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Niranjan Hiranandani MD, Hiranandani Group
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Green building materials and green products have played an important role in the progress of the green building movement in India. In this interesting feature, we present the building industry’s perspective on this issue and follow it up with a list of some of the finest green products available in the market

In an interview with Construction Week, Dr Prem Jain, Chairman of the Indian Green Building Council had remarked that the cost of green buildings is still higher than conventional buildings in India. “The reason being we do not have enough products in India that are truly green. Of course, many people claim that their products are green but we do not know if that’s true.

We do not have a system to validate the greenness of a product. Consequently, the evolution of green products in India has been very limited. If we had more true green products, our movement would have progressed further,” he had said. “Therefore, we hold a congress where we encourage green products,’ he had added.

The eighth edition of this congress – the Green Building Congress – is just around the corner and we decided to find out what the industry has to say on the key aspects of this issue like the role played by green products play in the creation, operation and maintenance of green buildings; availability of such products in the market; pricing of the products and availability of adequate mechanism to validate the green claims.

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COMMENT Comment on this article

Niranjan Hiranandani
MD, Hiranandani Group

Green products do play an important role but equally important are product engineering, mindsets and processes. The industry needs to understand these products and be adept in putting them to good use.

With the opening up of the market, availability of green products has definitely improved. Indian companies have shown considerable progress in developing green products. Of the products available in the market today, almost 90% are Indian while about 10% are imported. Of course, there is a great scope for improvement in terms of the quality of the products.

While the availability has improved, prices are still on the higher side. Talking specifically from our company’s perspective, I can say that we do have adequate mechanism. The industry too is evolving on this front.

While the progress of the green building movement has been satisfactory, Government needs to encourage the industry further by giving incentives. The green building movement is at a critical stage and it needs to be pushed.

Hemansu M Pathak
VP - Construction Management, Lodha Group

Saving resources and preserving ecology both go hand in hand in building construction. Green products ensure energy efficiency as well as reduced harmful industrial waste. For example, using high performance glass façade leads to transmission of less heat and more natural daylight and reduce the use of artificial light and air-conditioning. Additionally, using FSE certified timber and recycling products in case redevelopment projects ensure less use of new resources.

There are few vendors who provide green products and more such vendor’s are always welcomed to bring in competitive markets.

Green products are priced 15 to 20% higher for certification than the non certified products. However with widespread application across industry will help reduce the pricing.

There are institutions such as the Green Building Council that certify projects based on achievements of pre determined criteria’s (In India as well as abroad).

It has been observed over time that unbridled development puts a burden on ecology. Hence eco friendly initiatives in building construction are vital to sustainable development, wherein the eco system is preserved ensuring a safe and clean environment both to our progeny and the generations to come. It is well proven that end user / occupants will enjoy benefits by consuming less energy, water & excellent space efficiency. Developers are sincerely promoting this concept which will definitely save our earth from being climatically imbalanced.