Role of Green Buildings in Sustainable Construction-Need, Challenges and Scope in the Indian Scenario (original) (raw)

Change in climate, caused by the release of greenhouse effect causing gases (primarily carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere, has been recognized as one of the greatest threats of the 21st century. Share of the global energy consumption in India and China has also been on the rise due to heavy industrialization, urbanization, population explosion, and intensive growth of IT. Buildings are the prime energy consumers in modern cities accounting upto 40 to 45% energy consumption. Their consumption can be largely confined through improving efficiency, which is an effective means to lessen greenhouse gas emissions and slow down depletion of fossil fuels. There is a heavy (over 50%) saving potential in the building sector and thus it is considered as a potential sector to meet the challenges of global energy demand and climate change. Along with the advent of energy efficient measures, more effective means are needed to induce or compel greater efforts, especially to the signatories of the Kyoto Protocol. This technical paper highlights the importance of sustainable construction, discusses role of energy efficiency in green buildings in Indian context to reduce the energy consumption and environmental degradation through Green House Gas emission (GHG). Also it points out to the benefits of green construction as well as the incentives from govt. and municipal bodies for GRIHA certified green building.