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 definitions of sustainability, the one that sums it up is by the Brundtland Commission which says “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”[1]
This article is an attempt to point out some of the popular misconceptions and ideas that exist with the whole issue of what Green is!
Glass is good: Over the last decade or so, we in India have been having a torrid and steamy love affair with glass. Its clean, its smooth, its sexy, it’s hot (again metaphorically and literally – ask some of our window seat IT brethren) and boy, is it fast! It’s had our developers salivating over the potential Lakhs of rupees earned in rent by being able to hand over the building in fewer months than other conventional buildings do. So we do see Green rated fully glass clad buildings that leaves one wondering how on earth it could consume lesser energy than a conventional wall clad building. Glass is good, but let us use it judiciously and responsibly.
Red is Green: We also have a new brand of wire-cut brick clad buildings claiming to be green. Yes, they look earthy, warm and dusky – beauties alright! But then beauty is only skin deep. We rarely stop and ask about the embodied energy of those imported dry wall systems with a fancy western name and clean crisp looks. Again, the ease of building has won over the developers. Understand the ecological footprint and the embodied energy of each material. Demand it from the manufacturers.
Green is Green: This is one of the most misunderstood areas of building industry. Ever wondered why Bangalore has such high rates of tree falls during monsoons? (404 trees fell in the first five months in 2010[2]) One of the many reasons is that our erstwhile colonial masters deemed it fit to plant some non-native species (especially Rain tree and Gulmohur) which could never get the same hold in the soil compared to native species. And so, while Bangalore is a garden city, our traffic police sends an advisory telling us not to park our cars under trees lest our precious status symbols get damaged. Hence not all that is green is necessarily Green. Let us plant native species.
Process and the Product: While we travel through the city, it’s not uncommon to see large banners advertising “green” gated communities and the promise of idyllic environments to its future residents. Scratch the surfaces of these project sites, and one would see workers without personal protection equipment, unregulated working hours, poor and unhygienic living conditions and inadequate sanitary facilities. Does the end justify the means? Let us respect all our workers! Ensuring a high quality of working environment is an integral part of building Green.[3]
After the Rating, Rating and after the Rating: In India, we love labels and certificates - It’s probably written deeply into our genetic code. It somehow gives us an air of respectability. So it’s no surprise that Green Rating Systems like LEED and GRIHA have the professionals and promoters scurrying for them – attending training programmes, registering buildings and the like. We are now running “after the rating”. We work hard, count the credits, manage to bend rules as much as possible without breaking them (after all even rules have learnt Yoga in India – to bend without breaking) and somehow obtain the rating. The issue comes after the rating. What happens to the building after the rating? Does it behave the way it has been designed? Does the building get used in the same manner as envisaged? How much energy does it consume? How is the building being maintained and monitored? Does the rating get renewed? Does a building go through “fitness check” like we do for our own bodies and vehicles?[4]
Green is a Choice: In most parts of the world, going green is still a choice. That creates two issues: First, we do not have a high rate of voluntary activism. Second, we are still able to sell green as a premium commodity. Green needs to become mandatory – a given. No one sells safety as a premium commodity. It must be a given or else it’s a given that we will not survive long!
Saving the Earth: A lot of us over-estimate the importance of human beings in the larger scheme of things. We think, egoistically and patronisingly that we need to “save” the earth. The truth is that, we are a small and infinitesimal part of its existence. To put things in perspective, if the entire lifetime of the earth is compressed into 24 hours, the entire span of human presence on the earth has been hardly 5 seconds. We need to understand that we are going green to save ourselves.
Green starts at home! And it’s not Charity!
Going green involves a paradigm shift in our consciousness and our thinking. It does not start and end with tick boxes in the green rating checklist. It spans the entire spectrum of how we relate to one another as human beings, of what we want to leave as a legacy to our children, of how we treat animals, of what we eat and breathe, of what we use and consume, of what we do with our waste, of where we throw our waste, of how we drive our cars, of when we don’t use our cars, of choosing the right buildings – in short everything we do or do not do has an impact on sustainability!
[1] The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) was chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland. For complete report please refer, http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm.
[2] Article “404 trees have fallen in five months”, The Hindu, 31st May 2010, by Pavithra T.G.
[3] http://www.sewaresearch.org/pdf/researches/labouring_brick_by_brick.pdf - This is a study dated 2000, but most issues are relevant even today. Also refer, http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/violation-workers’-rights-commonwealth-games-construction-site.
[4] http://www.ehhi.org/reports/leed/LEED_report_0510.pdf - This study conducted by “Environment and Human Health, Inc.” shows the shortcomings of some of the LEED rated buildings in the USA.
This is all true sir and I must say a good overview of the current green scenario. But at the end economics play a vital role in everything. Perhaps promoters of green promote it because they see a greener future for themselves. What I beleive is that economics will drive green initiatives in our country if not the government policies. We as engineers and architects can play our role by perhaps educating the client about the advantages of green. At the end its the clients decision.
ReplyDeleteAnd ya you said very well about the rating systems that at present they are not very stringent in terms of monitoring and on site audits of the rated buildings. But we must also note that these rating systems being private organization supported have spread a lot of awareness regarding the green. Everything has pros and cons. In india we do not even follow other codes such as setbacks, structure norms, maximum height etc in most of our construction then how do you expect people to be loyal in following green practices when being crook saves bucks. :)
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