In the coming May month, the country’s first five-star rated green building in Achrol, Jaipur exclusively dedicated to environment audit will be ready to be inaugurated by Vice-President Hamid Ansari.
The International Centre for Environmental Audit and Sustainable Development (iCED), the first government green building, would be the only one in the country to cater to global training facility in environmental auditing.
The institute has been built by comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India, after India was chosen as the centre for imparting environmental and sustainable development audit by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI).
“The institute would be a centre for environment policy research and would focus on waste water, climate change, bio-diversity and sustainable development,” said Rebecca Mathai, principal director iCED. This would include carrying out research on policy relating to environmental issues like climate change, household waste, hospital waste, e-waste etc.
The facility seeks to harness India’s expertise in conducting more than 100 environment audits in the last 20 years to provide extensive training and a forum for experience sharing in this field.
Spread over 16 acres the iCED facility is conceived as a green building and a host of features have been incorporated in design and construction to reduce carbon footprint of the building. The ‘Energy Conservation Building Code 2006’ norms are being applied for energy efficient design and construction of the building. The site selection, material usage during construction, energy efficiency, water efficiency, indoor environment quality etc, are planned in such a manner to ensure adherence to “green norms” for the building. The building also aims to achieve Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment ( GRIHA) ratings.
Besides that the architectural emphasis is on use of local building material and local stone cladding to cut the cost of transportation and to reduce heat transmission. Carbon emission neutrality is ensured. Energy efficiency is ensured with features like orientation optimization, overhang sizing, skylights for daylight, insulation on walls/roofs, LED & efficient lighting and 100% external lighting on solar PV cells. The building also uses 30% fly ash in concrete, fly ash bricks.
Add to that emphasis is on use of geothermal cooling by introducing an alternate cooling system which could recycle cool air from below the earth’s surface (below 4 meters) into the building complexes. This coupled with solar chimneys would reduce the dependence on air conditioners. Among several other features, the building would install self contained solid waste management system.
Src: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Nations-first-five-star-rated-green-building-to-come-up-in-Jaipur/articleshow/19503464.cms