According to the green building initiative program, these buildings are built with the objective of being environment-friendly. With this motive, the programme is directed towards four components to make the buildings more sustainable. Namely, material, water, energy and health.
Let’s see in detail, what are these components and how are they used for environment-friendliness.
- Material- This is the key element of green buildings, because, this is the thing with which the residents stay in contact with. The materials have the following characteristics:
- Obtained from naturally harvested renewable sources.
- Have low transportation cost because of its easy availability.
- These materials are tested for their energy, waste production, ability to get recycled and durability.
- Management of water- As we know that our world is under the scarcity of water. Due to which global warming is increasing day by day. The glaciers are melting. So, in terms of environment-friendliness, wastage of water should be minimised. With this objective in mind, green buildings initiative program manages water through rain water harvesting, usage of self-close taps, low-flow shower heads, waterless composting toilets and installation of grey water catchment system.
Rainwater harvesting is a process of collecting precipitation or rainwater from a catchments surface. It takes place in two ways:
- Storage of water on surface- In this system the water is directly stored into ponds, tanks, etc.
- Refilling the rain water to groundwater- In this system, the water is purified, and refilled to wells, trenches, handpumps, etc.
The need of rainwater harvesting is a major requirement of the present era. Due to deforestation, the soil cover has decreased. As a result of which there is less infiltration of rainwater into the soil. Hence, less recharging of groundwater. Thereby, the need of rainwater harvesting arises. This is now done in green buildings.
- Usage of natural sources of energy- Due to the depletion of sources of energy, green design professionals have made an attempt to design the buildings to make maximum use of renewable energy. Some techniques are as follows:
- Production of electricity through wind turbines.
- Deployment of solar energy for light heat and cool the building. Thereby, driving out the usage of mechanical and electrical devices which emit harmful substances into the air.
Technique to make use of solar energy –
- More south facing glass windows are constructed so that daylight comes inside the area. This reduces the usage of electricity. This is known as direct gain.
- The buildings should be built on east west axis.
- Areas of buildings used for longer hours should be placed on the south corner.
- Usage of thermal mass to store and distribute energy. This is known as indirect gain.
- Convection method deployment- Sunlight heats one area, and by the process of convection the adjoining rooms also get heated.
Health components of green building- Green building initiative program have been developed to promote good health. Measure taken towards health care are as follows
- In order to improve indoor air quality, the materials used are of non-toxic nature. This, in turn, reduces the rate of occurrence of allergies, breathing problems and sick building syndrome.
- The material used emit almost negligible or no harmful substances or gases.
- The VOC content is very low
- Are resistant to moisture which doesn’t let the moulds, spores and certain other microbes thrive in the area.
- Efficient ventilation system, which prevents suffocation.
- The materials used control humidity.
- The materials allow a building to breathe to drive out impure air and let the fresh air in.
Other essential requirements- The green building initiative program calls for the following requirements also:
- The green building should be sited appropriately, such that, it doesn’t become a hindrance or a problem to other nearby buildings.
- Should meet the needs of the community. To achieve this, local labour should be employed for the construction, so that there is availability of work for them.
- The materials used should be locally available, so as to reduce the cost of maintenance.
The bottom line
On the whole, it is clear that the components of green building initiative program are the need of an hour. Which, in turn, provide a healthy environment to live, affordable housing to construct & maintain and of-course proceed towards environment-friendliness. The green design professionals have left no stone unturned in making the initiative a big success.
