'Certified' green!

Every now and then a building raises its proud mane over the rest, claiming to be a green building. This fad has caught up to such an extent as to muddle the green concept. What exactly is a green building? In simple terms, one that is environmental friendly and built sustainably. Often these vital issues are not adhered to. Environment friendly also should mean friendly to its occupants. Many are not! As to sustainable, often materials used are costly or complicated and energy intensive in manufacture. Their impact is not lasting. Etc etc.

Which is why architects at TED do not think much of most green buildings. They suggest that the buildings should include expected urban growth in their design so that they can evolve.

Health of occupants is often ignored. For instance, LEED certification which has emerged as the green standard of approval for new buildings in the US, ignores factors relating to human health, particularly the use of potentially toxic building materials.

In its objective to encourage saving energy by making buildings more airtight, Leeds has had the effect of more effectively trapping the gases emitted by the unprecedented number of chemicals used in today’s building materials and furnishings. It places no weight on human health factors in deciding whether a building meets its environmental and social goals. Air quality has to be a deciding factor in the considerations, or else occupants will be turning green at the gills!

All the more reason why the body sets the standards must be a neutral body with no 'vested' interests, right? In India, the IGBC rating (backed by CII) does mention air quality and health of occupants. So also does GRIHA from MNRE and Teri. The former is more closely tailored on the western concpet of per capita energy consumption, while the latter goes by climate in India and does not promote glass and air-conditioning equipment. Would be interesting to see how the health standards are monitored.

Smart buildings

Agilewaves is developing a system that monitors electric, gas and water usage from energy sensors and links them through an integration panel within the building.
It’s one of a number of startups in the US, designing systems to integrate energy monitoring devices and sensors with data acquisition software and, in some cases, smart meters in order to measure and manage power use.

One of the distinctions of the company is that they are not going to the utility, but directly to the building owner. The strategy can be deployed quickly and easily and provide highly accurate, targeted, intelligent info as opposed to just data. That information can be sent to computers, mobile devices or third party monitoring services.

Products like the Agilwaves system allow users to recognize where there are problems in a building, for example:
· HVAC systems that are simultaneously cooling and heating a building
· Systems that are on 24 hours a day that don't need to be on 24 hours per day
· Pumps that dont need to be runnning all the time
· Lights that don't need to be on at night

Building owners can see savings of 15-25% in the first year, according to the company.

Looks like software and IT will play a major role in the transition to a global clean economy.