Sustainable infrastructures are the talk of the town

Contributed by – Pratik Kataria, Director

(Sainath Developers – The House of Kataria) & President, NextGen, NAREDCO Maharashtra

Climate change is unprecedented and inevitable but with implementation of corrective measures, its impact can be delayed or abridged. Awareness about the climate crisis is catching pace and as more and more people are getting informed about this alarming issue, they are moving towards a more sustainable lifestyle. The first step towards mitigating the impact of climate crisis is developing infrastructure with the help of sustainable materials which in turn reduce the carbon footprint.

For the unversed, Green Buildings are concrete buildings designed to be environmentally sustainable with focus on optimizing the natural resources available at our disposal, for example, use of solar panels to generate electricity or ensuring rainwater harvesting for water conservation in the building or using naturally recycled construction materials while constructing the structure.

The concept of green building came into existence in the 1970’s in the United States of America, as a solution to the rising price of oil during the time. By 1990 a lot of organisation were formed to profess the idea of building structures that were more in sync with the nature and promoted sustainable living. The Energy Policy Act was enacted in 2005 that ensured tax reduction for those who could prove the use of energy efficient changes to their homes like solar panels.

In India, IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) is the first exclusively formulated body that sets a rating standard for the housing sector. IGBC’s Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) is a rating system takes into account the National Building Code of India, Energy Conservation Building Code, several IS codes and local standards and laws into accounts and also evaluates the environmental performance of a building over its entire life cycle and provides a standard for what is represented as a ‘green building’.

Government’s steps towards encouraging sustainable living is just one part of the story, another vital transformation that is witnessed via the trends is the awareness amongst masses towards the need of accepting and adapting to the journey of having a sustainable lifestyle.

Trends suggest that an increasing number of homebuyers are looking to buy a green home in an environmental friendly building.  One of the main reasons behind this change is that the new age consumers have become sensitive towards environment. They not only consider climate crisis a global emergency but are also ready to amend their lifestyles for the environment, they are even willing to shell out extra money for the sake of mother nature, and that is why sustainable buildings are gaining more momentum nowadays.

Now, homebuyers ask for green surroundings so developers also make sure that they design housing projects along the same lines as the demands of the customers. This shift in buyers’ mindset can also be owed to the pandemic as It showed us the importance of natural resources.

As a result eco-friendly homes have become the new trend and to satiate this growing demand real estate developers are now experimenting with the idea of having concepts like organic farming, green acres, traffic-free infrastructure, and last but not the least wellness amenities, after all buying a green home would benefit the nature and also keep the home buyers healthy and happy.