Although India is facing a construction boom, only three per cent of its buildings can be certified as green.
Experts expressed concern as to why the building sector remains unregulated especially since it is a major energy guzzler. “Buildings are responsible for 40 per cent of energy use, 30 per cent of raw material use and 20 per cent of land use in cities. They were also the cause of 40 per cent of carbon emissions, 30 per cent of solid waste generation and 20 per cent of water effluents,” said Anumita Roy Choudhury, executive director of Centre for Science and Environment.
But with India facing an acute housing shortage and with the government planning to construct 25 million housing units and another 200 townships in an around the larger metros, 73 per cent additional energy will be required to bridge this gap. Energy consultant Alok Deshmukh said that the challenge was to bring down energy consumption from the present 250 kilowatt (KW) per hour/ per square metre(SQM) in buildings to 60 KW/ SQM. Dr Ajay Mathur, director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), expressed confidence that power requirements could be brought down by improving insulation, lighting, ventilation as also the architectural design. Environment Impact rules (EIA) presently cover only high-impact buildings which are more than 20,000 square metres in size. Builders, however, dodge this requirement by showing smaller pieces of land in their EIA. Another modus operandi being used by builders is to start construction without getting environmental clearances.
In 2008, the Haryana state pollution control board served notices to 147 building. The 2010 McKinsey report had confirmed that power consumption can be reduced by 25 per cent by 2030.