Green Buildings.

Green  Buildings.

Introduction

As the human population increasing there has been    exponential growth in construction of   both residential and commercial buildings leads to exploiting natural resources  by creating ecological imbalance. India is a developing country and construction industry has seen phenomenal increase in the sectors like  IT parks and Apartments. There is a need to implement sustainable architecture in construction of buildings  which must be economically  feasible at the same time  uplift the environmental health .

 "A green building is one which uses less water, optimises energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building."

Sustainable buildings.

1.Materials in construction: Any building structure utilizes earth  resources such as sand,water,iron.Inefficient use of these leads to exploitation of natural resources which cause  ecological imbalance. So there must stringent measures in using resources .

2.Energy Efficiency:

Industrial revolution started with advent of coal as primary fuel for  steam engines .As revolution   advanced  resulted in using technology in all walks of life starting from home appliances to gigantic machineries all run by energy, forcing to increase coal based power plants leads to emission of pollutant gases such as CO2,carbon monoxide and many creating ecological imbalance.It urges scientfifc community to invent clean energy means like solar ,wind mill ,nuclear which produce zero percent emission.

3.Waste Management:

In India Every year 55 millions tones of municipal solid waste  and 38  billion liters of sewage water are generating in urban areas .Solid waste leads to land fill creating health hazards in public and sewage water pollute the clean water bodies.

Materials  in construction.

Brick:

Problems :

Manufacture of brick involves baking of brick at high temperatures .In India   manufacturers use  low grade coal, cow dung cakes, waste oil,tyres,battery cases  as fuel to  bake bricks in the kiln .These kiln releases pollutant gases  such as carbon monoxide,sulphur dioxide,nitrogen,particulate matter and carbon dioxide. Currently in India there is a need of 120 million brick per year .There are nearly 100000 brick manufacturers around the country. It needs 18 tons of coal per lack bricks so totally 24 million tons  of coal per year. It is about 8% of total coal  consumption  of country    apart from this  it consumes  several tones of biomass fuel(wood, tree branches).According to Interpanel  committee for climate change, Coal is the largest contributor  to CO2 in atmosphere.

Alternative to Brick:

Green Bricks:

It uses  fly ash as raw material which is considered as waste and pollutant  usually available in coal powered plants. Unlike processing at high temperature compare to conventional clay brick this utilizes high pressure of 4000psi thus making the brick manufacturing sustainable.

Cement:

Problems:

Cement industry produces 5%  of global man made C02 emissions .Process of manufacturing the cement need high temperature .Coal and coke are primary fuels .

Remedy:

Alternative to cement:

C-FIX:

Referred to carbon concrete this has been successfully used in two busiest roads of Netherland.Using just a ton of C-FIX can save up to three and half ton of CO2.

Novacem Cement:

Novacem cement will be produced  using  magnesium silicate mixture instead of calcium carbonate allow low energy  production  process .Another important factor is creation of magnesium silicate involves absorption of CO2 thus production process is carbon negative.

Energy:

Currently  energy consumption in India 195727 GW/H R and in 2020 it is expected to  400000GW/HR.Substantial   increase in the  household power consumption  is putting the pressures on governments to increase the number of power plants  .As the most of the power plants are using coal thus releasing CO2 and other pollutant  gases to environment.40% of world energy consumed by buildings and 30% of india’s total electricity consumed by buildings

Till today 2/3^rd of the United states electricity demand fulfilling by fossil fuels.

Remedy:

Development of renewable technologies paved the way for  fulfilling  energy demand  as well as  maintain ecological balance.

Buildings  are equipping with  roof top solars,domestic wind mills to meet their  energy demands. At the same time using  energy efficiently  is equally important and can be achieved by insulation of walls ,windows to reduce heat inside the building .

Waste Management:

Waste that is not properly managed, especially excreta and other liquid and solid waste from households and the community, are a serious health hazard and lead to the spread of infectious diseases. Unattended waste lying around attracts flies, rats, and other creatures that in turn spread disease. Normally it is the wet waste that decomposes and releases a bad odour. This leads to unhygienic conditions and thereby to a rise in the health problems. The plague outbreak in Surat is a good example of a city suffering due to the callous attitude of the local body in maintaining cleanliness in the city. Plastic waste is another cause for ill health. Thus excessive solid waste that is generated should be controlled by taking certain preventive measures.

Remedy:

At the brighter part waste can be converted to energy by methods such as 

·         Thermal Conversion

·         Biochemical conversion

·         Electro chemical conversion

·         Biogas production from residential waste.

Building Retrofitting:

India has nearly 25 crore building which includes both residential and  commertial buildings. Modification of the infrastructure of the building improves  energy efficiency as well as economically viable. Retrofitting involves installing energy efficient appliances, heat insulation for windows and walls and many other measures to make sustainable living.

Recent developments in India to make buildings Sustainable :

Indian green building Council was formed  in 2001  to energize green building movement in India. It is offering services such as training, certification.Currently they have been certified 252 building which involves hotels, commertial buiding  and apartments.

Main Factors in Certification process.

Water Efficiency

Turf Design

Management of Irrigation Systems

Rainwater Harvesting

Grey Water Treatment

Water Metering

Energy Efficiency
Energy Metering	Waste Management
Solar Water Heating Systems	Waste Reduction During Construction
Efficient luminaries	Organic Waste Management, Post Occupancy
CFC Free Equipment	Materials with Recycled Content
Captive Power Generation	Local Materials
Daylighting	Reuse of Salvaged Materials
On-site Renewable Energy	Rapidly Renewable Materials
Cross Ventilation	Certified Wood Based Materials

To name some of the major Sustainable buildings

Name	Place	*Certification level
Embassy Tech Square	Bangalore	Gold
Leela Palace	New Delhi	Platinum
ITC Hotel	Mumbai	Platinum
Yahoo software Development	Banglaore	Platinum
ITC Gardenenia	Bangalore	Pre certified gold

 

*

Certification Level	Points
Silver	40-47
Gold	48 - 59
Platinum	60 - 80