Housing and buildings (residential and non-residential) are essential sectors of a country’s economy and known as growth escalators, which directly impact the quality of life. The construction sector of India, including housing accounts for 8% of GDP and employs 12% of the total workforce. Buildings consume 1/3rd of the global energy output and produce around 20% of the total GHG emissions.
In the wake of increasing frequency of extreme events, such as floods, heatwaves, coastal flooding, storm surges, etc., it is critical to mainstream and implement retrofitting of climate adaptation measures in the building sector. While there are various guidelines and regulations in this sector to promote sustainability and address climate change impacts, there is a need for structured mainstreaming of various approaches and mechanisms in the existing city-level frameworks with appropriate implementation, monitoring, and verification protocols. Further, the challenges prevailing in the sector include knowledge gaps at various levels, issues related to enforcement and implementation, high upfront cost of green technology, and limited technological development.
With 50% of the building stock that is expected to be constructed by the year 2030 yet to be built, electricity consumption in residential and commercial buildings is bound to increase. Further, 80% of GHGs in India are generated from the present energy demand in fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and oil. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, estimates that electricity consumption in the commercial building sector alone in India is expanding at a rate of over 9% per year. Similarly, as per the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), Government of India, the electricity consumption in the residential sector is expected to increase 6-13 times by 2047. Therefore, India’s real estate sector will play a crucial role in addressing the climate-related challenges, especially in reducing energy demand and other resource requirements in terms of electricity consumption for heating and cooling, land and material requirement, and other infrastructural demands. Energy production must shift to cleaner, renewable energy sources (such as, solar photovoltaics (PV), solar thermal, wind energy, hybrid-hydel power, small hydro, geothermal energy, tidal energy, biogas, waste-to-energy, etc.).
There are several programmes designed by MoHUA, Ministry of Power (MoP), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) through the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and its State Nodal Agencies, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and others, to develop energy efficiency in cities and shift to renewable energy sources. For example, MNRE has a Solar Cities program that is designed to support cities to prepare a roadmap to transform to ‘renewable energy cities’ or ‘solar cities’. Similarly, BEE has a Municipal Demand Side Management (MuDSM) program for reducing electricity consumption in municipal services, promoting energy-efficient appliances, and a Green Building Star Rating program that the cities can take advantage of to achieve energy and cost savings in providing various municipal services. EESL has Municipal Energy Efficiency Programme (MEEP), Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP), and Unnat Jeevan by Affordable LEDs and Appliances for All (UJALA), that the ULBs can implement for promoting energy-efficient technologies in their cities. Under AMRUT, over 6.2 million streetlights were replaced with energy-efficient LED street-lighting. SNLP has been instrumental in replacing over 5 million street lights in over 500 cities in India, leading to 1.35 billion kWh of energy savings and cost saving of INR 7.42 billion every year. The cities can also take advantage of the solar street-lighting program through Atal Jyoti Yojana (AJAY) - an initiative of MNRE.
It is important to note that, even though the upfront costs for green building technologies are high, over long term, the life cycle cost, including O&M, is considerably lower. It is evident from research that the life cycle cost of green buildings is 24-28% less compared to conventional buildings.
Similarly, the building sector has implemented policies and codes, which elaborate on energy efficiency in residential and commercial building sector - Model Building Bye Laws (MBBL), 2016, National Building Code (NBC), 2016; the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC); the Eco- Niwas Samhita, 2018, and the schemes deployed by BEE. During the last decade, these policies and guidelines have been revised to address and incorporate the emerging needs of the sector. MBBL 2016 has provided guidelines for sustainable buildings to reduce energy and water consumption to 50% of the present consumption in conventional buildings. NBC developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) was updated in 2016 to include a chapter on ‘Approach to Sustainability’. ECBC 2007 document developed for commercial buildings was revised in 2017 to address the energy performance of the buildings at three levels. In 2018, ECBC for residential buildings “Eco Niwas Samhita 2018” was also launched. However, the ECBC document applies only for new construction and does not apply to existing buildings and renovation projects. For existing buildings, BEE has launched a scheme ‘Star Rating of commercial buildings’ with the objective of building a foundation for enhancing energy efficiency in buildings. Besides, the Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) stipulates green building guidelines for both new and existing buildings.