Green Buildings – How most of them are really made, the inside story.

Reams of paper wasted, air-condition switched on even when there is not a soul in the room designated as the architectural design office attached to the site  –  A Green Building which is pre-certified Gold is being built. Firm which is building it takes pride in announcing that all its buildings are LEED certified and it in now their CSR.

Sound familiar ? Welcome to the real World of building Green.

” ‘Green’ certification has become mandatory for buildings above certain meter square area. So, we are just following the law. How our building following guidelines will help save the World, I don’t understand when so many buildings being built are non-green. It is just another head-ache I tell you” – said the architect I befriended and was having an ice-cream soda with.

“So are you really following the guide-lines, like planting 3 trees to every one you need to chop down ?” – I ask.

“Sure we are’- says he, ‘only we have reported 7 trees instead of the actual 23, else we would be having a jungle instead of a building we need to build you know.

“Could you not have designed something which could have avoided cutting some, thus reciprocal planting could have been avoided?” – I asked.

“I could have,but I’m just an employee. The Bosses want a cost effective design and fast. So if we follow the all the guidelines as written, we would be finished. Say for example we  stack top -soil ; with the project taking 3 years to build do you really want us to maintain the top-soil and follow all those mandatory points and jack up the cost of construction? Get real man.We do what is minimum required for documentation purpose. Can’t follow all the rules all the time. We architects need to deliver, unlike you who have loads of money and don’t have the pressure to work and earn a living” – he said mockingly. Somewhere in his eyes I could see the designer who had visualised  a classic sustainable design, but it got quickly extinguished by the sound of his blackberry phone ringing.

“The Client has sent back the good for construction design; they want some changes. It seems that they have just hired a new guy who will be in-charge of this project. Had worked in Dubai on tall buildings. Says the new additions will make the building have more saleable area.” – he said while folding and stacking up a neat bundle of size A-0, fine quality drawing sheets. ” Here take this for your baby daughter to draw, with the changes asked all these drawings are defunct.”

“Could you not have sent them soft copies? I mean, till all the drawings are frozen, why do you guys start building ? Have your client not have heard of 3-D walk through and all the modern design ideas. Buddy, I even wrote an article on it. Green Business Ideas : Virtual World Design can save the real world losses. Did you read it ? – I cried out.

“Ha ha ! You are a very funny guy. Your virtual design ideas are just that – ideas for the virtual world.  Welcome to the real world buddy. Here we still work in the  most practical and economical manner, with high degree of efficiency and work ethics. – He rose to leave, turned and said – “nice talking to you. Don’t mind, you are a good guy but your ideas are a little foolish. There is no such thing as Sustainable construction.”

He walked away. I got up and put back the CD, I had got for him to view the SREX  report and the Stern Review. Which gives the horrifying view of a World hurtling towards destruction of the  life-style we all know and live in. And all due to human induced Climate change.

Yes! there is no such thing as Sustainable Construction….not until we have a Fukushima happening on our very own land. And then perhaps a few more would be required. After all we are a large land mass, with an equally large population. The death of a few thousand …it’s just statistics. Easy to forget.

Related articles

• Superheroes of the sustainable home building movement (agbeat.com)
• Consumers & Professionals Continue to Embrace Green Builds, Despite Economic Conditions (prweb.com)
• City’s ‘green’ building code advances Ketchum holds 1st reading of proposed ordinance (leeddaily.com)
• Why Build Green (723springstreet.com)
• Universal Steel Buildings Renews Membership In The U.S. Green Building Council (prweb.com)
• Green Building Insider Survey: World’s Green Building Councils Expect Huge Increases in the Number of Green-Certified Buildings Within Their Countries (prweb.com)

 

Green Business Ideas : Tall Buildings made from waste plastic is possible & its LCA is cheap – a builders delight and boon to Environmentalist

Business all over, in every Country is in flux. The fine tuning between Economic growth with least Environmental damage, while maintaining the modern life-style is challenging to say the least. But it is precisely during these challenging times, the World should go back and re-look at inventions – ignored during the ‘gold rush’ days in every sphere and bring forth into light others which are perhaps thriving in isolated pockets, but need the urgent attention to be brought out into the limelight and popularize it among the masses.

Thermo Polymerized Rock;  I did not even have the slightest idea that when I would sit down to write this article, every thing I would be asking the Green Building councils around the World to mull over, is already a ‘ open packet and serve’ solution. Affresol Modular Buildings are made from an innovative new structural product called TPR™ (Thermo Polymerized Rock).  It can be used to make the “Modular Buildings” and “Sectional House Frames” which have a Compressive Strength range 22 KN/mm2 to 38 KN/mm2. And perhaps there would be many more companies around the world doing the same. Its their time now. In India we have a Company Damanganga, which manufactures roofing and flooring sheets from waste, even some furniture, but I have not yet met a company which is making product like TPR.  Yes! the common people in the streets must know about it, not the intelligentsia discussing it in Five Star Hotel seminars.

Image via Wikipedia

And if discussion indeed need to happen then it should be on how Tall Buildings in Asia can be made modular. And more so in the ever growing cities of South East Asia. Every one knows that in this economic gloom and doom period, the rising stars are the BASIC countries. India being one of them, would be having a revised projected growth of 5% to 6%  instead of 9%. And according to the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, this can by no stretch of imagination be called ‘recession’; slower growth maybe. Therefore The European Union which is facing an economic crisis can harbinger overall growth by exporting their technology and expertise on TPR, help stave plastic pollution and earn some goodwill along with money. It could be the beginning of a great green business idea.

Because, as the South East Asian Cities grow, they bring with them problems, many of which have been addressed in my earlier articles ( http://wp.me/p1xbzq-a0 ; http://wp.me/p1xbzq-7i; ). Mumbai and New Delhi both are signatories of C40 Cities program. In fact all over cities are looking to become Climate responsive. In this back drop, it would be one of the finest engineering goals for the Construction industry to devise about how Tall buildings in India can be built with TPR.

Imagine – 50 years down the line, all one has to do is dismantle section by section a whole sky scraper  and pack it of for recycling. No construction debris, no brown-field sites filled with plastic. Having popularized the method, one can just start mapping the embodied energy saved, from limiting the use of cement  & concrete, paint and other conventional building materials. Also, the basic being plastic, one can have thinner walls which are both sound proof as well as lighter in weight. This would surely reduce the structural steel and make more carpet area  to wall space  ratio .

A winner in every way, for now each plastic bag, article which was discarded without a thought would be a valuable article to be segregated and sold. Perhaps enterprising companies would trawl the ocean floors near the countless beaches and gather the plastics which as of now are cause of Environmental hazard!