“Green Buildings need not be Expensive at all”
Case
Study: The World’s First USGBC-LEED Certified ‘Passenger
Terminal Building (PTB)’ of any International Airport, as of Year 2008.
A) Objective:
Reduction of Indoor Heat Gain.
Techniques Deployed:
i)
Insulated Roof (100%);
ii)
High Performance Glazing & Skylights,
that block the entry of 99+ % of Solar Heat into indoors;
iii)
Instant Evacuation of Human Exhaled Heat
(CO2), with the help
of ceiling-level sensors’-activated
evacuation valves and simultaneous pumping-in of conditioned air (O2);
B)
Objective:
Avoidance and / or drastic reduction of
Artificial Lighting, during the Day-Time.
Techniques Deployed:
i)
High Performance Glazing & Skylights
(as mentioned above), that permits 98+% Solar Light, inside on most of the
days, between Sun-Rise to Sun-Set, the intensity-level of this Solar-Light is
more than sufficient, even for reading small print.
ii)
And when it is darker due to extreme
cloudiness, again, activation of Artificial Lighting, only to augment the overall
loss levels of Solar Light intensity, achieved through controlled lighting,
through accurate calculation in terms of ‘Lumens’.
C)
Objective: Reduction of Volume of ‘Conditioned Air’, without compromising the
comfort of the occupants, at any point-of-time (in this case the Passengers,
Staff & Others, if any).
Techniques Deployed:
i)
Instant augmentation of the ‘Conditioned
Air’, indoors, through Variable Air Volumes (VAVs) – which quantum is defined
by the variable number of occupants, in place of the traditional HVAC System,
that continues to pump-in a fixed quantity of ‘Conditioned Air’, irrespective
of the number of occupants, at that point-of-time.
D)
Objective:
Water Reduction.
Techniques Deployed:
i)
Deployment of Sensor Operated Urinals
& Water Efficient Fixtures, sprinklers & Drip-Irrigation Systems – at
all places.
With this design, the
Tonnage as defined for a Conventional PTB of an Intl. Airport of 12 Million
Passengers, p.a., as per the Intl. Aviation Norms has been reduced by roughly
35% thus, reducing the cost of the Central A/C Plant, which also happened to be
the biggest Capital Component of all the MEP Equipment.
Then, the saved capital
cost on HVAC has been prudently invested in all above Energy Saving Features,
with zero escalation in the already frozen budget.
The name of the project
is, “Rajiv Gandhi International Airport”,
owned & operated by GMR Hyderabad Intl. Airport Ltd. (http://www.hyderabad.aero/about-us.aspx)
– which was commissioned on March 14, 2008 and this project was certified as
LEED-NC Silver Rated Project by USGBC.
And that also happened
to be the only ‘Green Building / LEED Project’ that incurred zero additional
costs over and above the planned conventional costs, as of that date and
to-date too, to the best of my knowledge.
I was not, in any way,
responsible for the above accomplishment but only the Project Manger - Incharge
for LEED (Documentation), CDM & Renewables Planning for the site comprising
5,400 Acres, while the PTB was / is of 12,59,378 SFT.
The Owners, GMR Group
wanted a LEED Rated Building without incurring One Rupee more than the frozen
budget of Rs. 2,500/- Crores (in Year, 2003).
The entire credit for
the above accomplishment goes to ARUP, IDA, Aviaplan / STUP, but I had been the
only ‘Devout Student’ of this rich accomplishment, while all my
colleagues – seniors as well as juniors have been happy adding LEED experience
in their resumes, without having an iota of the above knowledge of how a LEED
Certified, Green Building was built, without incurring any extra costs. To boot, none of them took-up any assignment
that is remotely connected to Green Buildings, later.
In those Years (2007
& 2008), I began to believe that “Green Buildings need not be Prohibitively Expensive”
and Today, after half a dozen projects of my own, I believe that “Green
Buildings need not be Expensive at all”, with a full knowledge
that only recently two big LEED-NC projects have been certified by IGBC, which
incurred only 2% extra cost over and above the conventional construction costs.
Even, if I am asked to
do such projects, with some pre-conceived notions on the ‘Design’, I too might
incur such additional expenditure. If,
otherwise, we all can give 100% Green Building, Certifiable by any G.B.C..
My confidence is born
out of my deep study of the pre-RCC+HVAC era building construction Methods and
now, we can build almost any project, 100% Green through an 'Integrated Green Building Design &
Comprehensive Micro-Climate Management Plan' for any building of
housing, factory, farm-house, resorts, et al and may be Malls, Offices, etc. –
that would meet all the parameters expected of a “Green Building” as
well as give you the required ‘Certification’ under any Green Building Council,
if that is so important to the client – with zero escalation on their planned
construction costs of a so-called 'conventional building', provided they
approach the ‘Design’ with "completely open-mind".
Yes, these ‘Green Buildings’
too like, any others are designed to be Eco-Responsive, Conserves / Uses Less
Water & Power, Uses Sewage Water too, Ample Day-Lighting in all regularly
occupied spaces, with ‘Comfortable, Cozy, Cool & Clean Indoor Environment,
Consumes Organic Wastes, and with many more pleasant features.
For any clarifications, please contact, prabhakar@greentekindika.com OR Call, +91-8686559189.
