With the concept of sustainable architecture catching up, Grundfos India reiterates its commitment to sustainability by investing in greening their factory premises and receiving Gold certification under IGBC Green Factories Rating System.
The movement of green buildings is slowly and steadily growing in India and almost 1.2 billion square feet of constructed buildings in India (either built or under construction) have already been pre-certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). To put this in perspective, this accounts for almost 4.8% of the overall built up space in India of 25 billion sq. feet. The growth of green architecture in India is a continuing upward trend and it is being estimated that by 2030, green buildings would account for almost 30% construction in India.
Green buildings are the buildings that are environmentally responsible and a healthy place to live and work in. The careful choice of materials used in its construction and energy efficient operation of the building are the hallmarks of a Green Building. These buildings address energy-efficiency by paying attention to critical operations like Air-conditioning, lighting with optimal utilization of water with an eye on its distribution, economic usage, discharge, conservation and it re-use, thereby ensuring an ecological balance with its surrounding environment.
Amongst the newly certified green buildings, Grundfos, the Danish pump major, recently completed their new factory in Chennai and received Gold certification under IGBC Green Factories Rating System. Their earlier office building in Chennai is also previously LEED Gold certified and with this new feather in their hat, the company has further reiterated their commitment to sustainability and green development. 'The overall Grundfos goal is that when this generation delivers planet Earth to the next generation, it should be a cleaner and more energizing place than the place that we inherited' says Niels Due Jensen, the Group Chairman.
Similar to their product innovation, in-house production process, usage and choice of materials and new technologies, Grundfos Pumps has tried to highlight their sincere desire on World's resource conservation, with minimal impact on the surrounding environment through this new green building. “Grundfos green building in Chennai, the first building to be LEED certified in Grundfos Global community is the living embodiment of the principles Grundfos stands for”, says Niels Due Jensen.
While explaining the motivation behind investing in a green factory premise, Ranganath N.K, MD, Grundfos Pumps India said, “Water will become more expensive than petrol in coming years. We can live without petrol but certainly not without water. Keeping such resource constraints in mind, Grundfos India has taken up these green initiatives and is also motivating other industries to take up similar actions.”
As per the Grundfos India team, below are some of the resource efficiency efforts that were taken to make the factory building premises more sustainable.
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The building has been designed to showcase various green and sustainability measures and practices and the Grundfos effort is to use this building to communicate greater awareness on green concepts and sustainability to all its visitors and occupants. To this end, Grundfos Denmark inaugurated its training academy, called 'The Satellite Poul Due Jensen academy’ in India at Grundfos Green Building, Chennai. The academy is first of its kind in India wherein different segments of industry, including, Green Building and water services would be educated and trained by experts and professionals on Environmental aspects.
“The cost of the building when constructed was 10% more than the conventional buildings; however it uses 25% less energy and 40% less water than any conventional building. A major part of the investment went to the special glazing used in the windows, which lets the light in and at the same time keeps the heat out, cutting on air conditioning costs,” says Ranganath N.K, MD, Grundfos Pumps India.
Clearly businesses have started moving beyond eyeing green architecture as only a good-to-have and have started seeing business sense in such initiatives as well. The trend of green buildings is only set to grow further as more and more companies realize the business benefits in the years to come.
The author Roselin Dey is a part of the Sustainability Outlook Team.
