On the World Environment Day falling on Tuesday (5 May), it is time to take a pledge for safeguarding the habitat for present and future generations.

Even as India moves towards achieving its goal as an manufacturing powerhouse, with schemes like Make in India, increased implementation of national highway projects and rapid infrastructure development, we should not lose sight of protecting our environment.

With a breakneck speed, India is emerging as an hotbed for investment in real estate capital, be it foreign or domestic. But, the question persists, how do we accommodate environment and real estate growth together? The answer could be in coming up with green or sustainable buildings

What is a green building

Green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle — from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition.

A green building aims to reduce the environmental impact of the structure, along with energy-efficient designs.

Although new technologies are constantly changing, the common objective of green buildings is to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment. This is achieved through various means, such as:

• Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
• Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
• Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation

Globally, green buildings are responsible for a huge share of energy, electricity, water and materials consumption. The building sector has the greatest potential to deliver significant cuts in emissions at little or no cost.

The green building can reduce energy consumption by 20-30 per cent and water usage by 30-50 per cent, and significantly reduce waste generation by extensive recycling, thus focusing on keeping the utilisation and operations of the building environment-friendly.

As the building sector is the biggest consumer of natural resources, the ecology of a country takes a hit, if urbanisation is not paired together with environment-friendly building policies.

A construction of building requires water, sand, wood, other building resources in large proportions, and most of them are non-renewable resources. Along with it’s impact on environment during construction, a building is also a source of waste and greenhouse gases.

With rapid urbanisation, increased demand of housing for a growing economy, and manic depletion of resources in India, policies promoting sustainable building or green building in the country with robust financial support from the governments is the call of the hour.