Building green dreams

At a time when the real estate sector is searching for a possible trigger, builders are zooming in on the concept of water and  energy conservation. Almost all the builders are selling this concept as the USP of their projects.

Not only the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) but also the builders are spreading the message of energy and water conservation to the customers and the public.

Experts in the field point out that green building will be the next buzzword which will drive sales in the near future.  “Builders have been adopting methods to conserve water and energy for the past few years. Now the concept gathers momentum and we feel this as a step towards the green building concept,” said M V Antony, president, CREDAI-Kochi.

The builders are more concerned about the environmental issues and hence they are promoting these kinds of projects recently. Builders have started installing more solar panels and centralised gas supply system in apartments to receive piped gas, he pointed out.

Though green building is the most environmental-friendly concept builders are of the opinion that it will incur a cost escalation of 5-10 per cent on overall cost of the project. But in the long run it is beneficial for all, Antony said.  K A Mohamed Salim, managing director of Asset Homes, said that time has come when the builders have to take water conservation seriously.

The two things builders can do are rainwater harvesting and disciplined usage of water. The builders will be forced to sell these concepts  in the future as they are also part of society,” he said.

The real estate sector is embracing water and energy conservation as part of its business strategy also as it knows that in order to survive it has to address the problems of the future too, said Gokulam S Venugopal, managing  director, Gokulam Builders. 

Builders have been doing rain water harvesting for the past several years. Now they are using LED lamps in their new projects. Although the green building concept cannot be implemented in large-scale apartment projects because of  high cost, builders can use methods like sewage treatment plants and solar panel installations in their projects,” he said.