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A residential building in the Mahindra World City that will come up in Jaipur, under the Clinton Climate Initiative. Besides using locally available m

India’s consensual sympathy for the environment has not yet fully infiltrated the architecture sector. But there are signs that progress here will be rapid once the benefits are accurately understood, says Deepali Nandwani.

Last month, a National Geographic survey on the shopping habits and attitudes of consumers in 14 countries rated Indians as the greenest, along with Brazilians and Chinese. The parameters chosen to rate people included sustainable behaviour like efficient energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources and attitude towards the environment.

What was not included was India’s performance on sustainable architecture, and while to date this has been an under-used aspect of building design, there are signs the nation could be a world leader on this front in the near future too.

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According to LEED certification, the recognised method for measuring building sustainability, India’s use of sustainable architecture is increasing. Till about five years ago, India didn’t rate highly on the sustainable architecture parameter. Now, it has about a dozen projects, both residential and commercial, that have obtained LEED certification.

Consider this fact: by 2012, two Indian cities – Ahmedabad and Jaipur, will be among metropolises like Melbourne (Australia), Palhoca (Brazil), Stockholm (Sweden) and Johannesburg (South Africa) that have a township with over a million people living in a model urban environment, which is sustainable and environment friendly.

These projects will be supported by the American Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI). In India, two projects have been identified by the CCI — Godrej Garden City, Ahmedabad and the Mahindra World City (MWC), Jaipur. The programme supports the development of large-scale urban projects that demonstrate how cities can grow in ways that are climate positive.

Pirojsha Godrej, executive director, Godrej Properties, says that the Godrej Garden City would be a 270-acre township. “We are working with internationally-reputed architects and the designs are in the initial stages.

We would be looking at issues like generation of clean energy, waste management, water management, transportation and outdoor lighting systems,” he says, revealing how serious some Indian architects and real estate developers are about implementing green initiatives.

Interestingly, developers and builders previously known to be more concerned about their bottom line than the environment, are leading the green architecture movement in India.

According to India’s ministry for environment and forests, over 25 commercial and residential projects under construction have applied for green certification in the last one year.

Among these are two mega IT parks in Kolkata and Mumbai— the 6.5 lakh sq ft Olympia in Kolkata and a K Raheja-promoted 1.2 lakh sq ft IT Park in Bandra-Kurla complex, Mumbai. This number is expected to increase tenfold by 2010, to a total of 100 buildings.