Web exclusive: Green awareness is more overseas

“The awareness of green is greater in the west than in India and there are a number of companies and funds who would go only for green projects. This is yet to be seen in India, but the trend will catch on,” pointed out J D Stuart Mackaskie, CEO, Maxwell &Stuart Project Management India.

Participating in a panel discussion on ‘What green means to investors, developers and occupiers,’ at the Property World international conference on Offices North India, 2010-12 he said, “Though Indian architecture is traditionally green, the bulk of new buildings in India are not green and we have somewhere along the way, forgotten our traditional architecture.”

Explained Vidur Bharadwaj, Director the 3C company, who has developed several LEED certified green buildings, “Green buildings were more essential in India because of the tropical climate and hence there existed a tremendous opportunity for such eco-friendly buildings. We need to design buildings to use light and air judiciously. Earlier green buildings like the Taj Mahal happened naturally, now we need to go into how it happened. In the west, acceptance of green buildings is also easier as office spaces are leased for long tenures and tenants are hence bothered about lifecycle costs.”

“In India, owner-occupiers are keen to go in for green buildings, but this needs to spread faster while government incentives can play a big role to promote them,” he added.