IGBC celebrates World Green Building Week 2012

World Green Building Week 2012 is celebrated annually all over the world to draw attention to the importance of creating healthier, more sustainable buildings and communities. This year the theme for the event was ‘Green Buildings for Great Communities’.
As part of this event, Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) of Cll is also celebrated World Green Building Week 2012 to underline the need and importance of green buildings for a sustainable tomorrow. IGBC- Mumbai Chapter organised a session on values of sustainability, where leading stakeholders of Indian construction industry participated in the session. Gurmit Singh Arora, Vice Chairman – IGBC Mumbai chapter said, “IGBC, with the support of all the stakeholders is playing a catalytic role in spearheading the green building movement in the country. Till now, over 1, 7 45 green-building projects amounting to over 1.21 Billion sq. ft of green building footprint are registered with IGBC.”
Mr. Arora added that, IGBC Green Building Rating Systems on homes, factory buildings, SEZ, townships and LEED India 2011, are all based on the five elements of the nature (Panchabhutas) and are a perfect blend of ancient architectural practices and modern technological innovations.
V Suresh, Chairman, IGBC Advocacy Committee, IGBC Mumbai Core Committee and Principal Executive Officer of HIRCO  said that, the construction costs of a green building would be 5 per cent to 8 per cent higher for a Platinum building than a conventional building and the incremental cost gets paid back within 3 -4 years with substantial reduction in operational costs . This makes good business sense, he added.
S Raghupathy, Executive Director, CII-Godrej GBC said that the vision of IGBC is to enable sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in sustainable built environment by 2025. Mala Singh, Convenor – Green Governance, IGBC Mumbai Chapter & Director – PEC Green Designs shared the current environment policy and regulations applicable for construction projects. She also mentioned the current initiatives taken by MoEF, Govt. of India & CII – IGBC to promote Green Building moment. She also informed that pre-certified green projects are also getting priority for fast track clearance by the State Environmental Appraisal committee. Dismissing the rumours of that Green Buildings are expensive and can only be afforded by the rich but very much applicable for middle and low income groups as well.
Jahangir Yar Khan, Member – IGBC Mumbai Chapter Core Committee & Joint President of Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure shared about the best practice in terms of the energy efficient technology at their upcoming project Palais Royale.
Architect Sandeep Shikre, Member – IGBC Mumbai Chapter Core Committee emphasised the need for a good building envelope & the role of energy efficient glass in a building.

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