Continuing my three part series on Green Homes, here is the second part which intends to list out the top 10 priorities that the builder, designer and most importantly the home owner should be aware off. This part is going to be split into a series of 10 articles, each one covering a particular green home priority. I am going to follow a ranking order listing out first, what I believe are the most important factors to be considered in greening a home and then gradually moving to lesser known but probably equally important factors. The order is my personal opinion based on the Indian context and solely takes new homes and major renovations into account. My ranking might have been slightly different if I was to consider existing homes or homes built in the coldest or driest parts of the country. I will be pleased to hear any disagreements but the bottom line is that all of the priorities I will cover are important in most situations--and there are lots of other greening strategies we should try to address, even if they don't make it onto this list. So here goes:

Green Home Priority ~1 – Reduce Water Use

Number 1 on my list of the top-10 green home priorities is to reduce water use. I expect some readers will be surprised at my choice of water and not energy being the top priority. Well, this would be fair in most countries but not in India. Water is a rapidly renewable resource in the sense that we get two major monsoons in a year but one must also remember that the quantity of water is finite and is not going to increase year after year. Energy production on the other hand can be increased as per requirement from conventional or renewable resources. Not inferring that energy is any less of a priority but we know that an energy crisis can be managed with human intervention; on the other hand, we are at nature's mercy for water. But in many ways, water resource issues are an even bigger problem in parts of the country that aren't as used to thinking about water. Take Charrapunji for example where even an annual rainfall of 11,777 mm does not seem to be enough to provide a secure water supply.

For those who didn't already know here is the Indian scenario: Not a single town, village or city in India has a 24*7 water supply, not a single water board charges its consumers the amount it costs the government to convey the water from far of catchment areas to their homes, not many people know the true cost of getting a kilo litre of water to flow from the catchment area to the taps in their homes and many people seem to believe it is gravity that brings water to their doorstep. The haves with a proper municipal supply cannot care enough for water and the have nots do not get much water. The very concept of  central municipal water supply has no business model and hence like many other government services, is not sustainable.

Lets take Bangalore as an example: Bangalore is situated at an elevation of 3,020 ft above sea level but all its water comes from sources that are well below this elevation. Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board is currently drawing water from two rivers namely, Cauvery (80% of the city supply) and Arkavathy (20% of the city supply). Water from these two rivers is stored in huge reservoirs constructed near the rivers. From the reservoirs, water is then let into treatment plants for purification, then the water is pumped in large pipelines to the smaller reservoirs in the city through a series of pumping stations and within the city, water is supplied to households and other establishments by further pumping through a network of smaller pipes. Hence every drop of municipal water that a Bangalorean consumes or wastes has been pumped using large amounts of energy. The exact energy consumption figures are not known but one can only imagine the cost of pumping 945 million litres of water per day to heights of 3000 ft. The scenario in other cities is either alarming (Cost of water supply in Chennai is even higher) or only slightly better.

It gets worse: Because of the laws nature, everything that goes in has to come out in some form or the other. This is what we call sewage, which is an even bigger problem than the water supply itself. The more water we consume the more sewage we generate. The more sewage we generate the more energy intensive treatment facilities we require. Not a single city in our country treats even close 75% of its sewage. Broken pipes, unregulated colonies, slums and industrial effluent only compound our problems. In most cities sewerage systems are incomplete or non existent in some parts. Hence sewage is either simply let into the storm water drains (meant to carry only rain water) or lakes. Making this water unfit for human consumption.

The bottom line is: Water use reduction is such an important factor in construction of Green Homes (and other buildings for that matter) mainly because water is energy-intensive. Pumping water out of the ground or catchment, moving it from one place to another, treating it, and then treating the waste-water after we use it accounts for about 3% - 6% of the nation's electricity. Water is also such a high priority because so much else depends on it. Most of our power plants draw water from rivers and lakes for cooling, and during severe droughts power plants have to shut down. Unlike the more developed countries our food system is highly dependant on irrigation. We drink and wash with water. And it takes a lot of water to generate electricity: on average 15 - 20 litres per kilowatt-hour in India.

There are lots of good ways to reduce water use. A few of my favourites are listed here:

• Replace old shower-heads with new ones that do not dispel more than 8.4 litres per minute
• Replace old toilets with latest dual flush systems that do not dispel more than 4.2 litres per full flush and 2.1 litres for half flush
  
• Reduce the water consumption of bathroom faucets by installing aerators that increase air supply and restrict water supply to about 8.4 litres per minute.
• Install waterless urinals. Yes they work and no there is absolutely no odour. If there was, nobody would buy them and hence nobody would make them.
  
• Install pumping management system to ensure there is no overflow from the overhead tanks.
  
• Buy a water-saving washing machine. Horizontal-axis, front-loading machines use significantly less water than most vertical-axis top-loaders.
  
• Buy a water-conserving dishwasher or don't buy one at all.
  
• Plant low-water-use landscaping. Grass is getting too common anyway.
  
• Harvest rainwater for irrigating and other outdoor uses. With sufficient filtration and purification rainwater can be used for drinking purposes as well.
  
• Treat at least the grey water to reuse for irrigation.
  

These suggestions are just a starting point; there are lots of other opportunities for savings. Huge savings can also be achieved simply by changing your behaviour: taking shorter showers, and not running the water when washing dishes or brushing your teeth, and skipping car-washing, for example. To a significant extent, water savings is about common sense.

The larger unrelated issue: Rain is decentralised. So is the demand for water. Why cant we decentralise the supply? In my opinion the entire system of water supply from a centralised location and also treating the resultant sewage in a central location is fundamentally flawed and does not make any sense. Well, not in a big country like India with a big population and with even bigger problems. How is it practically possible for even the most efficient government machinery to supply water to 1.3 billion people and also take away all the waste they generate for little or no fee and treat it? How many STPs are we going to build, where is the water going to come from and more importantly where is the energy to do all the above? Even if we manage to treat most of the waste water in centralised sewage treatment plants there is no means to convey the reusable water back into our cities without creating more infrastructure that requires even more energy.

These traditional ideas of what a government is supposed to do for its people and what people should expect from a government needs to change. The government's job is to act as a facilitator and not as a provider. The governments job is to encourage, support and provide technology/incentives for water conservation, water harvesting and decentralised waste water treatment systems within sites. Since rain is only seasonal the government should supply water at higher costs when people need it and for those who want to continue using the sewage systems they should be willing to pay for the quantity of waste they send out. These are larger political issues which need to be debated in the appropriate forum. But in the medium term we will continue to see political parties promising people more water hence more dams, more free sewage treatment hence more STPs, better waste collection hence larger dump yards and more electricity and hence more power plants; there is no end to it. I hope common sense prevails and some day people realise that the more we build the more we lose, why to build when there is nothing to gain.

I have just finished reading one of my favourite magazines; the January issue of the Indian version of Entrepreneur magazine contains a 2011 trends special. Just like most magazines do in their first issues of the year, the Entrepreneur magazine also contains articles on what they believe will be the forces driving change in 2011. This articles talks about how travel and tourism is going to take off, how social media is going to bring about a revolution in on-line shopping, how the increasingly health conscious population will power a boom in the fitness sector, how healthcare has and will continue to emerge as the most progressive of the service sectors in the country and how the services required by senior citizens will create a huge opportunity for budding entrepreneurs. Now most of us have heard of the progress these sectors have been making for a few years now so these are quite predictable. But one trend that I thought was quite interesting and even slightly surprising was the forecast of increased demand for Green Homes. Interesting because Green Homes and the concept of smarter living offers tremendous opportunity for overhauling an average Indian's lifestyle and surprising because I did not think it would make it to such a list for at least a couple of years. Well, its here now and so I thought its only appropriate to give a further insight into Green homes, what's on offer and what one should expect out of living in such a home.

What is a Green Home...

A Green home is essentially a building which is Designed bio-climatically, consuming less water, optimising energy efficiency, using recycled / renewable materials, generating less waste, both during construction / post construction and providing safe and healthy living space for its residents ...

According to the Indian Green Building Council; A Green Home can have tremendous benefits, both tangible and intangible. The immediate and most tangible benefit is in the reduction in water and operating energy costs right from day one, during the entire life cycle of the building.

Tangible benefits

Below are links to the queries on green-buildings.com from various parts of India which Yusuf Turab, Managing Director, Y T Enterprises had to opportunity to answer. Please write in your comments, disagreements and feedback within the comments section at the end of each article.



Cost of Green Building in India: What is the Payback Period?

Carbon Footprints for Green Building Materials: Is It Common Practice in India?

LEED and Green Building Incentives: Promoting Sustainability in India and the World

Cost of LEED Buildings in India: 6 Ways to Control Costs


LEED 2011 for India: When Should we Register Our Hostel Project?

Speak to any entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur, an unsuccessful entrepreneur or a wannabe entrepreneur and they will admit to one thing, they are big dreamers. In fact most of them spend more time dreaming than doing something about those dreams and thoughts. One of the reason is that quite often the entrepreneur is way ahead of himself and its often found that its hard for him to physically keep up with everything he is thinking. Dreams are a state of mind and for an entrepreneur the mind works like a machine, a business development machine, a marketing machine, an accounting machine or quite often a tax evasion machine. The point I am trying to make is when an individual has an overwhelming desire to achieve a perceived level of greatness in their chosen field of work, all his/her thoughts and dreams start to revolve around that field and some of its characteristics and this process is almost relentless. These dreams are often unrealistic and full of fictional characters.

Just like every other entrepreneur I dream a lot and lately I have found myself seeing a lot of green all around. Not necessarily eco-friendly but green colour nonetheless. I recently had one of these dreams and I thought it makes sense to put it in words instead of just letting it go. As far as I remember, it went like this: I was at a coffee shop called GREEN DAY sipping my green coffee in a green coloured mug. Then I saw two alien looking men walk in and they were green, green skin, green clothes, green shoes, green everything (they were probably aliens, not sure). I thought I must have seen these characters somewhere to have dreamt about them, so I searched the internet and the closest match I found are these two characters.

Anyway, back to the dream. So these two men walk in buy a green coffee each and start talking about their respective office buildings and how green they were. I started eavesdropping as soon as I heard the word green. I noted both their buildings had some excellent environmentally responsible features and they had done everything possible to ensure their office buildings have minimal impact on the environment.

• Both the buildings were very well located with close proximity to public transport links and excellent community connectivity.
• Both men had made absolutely sure that there was no soil erosion, sedimentation or air pollution with dust and particulate matter during construction.
• Both offices sufficiently encouraged their employees to commute using bicycles or low emitting and fuel efficient vehicles.
• Both the buildings had maximised open spaces and restored the natural habitat within them, they had also built roof gardens with local plant species to make up for the loss of habitat on the built up surfaces.
  
• Both buildings had taken measures to more or less eliminate the use of municipal potable water by harvesting and filtering all the rain water within the site, using ultra low flow bathroom fixtures, waterless urinals, efficient flushing mechanisms, treatment of graywater and reusing that for flushing and irrigation. Even the sewage was treated using biological methods.
  
• Both green men had paid special attention to make sure their buildings were as energy efficient as possible. The building envelopes were sufficiently insulated, the doors and windows were of the highest quality, the glazing was the most efficient for their respective climatic conditions.
  
• Both buildings saved over 90% of their lighting power requirements by using LED lights, attention was also paid to make sure the appliances and devices used in the buildings were the most energy efficient available in the market.
  
• Above all this both buildings generated some of their power from solar energy systems and they also invested in purchasing RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates) from the market.
• Both buildings had similar waste management and recycling policies.
  
• Both the offices had ensured all the material and resources were produced regionally and contained as much recycled content as possible. Some of the material was also salvaged from other places and all the remaining requirements were met using environmentally conscious virgin materials like FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified wood and carpets in compliance with CRIs (Carpet and Rug Institute) indoor air quality test program.
• Both the buildings seemed to have followed most of the best practises to ensure that the indoor air quality was optimum.

Its 2 p.m and its hot as hell (yes! there is a hell) I have already spent the last two hours without any power and my UPS is on its last few drops before it becomes yet another victim of our government's incapability to supply us with adequate power. We have had an average of 4 hours of load shedding everyday for the last four months! I am bang in the middle of Coimbatore city and I hear that others have it much worse. Coimbatore is no longer the poor man's Ooty like it used to be 15 years ago. So yes, any sort load shedding does make life very difficult leave alone spending four hours a day without any power. So what's all the fuss about? there is a power crisis not just in Tamil Nadu but the entire country is suffering. Well, that is what the fuss is. Clearly, these are desperate times. I wish the government realised "Desperate times call for desperate measures".

Before you start guessing what I am getting at, No, I am not advocating burning more coal or building power plants in a hurry to cater to the increased demand. In fact the lesser we build the better it is for all of us. Only minor policy changes can address most of our power related problems. Here's the story. Just for the sake of it I am going to call this story "Finding Sense in Common Sense":

Lets take the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board as an example. TNEB charges a varying tariff which means that the more electricity you use, the more you have to pay per KWH or 1 unit of electricity. For the sake of this blog, lets assume you use 1000 units at your home, say in a month. This will cost you Rs 3690 and after subtracting the subsidy which is Rs 1350 (I know! ridiculous) the net tariff comes down to Rs 2340. That is 2 rupees and 35 paise per unit of electricity. With a domestic tariff as low as this why should I not operate my air conditioner 20 hours a day?(I did not say 24 because there is no power for 4 hours anyway). Why should I not keep all my appliances on standby when not in use? Why should I go through the pain of educating my 7 year old nephew the importance of energy conservation?

The only answer to these question is "because it is the right thing to do". Well, I don't expect you to buy that.

Why do we need a subsidy when we cannot even generate enough electricity to cater to even our most basic needs? Or why can't the government simply double the tariff to Rs 5/unit or even more during the peak consumption hours (say about six hours a day)? Or if that is an administrative hassle then why not a blanket increase in all power tariff? Would this not be the most practical way of conveying to the people that there is a problem and we are doing our best to address it in the short term. So you can carry on operating your air conditioners for as long as you want and carry on wasting as much electricity as you want, but you are going to have to pay for it.

Money talks and it is a no brainer to assume that consumption during peak hours will drop sharply. It might even drop to the levels that we need not resort to any load shedding at all. This will also bring in additional revenue to the department which can be used to fund future renewable energy projects. More importantly, this will also be the best way to educate people on the importance of using energy more efficiently. This will get people to think about energy, talk about energy and  they will start finding ways to save energy. People will start employing energy auditors to survey their homes, they will invest in retro-fitting their homes to ensure maximum efficiency, they will only buy the most energy efficient appliances and actually care to use them more smartly, they will start replacing their lights with LEDs, they will plug every gap that allows conditioned air to escape, they will install the best ventilation systems, they will start creating roof gardens, they will get their roofs insulated, they will get their windows double glazed, they will start investing in renewable energy, they will insist on only making green buildings, the possibilities are endless.

Even if only half the above statements come true this will still create thousands if not lakhs of Green Collar jobs. Sustainability will not just be a word that green consultants use to show-off their vocabulary, it will actually be a sector in business. Our engineers will have better things to do than write computer programs for some imperialistic company in the west. Our architects will start designing smarter and greener homes. Consultants like Y T Enterprises will research more and more ways to offer energy savings to its customers. Again the possibilities are endless.

The Arguments

Will this not increase the price of goods and commodities?
No. There is no need to make any changes to the tariff structure of commercial establishments and who says the above recommendations need to be permanent. It only needs to be a desperate measure. The TNEBs commercial tariff work out to Rs 6/unit for 1000 units consumed which seems appropriate considering the current circumstances. Being an owner of a commercial establishment myself, I can say that I would prefer paying a little more than to run my diesel generator which inflates my cost of energy to Rs 12 / unit (these are my own calculations and can vary for different machines). If you factor in the cost of the generator, the carbon emissions caused, the potential health problems that can be caused by the burning of diesel and the subsequent loss of productivity the cost can be unjustifiable for a business.

What if this causes electoral losses in the next elections?
If the current scenario continues the leadership is going to change hands in any case. An immediate solution even if unpopular can reverse fortunes in the long run. And there is no point in subsidising power when there is no power to supply anyway.

What about the poor people?
That calls for another story. Just for the sake of it I am going to call this story "Looking at the glass half empty":
Lets flash forward ten years and lets hypothetically assume that India's economy has grown to slightly more advanced levels and the government has somehow managed to provide access to electricity to every single citizen of the country. In spite of this there are still 300 million poor people in the country because just as in the past the rich and the middle class have reaped all the benefits of economic growth. There is still acute power shortage because of increasing demand and because Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde and his successors did not read this article (for those of you who have still not started to seriously think about energy, he is the current Minister of Power).

Now lets ask all those 300 million poor people what would they like. Would they prefer 8 hour power cuts or would they rather prefer paying double the tariff for 6 hours. Again, it is a no brainer that 299.99 million people would say they would prefer paying the premium and use electricity as conservatively as possible.

Lets hope common sense prevails. Here at Y T Enterprises we believe only a sustainable present will create a better future. Green is here to stay and the future looks very green to us. The air feels clean and the grass looks green and Coimbatore is Ooty again. Only this time it is not the Poor Man's Ooty because we will all be rich, won't we?