- Gagan Singh – CEO
Taking action on India’s environmental crisis is no longer an option – it is a necessity. Sustainable real estate presents India with an unique and enormous opportunity to make concrete progress in the country’s effort to improve its environment. There is greater consciousness towards the environmental crisis in India with terms such as sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and triple bottom reporting becoming more common in the real estate industry. Nevertheless, despite the ever rising construction activity, awareness of sustainability in India has significantly lagged behind countries in the West.
Even so, the Indian commercial sector has begun to make conscious efforts towards creating sustainable real estate. With support from the Indian government, a number of construction projects that are currently underway are registered with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). LEED is soon emerging as the preferred rating system as it is flexible enough to be applied to a diverse variety of markets and also because it enjoys the greatest recognition of the various international rating systems. This recognition is especially important when one considers that a prime motivator for developers to create a certified sustainable building is to differentiate their project from competition.
The government has introduced several schemes to encourage sustainability such as the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) schemes for subsidising capital for installation of solar water heaters, encouragement of energy audits and management schemes, mandatory use of fly ash-based construction material, groundwater and rain water harvesting and most importantly increased monitoring of air and water pollution.
Sustainable development can be achieved through synergy between developers and occupiers to establish goals, undertake audits and ascertain where savings and improvements can be made. We need to focus on high-impact, low-cost solutions that can be implemented within a realistic timeframe. The importance of educating occupiers on the impact their use of space will have on sustainability outcomes is integral to the success of a sustainability programme.
To properly educate developers, their patterns of behaviour must be changed to accommodate and reinforce any sustainability features that have been implemented in a building. The main objective of any education and communications program should be to encourage developers and occupiers to follow practices such as energy and water conservation, waste management and improve indoor air quality.
The author is the CEO – Projects & Development Services at Jones Lang LaSalle India
