India made it to the top of the list of Net Zero LEED certified buildings in the world, surpassing the United States and China. So why is that cause to celebrate and who put us there? Celebration is because this is a giant step forward for India where buildings and construction accounts for a third of the country’s carbon emissions. While LEED certification acknowledges the green status of a building, LEED Zero calls out that it has reversed the carbon cycle with a net positive status in carbon, energy, water and waste.
This was announced at Net Zero Buildings Week, which is observed globally from June 12-16 to showcase and promote net zero buildings in shaping a cleaner and more sustainable energy future. Not surprisingly, the net zero movement in India is led by the large private developers —DLF with 45 certifications, and conglomerate ITC with 15. This is a global certification and large Indian companies have come up on top with flying colours.
Measuring Successes
This success is about being able to measure the emissions, find corrective solutions and then aiming for certification. The value of these certifications comes in many forms. For premium A-grade buildings of listed developers, the certification attracts the best clients from around the world. DLF already has the best corporate clients in the country. This will help increase that number and also retain the existing creme de la creme tenants.
More importantly, India has realised that green is not just a movement to plug into. It has distinct economic advantages. For instance, the Indian Green Buildings Council (IGBC) reports equally large contributions to sustainability. It has 4,800 green certified buildings amounting to 6.33 billion sq ft. In this case, it is not only from large corporate and institutional buildings but in residential complexes as well, including affordable housing. The questions being asked of those seeking ratings are as specific as how do you achieve the water balance. How is the water cycle of freshwater, sewage and sullage treatment managed to keep it positive? How much energy is generated through renewable sources and also how the orientation of the building and its design reduces the use of energy inside, are all measured, graded and certified.
Tangible Benefits
I see the certification numbers just as placeholders today. What is more important is to reach the tangible benefits of going green to the larger marketplace. About 10 years ago, as editor of a premium publication, I undertook a public awareness campaign on green with the US Department of Energy. At that time, this was an unknown concept in India. However, those early measures in advancing these benefits to the general public in a small way helped raise awareness about the tangible benefits. Those were before the era of intense global warming and climate change-induced peak precipitation. Today the climate agenda is a tangible, measurable problem. Being able to measure the resources used, now becomes a natural progression.
Incentivisation is another way of pushing the green agenda. As state and city governments offered incentives for roof-top solar to residential and institutional sectors, their adoption rose. However, the tangible benefits of not having to pay huge electricity bills kept the early adopters invested.
For groups like Signature Global, which focuses on affordable housing, it is not a difficult proposition to sell today. The monthly savings because of compliance with green energy codes can now be computed and becomes a selling point for these complexes. Base-level consumers are now demanding low-flow water fixtures, renewable power and waste-water recycling partly because it brings down maintenance bills and also because of pressure from children who are taught these principles at an early age in schools and colleges.
Green Finance
The reason why developers such as DLF and conglomerates like ITC with large-scale real estate businesses can push compliance to green codes in premium corporate buildings is that their user groups are today demanding this too. There is green finance at the end of the tunnel, which pushes compliance. Any project that has a green tag is automatically able to raise more resources from structured lenders and at lower rates. The Reserve Bank of India paper on ‘Green Finance in India: Progress and Challenges’, advocates the setting up of sustainable stock exchanges where the performance of environmentally sustainable businesses are tracked and environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles are built into the financing models.
World over green bonds have emerged as a successful investment instrument. In Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, the city authorities converted their need to comply with green norms in sewage treatment to a tool to allow citizens to participate in good governance. The treated waste water was supplied for a fee to a large number of small manufacturing and industrial units as input. With this virtuous water cycle in place, issuing green municipal bonds was a logical next step. So successful was this initiative that the Union finance minister called this out in her Budget speech and the RBI included this as an example of good, green financing.
Green is an attitude but it is also a means to reversing the damage done to the planet. For consumers, it actually means computable savings every day. Awareness building and an incentives framework will help push this much-needed agenda in India, which has already started making its mark on the global scene.
E JAYASHREE KURUP is a writer-researcher in real estate and Director Real Estate & Cities, Wordmeister Editorial Services. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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