Washing Green Linen in Public (Published in Smart Environs - Quarterly Musing of McD BERL, July-Sept 2010)
Green Buildings or Sustainable Buildings is the latest fad that all of us have caught on to. This is now being bandied about as the latest “it” thing to be done – by property developers, by home owners, by hotel operators, by hospitals, by industries and by anyone else who may have any connection with the building industry. As on date more than 40 Crores sft (400 Million Sft) is under Green Rating. As in any mass movement there is the complete spectrum of followers. On the one end are people who truly are passionate about the entire philosophy behind sustainability and on the other end are people who are just joining the bandwagon because it’s the “in” thing to do. In the absence of a well-researched and well-thought of mandatory system that defines what it means to be sustainable, numerous versions of sustainable practice have emerged. Along with a whole lot of good measures there are also some misconceptions of what Sustainability constitutes. If one were to go by modern definiti...