t think that is the right approach. CSR addresses issues retroactively, whereas Sustainability implies a forward trajectory. - Comment - Like
Vishwajeet Singh, CIO, Epitome Travel Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd.
My thought on corporate sustainability has always been around employee engagement and transparency by the organization. The push is to get better engagement with the employees to ensure growth and thus increased contribution and loyalty to the organization. Once you have such buy in you are able to use all other resources longer and better thus making better use of resources. - Comment - Like
Navtej Matharu, Consultant and CIO APAC at Envesage.com
needs, environment, society and economy. - Comment - Like
CHEAT SHEET
Facts Stats Numbers
Facts, figures, statistics, datapoints galore for your presentations, or for conversations. Use them, quote them, or just be amazed. Collated by Neha Kumari
Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning
(HVAC)
80%
systems
account for between
40% 60% and
of total energy use (all forms of energy) in the commercial sector.
Around of the e-waste in the U.S. is exported to Asia in countries like China, India and Kenya where lower environmental standards and working conditions make processing e-waste more profitable.
1.8 tonnes
Accounting for only
5%
of oil are
of the world’s population, Americans consume
saved
26%
for every tonne of
recycled
of the world’s total energy.
polythene produced
CNG 95% cleaner gasoline A
Glass
never wears out — it can be recycled
vehicle is
than a
-powered vehicle
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forever!
The world’s population is growing by
200,000
people a day
China and India will account for
45%
of the increase in global primary energy demand by
2030,
with both countries more than doubling their
energy use
over that period, according to the IEA World Energy Outlook 2007.
(GIM)
One ton of paper made completely from recycled scrap saves 7000 gallons of water, 4100 kilowatt-hours of energy,
Green India Mission is one of the 8 th Mission under national action Plan of
GOI
launched to respond the climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures.
three cubic yards of landfill space, and 17 trees.
One tonne of CO2 would: • fill a typical three bedroom house • be produced by 4000 car miles consuming approximately 550 litres of fuel • be offset by 150 mature (25 years old) pine trees per year.
The production of a single computer uses
42,000
Half the world’s original
forest cover
of some three billion hectares has been
destroyed
in the last 40 years; only 20% of what remains is undisturbed by human activities.
gallons of water.
Plastic makes up
9%
of average household waste.
84%
Silicon from
just one ton
of sand, used in photovoltaic cells, could produce as much electricity as burning
500,000 tons
of coal.
of consumers in China, India, Malaysia and Singapore say they would accept a higher price for green products - compared to only
One
in Western countries.
300
50%
wind turbine can produce enough electricity to power up to power up to homes. October 2012
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FOCUS
So what if sun rises in east? Gujarat has made rapid strides in renewable energy, with a multitude of solar power projects running full steam Jigna Khajuria
I
n response to the threat of global warming and energy security, Gujarat announced the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Solar Power Policyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in January 2009. Since such power projects require large stretches of land, the Gujarat government introduced the concept of solar park. Gujarat recorded an installation of 605 MW solar power plants by January 2012, and the projects have attracted an investment of Rs 9,000 crore, while also providing employment to 30,000 skilled and unskilled manpower. These solar plants will generate 30 lakh units of clean The Gujarat Solar energy per day and have the Park at Charanka capacity to electrify 10 lakh households. They will also in Patan is reduce CO2 emissions at the the largest in rate of 10 lakh tonnes per year. Asia and has a The project is supported capacity to host a by the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission. total of 500 MW Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd 54
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took the initiative and signed Power Purchase agreements for 968.5 MW with 85 national and international solar project developers by 2010. Among other initiatives in renewable energy, Gujarat has commissioned 789 MW of wind power. This year, the state expects to commission 1,000 MW, most of which is in the pipeline. Two towers with a capacity of 4 MW have already been built. Once the installations are complete, this will be the biggest solar-wind hybrid power park in the world. The state also plans to develop geo-thermal energy and tidal energy for which research is going on.
Solar park project: The Gujarat Solar Park at Charanka in Patan is the largest in Asia and has a capacity to host a total of 500 MW. The park uses around 5,000 acres of land, including 2,669 acres of government land (private land acquisition has not started yet). It utilizes government waste lands, taking advantage of high solar radiations and utilizing common
Social initiatives by GPCL • A dedicated road for the local villagers will facilitate easy movement from one end to another without interfering with the solar park activities • At present, villagers are dependent on water from the reservoir for a period of about one year. GPCL will later be able to provide water for a minimum of three months to carry out cultivation activities • Drinking water will be made available to Charanka village • A n ambulance service will be made available for the villagers • A n all-weather road connecting SH 127 from Jamvada to Charanka via Fangli would be completed • A state-of-the-art training facility would be there to train villagers in various fields
infrastructure to host multiple solar power projects. It also promises to extend the industry and employment to the remote locations of Gujarat. Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL) is the nodal agency for the park and has invested Rs 300 crore in the park infrastructure. Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Ltd (GETCO) has invested Rs 650 crore in the evacuation and transmission network. The Asian Development Bank has given a loan of Rs 500 crore for the project. The Solar Park received CII’s Environmental Best Practices Award for the Most Innovative Project in Feb 2012.
Model solar city project: The state capital
of Gandhinagar is being developed as a model solar city. The city already has several rooftop solar system installations ranging from 1 kW to 150 kW aggregating to a capacity of 1.39 MW. The rooftop practice also offers significant potential for employment. Now the state government has floated a 5 MW
Gandhinagar (Solar) Photovoltaic Rooftop Program through a public-private partnership system. GPCL is the ‘implementing agency’ for this project. Two developers – SunEdison Energy India Pvt Ltd and Azure Sun Energy Pvt Ltd – have been selected through a transparent international competitive bidding process. Similar rooftop solar programmes will be introduced to cities like Mehsana, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara in the near future.
Canal solar power project: It is the first canal-based
solar power project in India. A 1 MW pilot project is already commissioned on Narmada near Chandrasan village of Mehsana district. It is installed on a 750 meter stretch of the canal. It will generate 1.6 million units of clean electricity per year, and also prevent evaporation of 90 lakh litres of water every year from the canal. The project is developed by Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd with support from Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd.
Education, research and vocational training • T he School of Solar Energy was launched in 2008 at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Gandhinagar. • T he huge solar power plants make it mandatory to have skilled local workforce for construction, operation and maintenance of the plants • T he Directorate of Employment and Training (DET), Govt of Gujarat, with the support of GERMI and GPCL, has undertaken the important initiative to train the youth of Gujarat through various Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the state. • A one-month ‘Solar Photovoltaic Technician’ specialization course and syllabus has already been established through the Gujarat Council for Vocational Training.
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GREEN TAKE
Lean IT is green too. How? Dynamically adjusting IT supply helps contribute to an organization’s overall sustainability goals in a meaningful way K B Singh
A Initiatives such as keeping only the required systems on at a given time while making the additional ones available on demand can be effective
s the expanse of IT has grown in enterprises, so has the need and importance for IT sustainability. In particular, the power and cooling needs of modern day data centers and IT systems form a significant part of the enterprise’s overall power expenses. IT sustainability enables organizations to leverage greater benefits out of their IT infrastructure and to achieve improved returns on investments. It also equips them to maintain the pace of business growth and be more sustainable when faced with unforeseen downtrends in the economy and the markets. Organizations that fail to embrace sustainability would also have tougher times when required to struggle it out during a rough economic patch and may even find it hard to survive in the long term. IT sustainability, in our company BSES, is a very important part with a well-defined road map and a futuristic approach. With this in place, along with the will to take on challenges, there comes accountability as well as ownership at all levels. To make
the IT further more sustainable, we have the green IT initiative within the organization. Along with a host of other measures, we also took steps to optimize the power consumption and have the right mechanisms and controls on the waste generation as well as disposal. BSES’s first data center started working 10 years ago and later on we worked a lot to make it green-compliant to a large extent. We prepared a plan in a phased manner to convert it into a green data center and that has worked very well to a great degree of satisfaction. We reduced the power consumption in the data center through various initiatives, including servers and storage consolidation so that only the required resources were on at a particular time while additional resources could be made available either on the basis of historical trends or on demand. Virtualization, though limited, had been a key enabler in achieving this. Implementing rack-based cooling systems helped a lot in saving energy while the energy-efficient blade servers as well as storage added a lot of value. With 5,000 desktops and 1,000 printers in our organization, energy saving creates big impact. So we started lots of initiatives including power management system, moving with the backup and patches from night to day, using the sleep mode when laptop is not in use, switching off the monitor when not in use or before going home and restricted use of paper as well as printers. A key to sustainability is how dynamic IT is in the organization, which also includes the IT team’s acceptability, credibility and ability to deliver. The management’s attitude towards IT is important and so is the senior IT leadership’s attitude toward the business. K. B. Singh is the vice president, IT, BSES.
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INTERVIEW
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â&#x20AC;&#x153; GO UP, SOLAR PRICE COULD COME DOWN UP TO Rs 4 PER WATT â&#x20AC;? AS VOLUMES
W
hile global media at large and Indian media in particular have heaped praises on how Gujarat has moved miles ahead on the road to renewables, it has not been a journey that was made overnight. The story of renewable revolution in Gujarat is a story of how a strong political will and bureaucratic fervour can go a long way in achieving results. The man often credited for the renewed renewable change in Gujarat is an unassuming IAS officer, DJ Pandian , Principal Secretary, Energy and Petrochemicals Department. Working tirelessly out of his office in Gandinagar, Pandian has contributed immensely in changing the face of the state. His biggest achievement has been the speed at which the projects have been implemented. He has also taken great pains to ensure that the government is not spearheading the efforts alone but the private sector, too, plays a crucial role. In a free-wheeling interaction with Shashwat DC, Pandian shares the secret behind the success in Gujarat, while also duly crediting his mentor, CM Narendra Modi, as a real force behind it. Excerpts:
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INTERVIEW
ujarat has taken an indisputable lead when it comes to renewable energy generation, especially on the solar front. What have been the factors that have facilitated this transition? What are the pointers that the rest of Indian states can learn and adopt?
profit. Instead of paying income tax, let me pay to the developers, we said. And now whole of India is talking about solar power. In Tamil Nadu, they sell solar panel on the streets, like any other commodity. So everybody can put it up on their rooftop to produce their own electricity, and to light their own bulbs. That is how we went step by step – 1 MW of grid-connected solar power, weather power, then rooftop in cities, then canal. That’s how we popularised solar power. But even though we are paying Rs 15 per unit, we are not passing it on to the consumers. We are tallying our discounts and adjusting our profits. We also have surplus power, and we have also tied our power at very low rates – Rs 2.80, Rs 2.56, Rs 2.35. The solar power that we are producing is hardly one percent of the total generation capacity in terms of million units. So, we mix it, bundle it, sell it outside the state and make profit.
Even we wanted to go for more. At that time it was mainly us, so we introduced wind. We invested a lot of money in it, putting in the sub-station, putting up the line, but we needed some time. Of the last ten years, the first five years we did not make progress, but in next five years we got 2,500 MW. Out of 2000 MW 900 MW were ready in the last year itself. Now, it is about to take off as far as wind is concerned. Solar was mainly based on rooftop here and there, but not much progress What is your long-term goal for renewable energy? happened. We wanted to introduce it as a mega-scale grid, so we The chief minister recently said that 20 percent of started with one MW pilots. The government wanted energy should come through renewables in the next to spend money to demonstrate. People wouldn’t spend 20 years. Right now we are using 6 percent of energy until they could see how much is the capital cost and from renewables. It may be wind, solar or biomass, but how much tariff they would get in advance. So we put we don’t have much potential for hydro. We want to go up 1 MW of solar in one of the universities on a pilot for more renewable energy – 20 percent being our ideal basis. We could do it in 108 days, and successfully while 80 percent would be conventional. connected it to the grid and it was producing 1 MW. It was a big success, One of the biggest thresholds for and then many people got the confirenewable uptake has been stated to be dence that solar technology was not a the point where power generation costs “Right now we are big myth. We then espoused a policy of renewable energy per watt would be of giving a tariff of Rs 15 (which is cheaper than conventional power per using 6 percent decided right now, but at that time it watt. When do you think we will cross of energy from was Rs 18). that threshold, if at all? And what needs renewables. Then we brought all bankers to be done, to accelerate that process? We want to together and improved their confidence. Here is the government that It is possible only if you go on a larger scale. ideally reach 20 will pay for their electricity supply, we It’s like the mobile service – initially it was percent through said. We will not be like other governvery costly, then volumes went up and renewables ments and utilities who say that we the rates came down. So when the volume while 80 percent will supply power but you don’t pay. goes up and every house has 20 percent of We are not in debt, and our discounts the energy generated through the rooftop, would come from are a way to profit. So the bankers prices will come down to four rupees. conventional” gave loan to the developers. Then we There are so many roofs available, so as the introduced the Solar Park. Right now production of the panels will go up, the almost 255 MWs have come back and economy of scale will take place. The techpeople have put in their own land also. So we have 700 nology has also improved, not only in India, but also in MWs commissioned today. the US and in China. So the Government of India and Government of Gujarat should enforce it on every new household that 20 percent of their energy should come In spite of being a tropical country, with more than from renewable. We need to change our building code, 300 full ‘sun-days,’ India has still lagged much our utilization formula. Then it is possible. behind in adoption of solar power. What do you think are the primary reasons for that and how can the uptake be accelerated?
Though it has the potential, the technology is costlier and is complicated too. So people were worried. Somebody had to take a bold step seeing the high cost. That Gujarat did, because our discounts are making 60
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One of the major things done by Gujarat was to deal with the supply issues, getting digitisation in power structure, because there was a lot of loss. How can we minimise that?
It is a big challenge. On one side we are surplus, so we
are able to put the surplus power in the grid. Solar and wind energies have been produced only in recent times when the grids were available. Digitisation means a lot of investment in the infrastructure and the sub-stations. Fortunately, we are segregating our agricultural power and rural power. We invested significantly five years ago in the rural power distribution and allocation system and that is helping us. In addition, we want to put up smart metering, to systematically isolate the troublesome areas and power will continue to be allocated. We approached Asian Development Bank; they’ve agreed to give us 500 million dollars to put up a smart grid in Gujarat. That will help us to take care of solar and wind energy. Could you briefly touch upon the Gandhinagar project and the Canal project…
We wanted to introduce some novelty and innovation. After putting one megawatt in a university, we realized the land was very costly. So we thought let’s go to a remote place. So we introduced the Solar Park which is in the desert. But it was still costly. So we thought of the canal. The land was available, so we put it up there. Now, land cost became zero, but structural cost is increasing. We have to see how to reduce the structural cost. We have called scientists and engineers and they are suggesting new ways for putting up low-cost structures under the canal. So it will become cheaper. Thus, we constantly try to innovate and see how to reduce costs. That is our motto. After the examples from China and Japan, now India is also coming up with bigger projects in solar. Where do we head from here?
This is one big area. Because we are not manufacturing solar panels (we do but on a very limited scale), we need to encourage production in a big way. It is the mother of solar energy. China is leading in it. We invest a lot of money in giving subsidy based on policies. The moment we make the policy easier, the sale will be easier and panels will also be simpler. Gujarat government is ahead, but maybe after the elections we will go ahead in a big way and attract manufacturing industries in Gujarat.
Noida, we won’t be eligible. Why not utilize the competition? One of the amazing things about Gujarat is the participation it got from the private sector. The state as well as investors benefit. What has been the secret?
This is a high-cost, high-end technology. Unless we rope in private players, it is not sustainable for the government. Government cannot play monopoly in this. If we introduce private players, the rates come down. But it is still a risk. The other side of the criticism is that you are paying more to the private players. Right now, if we go for bidding, I can get it for six rupees, so that benefit indirectly comes to the Government of India, but we took the first step. Our tariffs are subjective, and we facilitate a lot in getting the land, in getting permission, and in government clearance. For providing water to clear up everything in the desert area, we put up a pipeline. We did whatever we could. This is what private investors want; they are getting good returns on their money. Recently Crisil said that Rs 9 per unit is not feasible. What is your thought on that?
That is Crisil’s view, but right now it is somewhere around Rs 8 and people are willing to come forward.
“Asian Development Bank has agreed to give us 500 million dollars to put up a smart grid. That will help us digitise solar and wind energy distribution”
For the ecosystem, you need participation from educational institutions and researchers. Have you also been connecting from that viewpoint?
We have selected ten engineering colleges and have put solar on their rooftops for power generation. We also created a sort of interest among them. We have also put up solar panels and power protection centres in IIT Gandhinagar. We created Gujarat Energy Research Management Institute, which is training people in the ITIs, particularly those who have completed their 10th or 12th. We are involving people in a different way. But we also need support from Government of India in the research grant so that we can expedite this in a big way.
On the policy front, Gujarat has gone ahead with its project by framing its own policies to promote generation of power, how has that been?
Do you feel any sort of pressure since the benchmark is set so high in terms of projects? People look towards Gujarat for better and grander plans…
The Central policy is that 30 percent of component should be domestic. We did not put up the restriction. For Gujarat, domestic is Gujarat, but we don’t do much manufacturing. If you put domestic in
We take pleasure in surpassing all benchmarks. Hopefully, next time we will set new benchmarks, with a real hero in our chief minister, Narendra Modi, to our advantage.
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FEATURE
A big-picture framework Global Reporting Initiative methods promote socio-economic and environmental sustainability, extending scope beyond energy efficiency, plantation and water management By Amit Patel
R
esponsible development has become an imperative for existence of organizations. Sustainability involves assessing and managing the impact spectrum of organizational growth plans on the stakeholders. Most organizations believe they have monopoly of wisdom in understanding growth impacts and its mitigation measures. But stakeholder understanding and expectations may be 180 degree apart. To achieve sustainability, organizations too narrowly focus on energy efficiency, plantation and water management, often leaving out complex issues of materiality,
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labor management, biodiversity, health and safety of employees. Achieving operational efficiency may not cover all that is required to be a sustainable organization. Involving stakeholders to understand their perspective is the logical first step to start the journey towards sustainability. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a nonprofit organization that promotes economic, environmental and social sustainability. Reporting on diverse parameters requires organizations to engage stakeholders. GRIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission is to make sustainability reporting standardized and comparable.
The framework has been designed for organizations to report on their economic, environmental and social performances. It is applicable to all organizations irrespective of the sector, geography and size, and is the world’s most widely used sustainability-reporting framework.
Increasing adoption
Organizations increasingly realize that stakeholders expect more accountability in not only financial performance, but also in environmental and societal performance. There was an increase of 22 percent in the number of reports registered on the GRI, rising from 1,491 in 2009 to 1,818 in 2010. The ‘KPMG International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2011’ lists the following findings: ❱ 95 percent of the 250 largest companies in the world (called G250 companies) now report on their corporate responsibility (CR) activities (See Figure 1) ❱ 64 percent of 100 largest companies in each of the 34 countries studied (the N100 companies), report on their corporate responsibility (Figure 1) ❱ 80 percent of G250 and 69 percent of N100 companies adhere to the GRI sustainability reporting guidelines (Figure 2) Indian companies, too, are slowly catching up with the idea of reporting their sustainability performance. There was a slight increase in the number of organizations reporting on GRI framework – from 21 in 2009 to 23 in 2010. The number may be small, but the quality of reports from India is the best as assessed by GRI itself. According to statistics from the GRI reports list, for the period of January to December 2010, 18 out of the 23 reports from India that were declared to GRI reported against all relevant indicators in the GRI guidelines, and were ‘assured.’ This shows an increase from 15 out of 21 reports from India being completed and assured in 2009.
Reporting process
The small number of reports from India may be attributable to the complex and time consuming process of reporting. The reporting process can be simplified by systematically following the five steps as prescribed by GRI: Prepare: The first step is to identify the contents of report, which involves understanding the major impact areas of an organization, e.g. beverage companies’ major impact area would be water. The preparation also involves forming the blueprint of the action plan to prepare report Connect: After identifying major impact areas, the next step involves talking to stakeholders and understanding sustainability topics in the identified area. Define: This is a crucial step in the process that involves defining scope and boundary of the reporting. For defining scope, management discussion may be held to understand the influence and capability of the organization.
Monitor: This is the operational step of reporting process. It involves identifying relevant processes and systems. The key activities and parameters for which data needs to be collected are defined and the information is collected. Report: Reporting finally involves compiling all the data and presenting it in meaningful and easily comprehensible format. Comparing performance against historical data and presenting matrices about key topics is important.
The reporting framework helps an organization to benchmark, measure and thereby improve its sustainability performances
Report rating
An organization can self-rate the report based on the number of parameters it reports as per the GRI guidelines. The GRI ratings are based on information disclosure rather than performance in economic, environmental and social areas. If the reports are externally verified then a ‘+’ rating is added to the rating claimed by an organization. For example, a report self-rated as ‘B’ would become B+ if it is externally assured. A GRI report involves disclosing information in key areas of economic, environment, social and
GRI software essentials An organization should look for the following features when going for a GRI software solution: • F lexibility: The end user should be able to configure the location specific GRI parameters • I nbuilt GRI parameters: This reduces the burden of manually entering parameters • C reation of profiles and privileges: This would ensure that information is displayed based on assigned roles • B uilt-in reports: The end user should be able to create and generate specific reports on a real time basis. Also, they should be able to assign or create targets for various parameters. • D rilldown dashboards: This is for executive reporting and analysis against real time data • User-defined f requency: End user can define the frequency of data collection for each site. • I n-built alerts: The notifications should be generated in case of non-completion of task. • S tandardization: It should be built as per GRI guidelines. • I ntegration: An interface should make it easy to integrate with external systems like SAP, Oracle and others. • E xport: It should be possible to export the repot to standard formats like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and CSV.
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governance. As per the guidelines, an organization can choose to report on 84 parameters for more than 34 aspects. The complexity in reporting is involved in identifying processes with major impact areas, capturing data and analyzing those. While reporting on more than 84 parameters, defining the scope for each parameter is also a complex process. Manual data collection can be an arduous process taking a lot of time and affecting productive work.
Even when the data is collected, the consistency of data may be missing in terms of units and reporting period. Further, manual data collection is error prone. The time lag for report publication for an Indian organization is approximately a year after the period of report. One best practice for organizations to follow is to define the owner of parameters and the aspects responsible for collecting relevant data as per the scope and finally reporting it. Considering the wide range of parameters, the stakeholder would also be diversified, say in terms of department or location.
Organizations can self-rate their reports based on the number of parameters as per the GRI guidelines, and if externally verified a report self-rated as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; becomes B+
IT tools and their applicability
Applicable data in an organization is collected from enterprise systems, spreadsheets, paper forms and hardware devices such as utility meters. An enterprise tool can seamlessly integrate with disparate systems and collect financial information, and consumption or HR data. Once configured, it enables the organization to collect, monitor and analyze data continuously to assess and improve performance and deviations in real time. Deploying a software solution could result in huge savings in costs, eliminate errors, and most of all, improve the processes. If the organization does not have sustainability management and reporting as its overriding priority, there is no need to suddenly start taking the drastic steps. But collecting data related to energy, material, water consumption and gaining an insight from it would always improve operational efficiency and provide quicker RoI. Gradually, the steps can be taken to continue the journey towards a sustainable organization.
Fig1 - Percentage of Companies Reporting on Sustainability Performance N100 companies making strong progress 100%
N100 - 100 largest companies in each of the 34 contries studied
80%
95 83
G250 - 250 largest companies in the world 64
60%
64 53
45
40%
41
35 20%
0%
24
18
12 1993
28
1996
1999
2002
2005
2008
Amit Patel is MD and CSO, Setu Net Pvt. Ltd. A golf enthusiast, he has also been working in the EHS&S domain for more than a decade now. He can be reached at amit.patel@mysetu.com.
2011
Fig2 - Percentage of Companies Reporting on GRI Framework The GRI continues as the global standard for reporting standards 100%
100%
80%
80%
N100
69 69 60%
60%
40%
40% 28
20%
0%
19
GRI guidelines
13
Company developed criteria
17 10 National reporting standard
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80
20%
G250
20
21
13 0%
Other
2008
64
77
GRI guidelines 2011
Company developed criteria
19
21
National reporting standard
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17
Other
GREEN TOON
Sustainuisance A modest take on all things not so mundane... By Rohan Chakravorty
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VIEWPOINT
A green heritage The best answers to India’s sustainability needs may actually be embedded in the lives and acts of some of our social thinkers and leaders Deepak Kumar
T Why can’t we develop sustainability models and standards that are grounded in our social, cultural and environmental states? Mahatma Gandhi 10% 10%
13%
19%
13% 42% 19%
Swami Vivekananda Mahatma Gandhi 16% 16%
42%
Mother Teresa Swami Vivekananda Gurudev Mother TeresaTagore Rabindranath Gurudev Other Rabindranath Tagore Other
Graphic 1: If India was to be a large profitable company and also embrace sustainability, green and CSR, whom would you consider best as the CEO?
13% 16% 16%
25%
13%37% 25% 37%
9% 9%
He/She always cared for people and their environment He/She always cared foradvocated people He/She and their environment coexistence and tolerance He/She advocated coexistence He/She couldand mobilise tolerance people for great causes He/She He/She could stood mobilise as people great causes symbol for of harmony He/She stood as Other symbol of harmony
Graphic 2: What was the Other basis of your choice?
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he world has been waking up to the need for sustainability, and India is no exception to that. The so called development over the past several decades has brought the environment to a brink. A certain kind of mindlessness has rendered ‘development’ one of the most abused terms in modern human history. In theory, development may mean growth and progress beyond the present state, but in practice, it is often about destroying what is there in place and building something else (that isn’t necessarily more valuable to the environment). Yes, sometimes it may be necessary to destroy, but it is still important to be mindful to retain what is beneficial. Also, development is a process and it has to be subjective too, varying from country to country, city to city and person to person. Those who have witnessed the coming up of new a Gurgaon and are also given to stay and work there would probably agree the most, though that doesn’t make experience of other city dwellers better. A positive contrast to that is what the Metro rail has done to Delhi and the national capital region around. That is what a good example of mindful development is. As far as India is concerned, lack of selfbelief and mindless chase of the Western development models seems to have landed us in a mess. Our cities are a prime example of that. What we need is developers, planners, policy makers and leaders who are mindful of their decisions and acts. That is what would bring the right vision and direction to development in the country at all levels and in all sectors—public or private. Now answer this: If India was to be a large profitable company and also embrace sustainability, green and CSR, whom would you consider best as the CEO? I actually floated this question as a poll on Facebook, offering respondents four names and the option to choose an “other.”
(See Graphic 1 for results.) It was noteworthy to see that only 19 percent of the respondents chose to select “other” while the other 81 percent polled in favor of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore or Mother Teresa. Responses to “other” included names like Subhas Chandra Bose, NR Narayana Murthy and Ratan Tata. These results are significant. I had deliberately chosen names that don’t resonate with the contemporary Western models of sustainability. Yet, most of the respondents seemed to be guided by the belief that the answers to India’s sustainability requirements rested no far than the lives and models demonstrated by these social thinkers and leaders of the modern and post-modern India. Why, when our self-belief is so strong, do we not attempt putting that to practice too? Why can’t we develop sustainability models and standards that are grounded in our social, cultural and environmental states? That brings up the second question from the poll: “What was the basis of your choice [for CEO, Sustainable India Inc.]? “He/she could mobilize people for great causes,” said a 37 percent of the overall respondents, irrespective of who they voted for. “He always cared for people and their environment,” was the basis stated by, lesser, 25 percent of respondents. Again, what does that signify? Well, my interpretation is that perhaps the need to mobilize the cause of sustainability is felt greater than espousing the concept itself. And that’s probably the reason why Swami Vivekananda polled maximum responses—who else in the history of modern India has been known to mobilize and awaken people better than him? Deepak Kumar specializes in IT and telecom market research and advisory and is reachable at deepakk@businessandmarket.net where he is Founder Analyst
SUSTAINUANCE
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OCTOBER 2012
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