India’s roadmap to sustainable, green buildings

IGBC has adopted a multi-pronged approach to encourage energy management practices for efficient green buildings. Here, experts share their opinions on how green building certifications help achieve HVAC efficiency

The purpose of any green building rating system is to ensure that an existing or upcoming project should incorporate the finest green building practices that would ensure sustained savings and enhanced operation and processes. A green building rating should be holistic, user-friendly and robust and should offer the best services to its stakeholders.

Benefits of green building certification
Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently, and reducing the overall impact to the environment.

According to Maggie Leslie, Program Director, LEEDH QAD, Green Built Alliance, efficient HVAC systems save energy every time they turn ON. Saving energy reduces demand on fossil fuels that pollute the air, water and contribute to climate change.

Leslie adds, “Overall, building operations contribute to approximately 30 per cent of CO2 emissions globally. Investing time into quality installation and efficient equipment is a minimum expectation of green-building certification and contributes to the environment for the entire life of
the system.”

Abhishek Khullar, Regional Sales Manager, Dunham Bush India – North & East says, “Green Building Certification confirms that the project from the nascent stage is designed to be energy efficient and the products/technologies used to complete the building are either green or have very less carbon footprint. Each and every parameter/product going to be used in the building is minutely studied by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) before issuing the certificate.”

Khullar further adds that due to the initiative taken by IGBC, most of the new projects are going for green building certification and there is a competition among all projects to get highest rating for green building, which results in highly energy efficient buildings in near future. Hence, less conventional power is required, as IGBC promotes not only energy efficient products/systems but also green/renewable sources of energy.

One of the major focus areas of IGBC green building rating system is to enhance the energy performance index of a green building. S Karthikeyan, Principal Counsellor, CII- Godrej GBC, Hyderabad says, “The air-conditioning system in a building contributes to 60 to 70 per cent of the total energy consumption, hence it is very important to focus on the performance of air-conditioning system and reduce the energy consumption in the building.”

Karthikeyan states that the green building rating system encourages first to reduce the heat load in the building, through various measures, right from the orientation of the building and implementation of energy efficient measures in the building envelope and facades. This, in turn, reduces the load on HVAC systems and hence the energy consumption.

He elaborates that the green building rating system enables the project to choose the best energy efficient air-conditioners by design. Selection of energy efficient equipment and system is an integral part of the green building rating system. This has been facilitated through adoption of the latest standards and codes, such as ECBC 2017 or ASHRAE 90.1 as baseline requirements. The energy performance of the equipment and system has to be better than the baseline requirements for achieving the green building rating system. The certified green buildings have demonstrated that the energy performance can be 30 to 40 per cent better than the baseline energy performance, of which majority of improvement has been achieved through enhancing the energy efficiency of HVAC systems.

“Hence, energy efficiency of HVAC system significantly contributes to reducing the overall energy consumption and the related emissions in a green building,” he adds.

Ten billion sqft of green building footprint by 2022?
Green building movement in India has been inspiring all through its journey since the launch of IGBC in 2001. Karthikeyan says: “Today, as a result of concerted efforts, IGBC has facilitated India in becoming one of the top five countries in the world in terms of largest registered green building footprint with various types of projects adopting IGBC green building rating systems. As on June 2019, over 5,270 green building projects, amounting to over 6.78 billion sqft of green building footprint, have adopted IGBC’s green building rating systems. IGBC, with the support of all the stakeholders, is well poised to reach the target of 10 billion sqft of green building footprint by 2022 (75th year of India’s independence).”

Building Certification Systems
Building Certification Systems help attain sustainability by setting minimum performance benchmarks that reduce the demand on our natural resources, while also providing benefits to owners and occupants, says Maggie Leslie. “Building certification has become a symbol of not only sustainability, but of quality,” she adds.

This is because the efficient operations of green buildings provide not only environmental benefits but also increased health and comfort, long-term durability, and reduced cost of operations and maintenance. Leslie adds that as a win-win-win for owners, occupants and the environment, green building is an industry that has potential to have long-lasting impact by transforming the industry.

Building energy modelling and simulation
According to Maggie Leslie, it is absolutely essential to design systems based on the actual conditions of the building. Efficient and airtight buildings have more predictable conditions that should allow HVAC designers to execute systems with more precision. This saves energy and increases comfort. Additionally, the energy-benefit analysis ensures that the most cost-effective measures are being installed first. Without such forethought, impractical decisions can lead to disappointment as well as wasted money and effort.

Meanwhile, Karthikeyan says that building energy modelling and simulation has become an essential component of building design for optimising the energy consumption. “Using this tool, a designer can predict the total energy consumption as well as energy consumption at individual equipment level in a building, by simulating various operating and environment conditions,”he adds.

He describes that the energy modelling tool enables the designer to take strategic decisions for optimising the energy consumption in a cost effective manner. “Earlier, it was impossible to take such decisions at the design stage. Today, the technical feasibility and financial viability of an energy saving measure/technology can be worked out through a simulation tool and an informed decision can be taken,” says Karthikeyan.

He further elaborates that simulation tools have become very handy for deciding the base case scenario considering the national energy conservation building codes/relevant standards and setting up the goals for reducing the energy consumption beyond the codes/standards. Using this tools, various energy saving options for achieving the goals in a cost effective manner can also be explored.

Simulation tools such as eQUEST, EnergyPlus, DesignBuilder and IES-VE are widely being used in the industry for code compliance and to explore energy efficiency improvements.

IGBC, with the support of all the stakeholders, is well poised to reach the target of 10 billion sq ft of green building footprint by 2022
S Karthikeyan, Principal Counsellor, CII- Godrej GBC, Hyderabad

Investing time into quality installation and efficient equipment is a minimum expectation of green-building certification
Maggie Leslie, Program Director, LEEDH QAD, Green Built Alliance

Each and every parameter/product going to be used in the building is minutely studied by IGBC before issuing the certificate
Abhishek Khullar, Regional Sales Manager, Dunham Bush India – North & East