Shreyasi Singh
New Delhi

DEVELOPMENT Alternatives (DA), a non- profit in New Delhi, recently organised a three-day Capacity Building Training on "Building for Future: Green and eco-friendly". Attended by students, architects and civil engineers from across India, the training programme aimed at creating awareness about sustainable building practices and green buildings.

Development Alternatives, which helps to create sustainable livelihoods, believes it is critical that construction industry professionals learn to optimise resources because around 40 per cent of the world's materials and energy and 16 per cent of annual available fresh water is consumed by this sector.

India is witnessing a green building movement, led by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The council would like 1,000 green buildings to be registered by 2010 and one billion sq ft of green building to be registered for certification by 2012. It is aiming to train 5,000 IGBC accredited green building professionals by 2010.

DA's capacity building workshop is important in achieving these ambitious goals. With the help of interactive discussions, site visits, case studies and experiential learning, the course's key objective was to give participants an overview of the parameters of green buildings, establish the decision-making criteria for the design and construction of green buildings, and to gain an exposure of alternative building materials and technology.

"We will be successful if those who attended the programme go back with a new building philosophy and try and explore greener ways of building," said Pankaj Khanna, a building technologist, and the key resource person for Development Alternative's Sustainable Environment programme.

"Our forefathers built in the logical, sensible way that is the hallmark of a green building. But, somewhere we have rejected that knowledge. Green buildings need to respond to the environment and climate they are built in. In this workshop, we have tried to illustrate that a green building design need not possess high technological complexity. It should be down-toearth, organic and efficient."

A 'green building' is designed to be as efficient as possible in its use of energy, water and building materials, disposal of solid waste and functionally, financially and aesthetically viable to both client and builder.

The training workshop also included modules on understanding a building's energy behaviour. Clean, efficient energy usage is a crucial component of a green building but most Indian buildings are copying western energy intensive building concepts such as floor upon floor of glass facades that trap heat, and use indiscriminate air conditioning.

"To optimise energy efficiency, there is a 5 to15 per cent increase in capital costs at the time of building. But, the payback can come within two to eight years. Those building and those using the space are two different entities. A builder isn't concerned with operating costs because he doesn't have to bear them. The impetus the green building movement needs is a big demand for such construction from end consumers. Like the way consumers have forced air conditioner and refrigerator manufactures to adopt more energy efficient machines," said Dr Sameer Maithel, who took the energy efficiency class, and is the Founder Director of Greentech Knowledge Solutions, a technical consulting firm that simulates, designs and facilitates clean energy solutions.

Dr. Maithel explained that India does have an Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) which prescribes acceptable levels of energy efficiency, but its recommendations are not mandatory on builders.

Those attending the three-day workshop were surprised that such a logical, common sense approach to building was ignored in the curriculum of even the best architectural and engineering colleges of the country.

"I haven't been introduced to any of this in my formal syllabus. There is very limited attention given to environmentally sustainable ways of building. We have to take courses like this on our own if we want to explore these areas," said Sai Siddartha, a second year civil engineering student of the prestigious Manipal Institute of Technology.

Participants were introduced to alternative construction materials with a guided visit to Development Alternative's production unit which manufactures fly-ash bricks and clay bricks with manual machines designed in-house. Use of locally available raw materials which need minimum treatment and transportation were recommended in place of exotic materials that squander energy to reach the site.

August 2009 Edition

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