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Project

Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad

Credits: ©2004 The Rediff

One of the best examples of passive architectural design in the world. President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam inaugurated the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre (GBC) in Hyderabad in July 2004. At the time it was the first building in the world outside the US to be awarded the 'platinum rating' under the LEED rating system, making it 'the greenest building in the world.' The most environment-friendly building for use of water and energy efficient technologies and recycled material has been built as a unique public/private partnership as a demonstration building for the industry in India and other countries of the world. The GBC, was built on an area of five acres near HITEC City in Hyderabad and is designed as a demonstration building, as well as research and development center.

 

Godrej Daylighting Wall

Jali, or perforated, wall brings in natural light as well as ventilation at the Green Business Centre in India. ©2004 GBC

Listing out the unique features of the building which won the highest rating in the world, Godrej said that the 80 per cent of the material used in the construction of the building was recycled. It included fly ash, a waste material coming out of cement and other industries. The building discharges zero water as all of its used water is recycled. It has a huge capacity for the collection of rain water.

"The building has used many innovative ideas including a waterless urinal in which the chemicals are used to store and recycle urine without any odour. The site of the building was not at all disturbed for the construction of the building, as per the LEED norms," he said.

The building is also highly energy efficient and uses 55 per cent less energy than a conventional building. It has been constructed in such a way that the intake of natural lighting is high and there is no need for external lighting.

There are two air conditioning towers in which the incoming air is cooled 7 t 8 degree by spraying of water. The pre-cooled water is fed into the air conditioning system further lowering the energy costs.

The 60 per cent of the roof of the building is covered by the roof garden as a good insulating property and to cut down the load on the air-conditioning system.

The balance portion of the roof is covered by solar photo voltaic with 24 KW capacity. The 100 to 120 units of power generated per day is fed into the grid meeting 20 per cent of the total energy cost of the building.

The USAID provided lot of technical and strategic inputs and put the CII in touch with the US Green Business Council.

Stating that the GBC would emerge as a model for the entire Indian industry, including the construction and manufacturing industry, Godrej said: "Our vision is to not just to put up this demonstration building but also be the world leaders. We have already made contacts outside India. We intend to take this movement throughout ASEAN region and Gulf region and many other places because it is very important that we are seen as a leader in this area. Making India a world leader in Green Business by 2015 is the vision of the GBC."

The GBC has already made a presentation before Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong during his recent visit to New Delhi. "We are going to work with Singapore government in promoting green buildings," Godrej said.

Focus areas of GBC include green buildings, water management, energy efficiency, renewable energy and environment recycling. The GBC set the target of building ten green buildings by 2006 and creating five world-class energy efficient companies by 2005.

The CII is already constructing a green building for the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturing Association, Bangalore, which will be a 'golden rating' building.


Resources

Godrej Green Business Centre (India)