Greening our Buildings: What is the Government Doing?
There is little doubt that the urbanization in India would continue to grow, as would be the growth of buildings and construction sector.
The growing demand for resources and intensity of its use, therefore requires innovative and forward thinking in terms of regulatory and policies reforms to reduce its impact on the environment. The key policy challenge is how resource savings in key sectors like energy and water can be achieved effectively and sustained in the future.
The regulatory action to reduce water, energy and other resource impacts of the building sector has started in India. A range of policies, legislations and local building bye laws have emerged that should that shape up the regulatory framework. Here is a quick highlight of the key policies and regulatory mechanisms emerging in the country today to promote resource use efficiency and management with focus on energy and water.
Emerging policy and regulatory tools and opportunities realise the resource saving potential
Energy conservation act 2001: Following this the Bureau of Energy Efficiency was established under the Ministry of Power to implement the Act. The Act requires large energy consumers to meet the energy conservation norms, large commercial buildings to meet the energy building code, and appliances to meet energy consumption standards and label.
Integrated Energy Policy 2006: This policy has identified key areas in the building sector for energy efficiency measures. This includes building design, construction, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, and household appliances. It has asked for mandatory periodic energy audits for all buildings with loads above 1 MW also for all government buildings. It has also asked for energy benchmarking of buildings to be done by BEE.
Missions under the national climate action plan: The Enhanced Energy Efficiency Mission has provided for market transformation for energy efficiency. This has recommended mandatory labelling of appliances and equipment, mandatory maximum energy efficiency norms per square feet for new buildings as well as existing building (through retrofits) to be ECBC compliant. Replacement of inefficient appliances and fiscal instruments.
Similarly, the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat has also recommended strategies for mitigation that include harmonising energy building code with the national building code, implementation strategies and incentives, building performance and rating systems, demonstration projects, consumer awareness programmes, enhance appliance standards and labelling, etc.
National Solar Mission is relevant from the perspective of the encouragement of the application of the rooftop solar PV and small power plats to replace diesel gen sets etc. There are also indirect benefits of utility based incentive programmes.
National Building Code: Building by-laws are under the state governments. The Bureau of Indian Standards has developed the National Building Code (NBC) in the 1980s that guides municipalities and development authorities on building by-laws. The voluntary code covers most aspects of building design and construction, with a small part dedicated to energy efficiency. NBC was revised in 2005. In the latest version, the code provides guidance on aspects of energy conservation (related to Day lighting and Natural Ventilation). NBC provides general guidance on potential energy-efficiency aspects of such factors as daylight integration, artificial lighting requirements, and HVAC design standards.
Energy conservation building code (ECBC): BEE has framed the ECBC to reduce India’s baseline energy consumption. It takes into account climatic zone variation and occupancy of the buildings and provides minimum standards for reducing energy demand through design and construction practices. ECBC is now voluntary and applies to large commercial building and is applicable to all buildings with a large air-conditioned floor area. ECBC has both prescriptive and performance-based compliance paths. The prescriptive a