‘Going’ Green: Sustainable Living is the Way Forward
Mili Majumdar, Managing Director, GBCI India and Senior Vice President, USGBC is responsible for technical adaptation and customization of the portfolio of rating systems of GBCI for the Asia Pacific region. She is also responsible for customer coordination, education, training, and developing market mechanisms for adoption of the tools and rating systems for the region. Talking exclusively with Realty Plus, she talks about the evolution of Green Buildings in India and the future prospects of it. Excerpts... An architecture graduate and a building technologies specialist, Mili has more than two decades of experience in the field of energy and environment with a focus on sustainable development of habitats. She has worked tremendously in the sectors of green buildings, climate resilient housing, city planning and urban transportation. She has led a team of professionals to develop a portfolio of green rating systems for habitats that have been widely accepted in India. Mili has also enabled the development of a large portfolio of green jobs through training and skill enhancement. Talking about the green building evolution, Mili says that, “We Indians have always been very resourceful, sustainability comes naturally to us it is in our innate DNA, since time immemorial our buildings have been epitome of sustainable architecture.” “ But if we talk about the modern day concept of Green Buildings, it has evolved in India in past two decades and along with it lot of policy changes have come around it that has given further impetus to the concept of green buildings.” She, added. What is a Green Building? Green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. Why Green Buildings are needed: Globally, buildings are responsible for a huge share of energy, electricity, water and materials consumption. The building sector has the greatest potential to deliver significant cuts in emissions at little or no cost. Buildings account for 18% of global emissions today, or the equivalent of 9 billion tonnes of CO2 annually. If new technologies in construction are not adopted during this time of rapid growth, emissions could double by 2050. Role of various stakeholders in making a building Green: To make a building Green and sustainable all the stakeholders involved need to work in close accordance with each other, close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages is needed. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Improvement in construction technology: According to Mili, main challenge is that the construction sector is not organised in India, they don’t understand the core green values. But now with the evolving time, Construction tech is evolving and standardisation is coming in. How a building will perform depends on how it is built. India is evolving and now standardised construction is helping buildings to be sustainable. Challenges: The biggest problem is that developers are using the Green tag as the marketing gimmick, while they will say that the building is Green Certified in actuality it is not, so here the customers awareness will come to fore. Customers need to be educated enough to know the difference between a building which is Green Rated in comparison to one which just put Green certification as a marketing gimmick, opines, Mili. How GBCI India is helping in Green Building Evolution: GBCI India provides on-the-ground customer support for regional green building and business project teams. This operational hub positions GBCI to deliver full-service onsite certification and verification for organization’s sustainability efforts. GBCI works with business and government officials to help address and meet the priority needs of a rapidly urbanizing India. It is the premier organization independently recognizing excellence in green business industry performance and practice globally.
Tags : Interview Old