• A RATING system has assessed that less than 2% of India’s buildings are “green buildings”, but underlined an opportunity to improve on this as new infrastructure is put in place.
• The assessment comes from Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) Council, a not-for-profit society jointly set up by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to promote green buildings in India. Green buildings are structures that are designed to utilise less resources than conventional buildings.
• Buildings account for up to 40% of the total energy consumption in India, the Environment Ministry’s ENVIS Centre says in a web post. It stresses the need for sustainable construction and operation strategies during design and planning stage itself.
• Objectives include minimising water demand and promoting recycling, besides air pollution control measures. “Green buildings are much more healthy entities in terms of designing but the air that is going to come inside would be something that is present outside but to a certain extent you could minimise or reduce the damage through a green building.
• A green building can reduce the interference from outside pollutants,” PTI quoted GRIHA Council chief executive officer Sanjay Seth as saying. While less than 2% of India’s buildings are green, there is a huge opportunity to increase that number as about 60% of infrastructure for the next 20 years is yet to be put in place. 

Source:IE