Is India a Quiet World Leader in Green Building?

Sarah Ward
Special Contributor
March 4, 2014

Green Commercial Buildings

With their LEED-equivalent certification system, India isn’t just taking note of green building opportunities - they’re paving the way for much of Asia. Discover their aggressive goals and how they stack up to other countries’ here.

Green roofs are an attractive green building element.

Credit: Ryan Somma via Flickr

Over the course of the next three years, India expects to increase their national square footage of green building space by nearly three times, according to the Chairman of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), C.N. Raghavendran. Currently touting 1.82 billion square feet throughout the country, they expect to break the 5 billion mark by 2017, indicating, among other things, that the US is not the only major player on the globe experiencing a resilient boom in green building.

Executive Director of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Green Business Center, S. Raghupatthy states that there will be a strong push to expand the number of IGBC local chapters between now and that time as well, in order to drive further green building awareness, education and resource accessibility. Currently, there are only 14 chapter units, but Raghupathy expects this number to blossom to upwards of 50, with three more chapter inaugurations already in the works within the northern region of India.

As of today, there are more than 2,400 green corporate and residential construction projects planned, including hospitals and airports, in order to satisfy this lofty goal. Upwards of 550 of the projects have met the necessary criteria for IGBC’s final green housing certification.

To provide a bit of context, as of late 2013, the USGBC’s LEED in Motion report indicated that there were 17,434 LEED certified commercial projects constituting 2.3 billion square feet in the US. What’s more there was an additional 4.4 billion square feet waiting in the wings, having pursued but not yet received a LEED certification. However, Canada was the only other country separating the US and India in regard to aggressive green building projects.

Needless to say, India is taking note of the critical environmental influence that green building has, hoping to remit their longstanding challenge with smog and pollution. If you’re operating in India or have traveled there for work, comment below and tell us what challenges it will face in achieving the 5 billion+ status.