Energy Efficiency in Buildings

The time is right for action

I said in my previous blog that India 's building sector is growing fast – 20 million dwellings, 19 million sq m of commercial space, 13 million sq m of retail space, 50,000 hotel rooms over the next five years.

Business-as-usual would mean a rapid increase in the sector's energy consumption, absorbing a growing proportion of India's incremental energy production in the years to come along with a necessary expansion of its energy infrastructure. On the other hand an energy-efficient development path would reduce overall energy use, pollution and CO 2 emissions. India's energy security would also improve. It's a win-win-win scenario.

The time is right to make it happen. At the EEB Outreach event last month, high government officials expressed their political will and declared it a priority. Businesses said they see it as an opportunity. Civil society naturally welcomed and supported a new direction.

Words are easy, of course. But how to make it happen? There are many barriers in India , just as there are elsewhere. In fact we found they are very similar to barriers we encountered in our Outreach events in China and Europe. (They are well documented in the report we published recently).

But while the barriers may be similar, it is not appropriate to “copy and paste” western solutions to India.

Transforming the building industry in India--- quite a challenge!!!

Flying to India from Europe or Asia usually means that you arrive in the middle of night, and departure times are as bad. Indeed, at Delhi airport the passengers looked very tired.

But the tiredness was worth it because I was there for the EEB project's 3rd Outreach event, organized together with TERI-BCSD. TERI is the widely respected Energy Research Institute and it acts as the local organization of the WBCSD. I was particularly proud to have a Nobel Peace Prize winner to open the day, Dr Pachauri, who heads TERI and has been chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002.

The conference was exciting. I'll come back to the main outcomes in a few days but I must mention now the Indian architect Karan Grover, who gave a very impressive key note address.

He expanded the concept of green building and positioned it in the Indian context by including culture, heritage and restorations as key parameters. His project in Hyderabad is the first LEED platinum certified building in India. He was excellent and we need to import his ideas. We will put his presentation on our website shortly.

Green Week Asia – not so green

Last week took me to Asia – to Singapore, to a conference and exhibition on the "green" theme organized by TERRAPIN. It seemed like most participants came to find out more about biofuel and clean coal. I and some other speakers tried hard to get an audience for green buildings and SRI investment.

I presented the EEB Summary Report and linked our conclusions to the Asia context. I got a good response and we had a fruitful dialogue. There were interesting presentations from Pune in India by Aditya Javdekarand from Bovis Lend Lease, which is trying to bring down its footprint in the retail sector throughout Asia. Ben O’ Rourke presented how Bovis is buying or constructing sustainable commercial buildings and how they service them.

Green buildings have not taken off yet in Singapore. We discussed for a long time who/what could be future drivers for change or which would be the most important barriers.