Time to seek green label
SUDHINDR A.B.
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Workshop hints that in the near future, carbon liability labelling for buildings may become mandatory
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— Photo: K. Murali Kumar
Sustainability: Donna McIntire of UNEP (centre) and other delegates at the ‘Multi-stakeholder workshop for the construction and real estate sector’ in Bangalore.
If you are planning to buy a house or an apartment, just like the way you do before you buy your car, look for the “green” label. Because, in the near future, carbon liability labelling for buildings may become mandatory.
Donna McIntire, Programme Officer, The United Nations Environment Programme-Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative (UNEP SBCI), said at a multi-stakeholder workshop held here on Wednesday that all stages of a building’s life-cycle (including construction and demolition) produced carbon emissions. The building’s operational phase accounts for 80-90 per cent of emissions resulting from energy use mainly for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and appliances.
The participants at the workshop deliberated on “Sustainability principles and reporting for the construction and real estate sector in the Indian context,” which was co-hosted by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a network-based organisation and collaborating centre of the United Nations Environment Programme that has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework, UNEP SBCI, a partnership between the U. N., and the building sector stakeholders, and Cognito, a sustainability propagation advisory in India.
Insights
Giving insights into the recently launched Common Carbon Metric (it was launched at Copenhagen on December 11, 2009) for measuring energy use and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from building operations, Ms. Donna said that the purpose is to give the sector that represents 40 per cent of the world’s energy consumption and related one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a tool that doesn’t exist today — a way to measure, report and verify reductions in a consistent and comparable way. With its high share of emissions, the building sector has the responsibility and opportunity to take the lead in reduction strategies.
The building sector has more potential to deliver quick, deep and cost-effective GHG mitigation than any other. Significantly increasing building energy efficiency can be achieved in the short-term. Energy consumption in both new and existing buildings could be cut by an estimated 30 to 50 per cent by 2020 through readily available technologies, design, equipment, management systems and alternative generation solutions.
This can be funded through investments that quickly pay back and result in significant environmental, social and economic benefits. “A universal measuring stick for building emissions — a Common Carbon Metric — provides the foundation for accurate performance baselines to be drawn, national targets set, and carbon traded on a level-playing field,” Ms. Donna said. She also highlighted the importance of having a “common language” to provide an internationally coherent and consistent method for measuring the climate footprint of buildings.
S. Kanappan, Vice-President, L&T, ECC Division, spoke on the Indian perspective and said that green buildings provide health and safety to its occupants besides having minimal adverse impact on the external environment.
Harsh Purohit, Executive Director, Cognito, said that “green” made business sense in the construction industry. The Indian construction and real estate sector faces unique challenges and the workshop provided a platform to articulate the Indian context and ensure that measurement and reporting frameworks are relevant, fair and practical.
Katherine Miles of Global Reporting Initiative spoke on construction and real estate sector reporting guidance and sector sustainability reporting.
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