Date:15/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/15/stories/2007081561180800.htm

Tamil Nadu

“Green buildings are cost beneficial in the long run”

Special Correspondent

— Photo: S.R.Raghunathan

for green: N. Altaf Ahamed, director, MEASI Academy of Architecture (left), K. Allaudin, Highways Secretary, and Vineeta Badwe, director, VV Architects, at a meeting held at MEASI Academy in Chennai on Tuesday.

Chennai: Cost does not have to be a deterrent in designing and executing a green building project, as there will be a huge saving on power consumption later, speakers at a meeting on ‘Global Warming and Awareness about Renewable Energy,’ organised by the Renewable Energy Club of the MEASI Academy of Architecture, said on Tuesday.

Architects should ‘sell’ the idea of green buildings to their clients as energy efficiency was one of the ways to mitigate the effects of global warming, K. Allaudin, State Highways Secretary, said inaugurating the Renewable Energy Club.

For the last two decades, Tamil Nadu was aggressively promoting renewable energy concepts and accounted for a third of the country’s total installed capacity of renewable energy projects.

Some of the key issues that needed to be kept in mind while designing a green field project were sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy consumption, use of materials and resources, indoor environment and design innovation, Vineeta Badawe, director, V.V. Architects, said.

Citing award-winning green field projects designed by her firm, she said the key aspects that needed to be integrated in the building design were using renewable energy sources, conserving energy, maximising natural light sources and creating energy-efficient workspaces.

“The [difference in] cost increase between building a conventional high-end office building and a green building is 15 per cent, but the profit will be a 30 per cent reduction in electricity bills,” she said.

The Renewable Energy Club would work to spread awareness about the effects of global warming and its impact on future generations, Altaf Ahamed, director, MEASI Academy of Architecture, said.

A.N. Sachithanandan, dean of the academy, and K. Ramamurthy, professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-Madras, spoke.