India needs energy-efficient buildings, today

Green walls or vertical gardens can increase energy efficiency, reduce indoor and outdoor temperatures, and improve air quality Image: Shutterstock
 
The market size of the real estate sector in India is estimated at $477 billion, contributing to 7.3 percent of the total economic output, according to a 2023 Naredco-Knight Frank report. This is expected to expand to $5.8 trillion, or 15.5 percent of the total economic output of the country, by 2047.

The demand for buildings and rate of construction activity are going to increase due to factors like rapid urbanisation and growing disposable income of people. Real estate is also a job-creator, accounting for 18 percent of the total employment in the country, as per the report.

The potential of the real estate sector is representative of the economic growth path on which India finds itself today. The Union Finance Ministry, in a report released in January, said India can aspire to become a $7 trillion economy by 2030. Right now, this growth is powered by a dependence on thermal power like coal, gas and diesel, which is environmentally unfriendly.

So, over the next six years, India wants at least 50 percent of its energy requirements to be met by renewables, and bolster its non-fossil fuel capacity to 500 GW from around 200 GW currently. The country’s ultimate goal is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.

Buildings are among the leading demand drivers for energy in India, and hence decarbonisation in the sector assumes importance. They currently command 30 percent of the total energy demand in India, which translates to 25.6 percent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to a March report by The Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), a think-tank.

The report has developed net-zero pathways for buildings through a model called Sustainable Alternatives Futures for India (SAFARI). It explores trajectories the buildings sector can take under different scenarios of energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Under a business-as-usual scenario, for instance, emissions from buildings in India between 2020 and 2070 is projected to reach 90.85 gigatonnes (GT), which will exceed the carbon budget of the entire country. A carbon budget is the cumulative amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is permitted for a region over a period of time, so as to limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius. The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR6) has estimated a global emissions threshold of 500 GT of carbon dioxide equivalent. Out of this, India’s share is estimated around 89 GT, according to the Climate Equity Monitor.

It’s a challenge, but also an opportunity for India, says Sarah Khan, senior associate, climate, environment and sustainability sector, CSTEP. “As many reports have highlighted, most buildings that will exist in India in 2050 are yet to be built, so the country has a genuine opportunity to control emissions from the buildings sector,” she says.

An October 2022 report by McKinsey says over three-fourths of the India of 2050, and 80-plus percent of the India of 2070, are yet to be built. “There is an urgency to prepare India for an orderly and accelerated decarbonisation within the current decade,” the report says.

Also read: Ultra-luxury real estate: Selling homes that last generations

The Right Direction

There are two main types of building emissions: First, operational carbon emission, which is day-to-day uses in a building, like lighting, heating and cooling. Second, embodied emissions, which are the emissions created through the materials used in construction, transporting materials to the construction site, and the actual construction process. About half the carbon footprint in a new construction between now and 2050 is expected to come from embodied emissions.

If India follows a buildings-led intervention trajectory for decarbonisation, says the CSTEP report, we could achieve a 43 percent emission reduction from buildings. Some of the solutions here would be shifting to electric cooking fuels, adopting higher energy-efficient appliances and widespread solar roof`tops.

A variety of architectural design interventions can help make a building more energy-efficient and sustainable, says Kamal Sagar, founder of Total Environment, a luxury real estate developer with properties in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and the US.

He explains that they use natural construction materials, like walls built with exposed brick masonry, doors and windows made with wood instead of aluminium or plastic, and the flooring is natural stone instead of vitrified tiles. “There are many techniques, each contributing 10, 20, 30 percent towards energy efficiency. You put a combination of them together depending on the requirements of the building, and you end up consuming far less energy overall,” he says.

For example, all the villas at Total Environment have green roofs, where vegetation on the rooftop provides shade, reduces heat gain, and also helps reduce rain water run-off while additionally encouraging bio-diversity.

In the US, they are using geo-thermal heating with the circulation (not consumption) of groundwater in the building. This system reduces the power bill for a typical home from $450 to around $70, Sagar says.

In India, they use heat pumps for supplying hot water instead of a geyser/water heater.  A heat pump can heat 300 litres of water with 1.5 KW of power, whereas a regular water heater consumes the same amount of power for 30-odd litres,” Sagar says, adding that technologies like this can help considerably reduce power bills for the consumer.

The pace of adoption of sustainable materials and practices is definitely slower in India, and the bulk of the demand is coming from commercial spaces, mostly multinational companies (MNCs) that have global emission control targets, apart from luxury residences, technology companies, co-working spaces and hospitality properties, says Shriti Pandey, co-founder and CEO of Strawcture Eco, a startup that develops eco-friendly building materials from agricultural residue, which can be used for acoustic panels, dry walls, mezzanine flooring, false ceiling, doors, etc.

Pandey says price sensitivity in India is among the causes for slower adoption of green materials. She gives the example of the European Union, where she says people are willing to pay a premium for both residential and commercial spaces. “In India, if you have a sustainable product for buildings, you will only see a mainstream uptake if the price is at par or at a very little premium compared to non-green alternatives,” she says. “But if it is 15 to 20 percent more expensive, then there will be very few buyers.”

Giving people reasons they can personally relate to or care about is necessary, says Khan of CSTEP, because right now, they do not see any immediate tangible benefit of investing in a sustainable or energy-efficient property. She also believes that if developers can go back to certain traditional practices, that can bring the housing cost down, make it sustainable and thermally comfortable.

Pandey agrees, adding that with increasing instances of extreme weather events, it makes sense to opt for “local or natural materials, because they come from nature, and are more climate resilient”, she says. For example, people living in earthquake-prone areas in Northeast India use bamboo to build their homes because it is more resilient than steel or concrete, Pandey explains. “In Japan too, for example, a lot of construction is done with natural wood or bamboo. Thermal comfort in these structures, and old mud houses, is more than reinforced concrete structures. That’s why we are trying to bring these materials back.”

Khan of CSTEP says the government has been encouraging local, low-maintenance materials like autoclaved aerated concrete blocks (AAC), fly ash and mud blocks. “The government has piloted The Light House Project in six cities under the PM Awas Yojana, where they are trying different kinds of sustainable materials and construction technology,” she says. “If this pilot is successful, it will be a big step towards increasing awareness and encouraging sustainability in public and private building projects.”


Also read: Over Rs 12,000 crore worth of luxury houses sold in Mumbai in six months: Report

Regulation vs Implementation

A prominent architect who works with several mainstream real estate developers tells Forbes India on condition of anonymity that given the poor urban planning in our cities and few incentives for both developers and customers to invest in sustainability, “we are fooling ourselves with green buildings”.

The person says a building is constructed with various individual components, and sustainable variants are more expensive. Like green cement compared to regular cement. This would increase the cost of the property compared to others in the same locality, which dissuades residential buyers.

“Why doesn’t the government offer more incentives to make green buildings more mainstream, like they’ve done for electric vehicles?” he asks. “Everybody is talking about green buildings, but nobody is doing anything about it. The government is more inclined towards infrastructure development, which is the need of the hour, but there is not much political will with respect to green or energy-efficient buildings.”

In terms of certification, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is given to green building projects in India. The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) started voluntary ratings of net-zero buildings in 2018, where energy-efficient building designs were also given weightage, apart from the use of renewables in the property.

According to the Green Business Certification Inc (GBCI), the incentives provided by the central and certain state governments to encourage green buildings and related certifications include income tax benefits, low interest rate loans, certain state-level subsidies and tax exemptions, eligibility for fast-track approvals, and subsidies and tax benefits to promote use of renewable energy in properties.



Keval Valambhia, chief operating officer of CREDAI-MCHI, the government-recognised apex body representing real estate developers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), says the organisation has set a goal of making large township projects carbon neutral by 2030. “I have already received a commitment of 31,810 green homes and 63 lakh square feet of green commercial spaces. Developers have also committed to plant 65,698 trees. Our target is to reach one lakh trees,” he says.

He adds that CREDAI-MCHI has also requested the government to consider certain incentives like reducing stamp duty rebate for home buyers to around 3 percent from the existing 6 to 7 percent, and long-term tax holidays for companies buying spaces in green buildings.

“On the lines of smart cities, we can also plan green cities, where cities with the most energy-efficient or net-zero buildings can be awarded. This will encourage civic officials to come up with their own plans of integrating green buildings with urban planning,” Valambhia says.

The architect quoted above also suggests that the government conducts regular energy audits of buildings to improve accountability towards energy efficiency, and also to encourage public-private partnerships and subsidies for retrofitting of existing buildings.

Khan of CSTEP says there are enough regulations, but implementation is ineffective. “For example, the Energy Conservation Building Code came into effect in 2007 and was revised in 2017, but only 22-odd states have incorporated parts of it into their regular practice,” she says. According to her, proactive implementation can be achieved through collaboration at each step among developers, buyers and government, and awareness.

We need to make it personal for people to take energy-efficient buildings more seriously, says Pandey of Strawcture Eco. “For example, once they came to know about the seriousness of worsening air quality, the investments in air filters and purifiers went up. Similarly, if people are made aware of the long-term benefits of investing in green buildings, be it in terms of health, aesthetics or durability, that will definitely change their thought process.”