’Green Building’ Concepts for future construction systems

’Green Building’ Concepts for future construction systems

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, June 26, 2014:  MVenkatesh Pai, ’Pailands’ architect,  delivered a talk on ‘Green building and carbon credit’ organised by the Institution of Engineers, Mangalore local centre, Institution of Valuers, Mangalore branch and Kodagu, DK, Udupi Engineers Association on June 24.  He observed, “The concept of green building will set the precedent in the construction industry tomorrow as the world will be more wary on using its limited resources. It not only benefits the ecology, but also increases the productivity of people in terms of health and happiness,”

Venkatesh Pai explained that green building is the practice of creating structures and using process that are environmentally responsible and resource efficient throughout a building’s life cycle, from the site designing up to the demolition of the building post the expiry period. Using eco-friendly materials for construction, passive solar building design, effective day lighting, solar water heating, energy efficiency, water efficiency are the different techniques being used for constructing green building.

“Every builder looks for bringing down a hill, make the surface a flat and then construct on it. In an environmental perspective, the building should be built at the hill itself, thereby saving the whole lot of energy required for razing that hill to ground,” Pai said. He added that the maximum utilisation of locally available materials is an integral part of green construction. For instance, if a building is being made in Mangalore, use laterite, while the construction site is in Karkala, use granite instead. This will save energy in terms of transport. He stressed that green building has nothing to do with going hi-tech.

Saving on Costs :  The cost of setting up green building is eight to 12 per cent more than normal construction method at present. But in terms of maintenance cost, 15 to 20 per cent of the money could be saved within five to seven years, asserted Pai. Moreover, 40 to 50 per cent less consumption of energy, 20 to 30 per cent less consumption of water, increase in productivity of people in terms of health and happiness are the salient features of green construction over the normal method.

‘Save energy, make money’ Venkatesh Pai said that saving energy in terms of non-emission of carbon would fetch monetary benefits also. The concept called carbon credit explains this. Carbon credit is a permit that allows the holder to emit one ton of carbon dioxide. “If an environmental group plants and nurtures trees, they are getting more carbon credits at their disposal. Suppose, an industry owner has a permit to emit 10 tons of carbon only, but he exceeds the limit, the surpassing of the carbon limit is a punishable offense and to avoid this, the owner can buy equal amount of carbon credits from that environmental group to compensate his overuse. For this, the owner has to pay the environmental group. The first green building in India’s IT sector, Technopolis in Kolkata has been selling carbon credits to foreign countries and earning a revenue of $135,000 per year,” Pai elaborated.

Pai stressed that it is high time the government announces some kind of tax subsidy to green building promoters to espouse the cause of eco-friendly living. Engineers and the public too must be more aware of the future concepts and gain from them.