What’s your green rating?

A new ‘eco rating’ marks the crucial first step towards environmental awareness

Turning another leaf in the green buildings concept, the Indian Green Building Council has unveiled a new rating programme where builders can save up to 30 per cent of water, energy and other operational costs.

Soon after the launch of the rating, many projects worth 3.6 million sft in area expressed interest in taking part in the rating programme that was launched at the Conference on Green Cities and Townships in Mumbai.

Currently, India stands fifth among the top five countries in the world in pursuing the green path. The current footprint of 1.26 billion square feet of green building space in India is testimony to the concerted efforts of the Indian Green Building Congress.

Throwing light on the significance of such rating, V. Suresh, chairman, Conference on Green Cities and Townships, said: “India needs integrated, self-sustainable large townships as the number of cities are burgeoning. Currently, over 30 pilot townships across India are going green with IGBC's Green Township Rating programme.”

Elaborating further, C. Shekar Reddy, national president, CREDAI, said: “CREDAI is committed to the Green building initiatives. With increasing urbanisation, the requirement for affordable housing has become the need of hour.”

Therefore, MoEF should also grant a single-window NOCs to reduce the project cost for the builders, Mr Shekar Reddy added.

Green buildings can be a profitable business, revealed Gurmit Singh Arora, vice-chairman, IGBC-Mumbai, adding that “it is time not to compromise at all with the ecological balance for economic growth and development.”