16 Sep 2008
09:45 pm IST

It seems that the word 'green' has become a fashion word nowadays. Green cars, green fuels, green food, green energy, green housekeeping, green birth and even green death has making headlines. There is green everywhere. Green buldings is becoming a trend too. What are green buildings?

Green buildings use 30% less energy than conventional buildings. They are built using earth-friendly materials. They conserve water, sometimes they are competely independent of government water supply and waste water sewage systems. They are built to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. They are also built to encourage local trees, animals and birds to survive within the site where the building comes up. In a traditional sense, use of local materials are encouraged in such buildings in order to reduce transportation energy.

Passive architecture are deployed that understands the way the sun moves. It helps to design the orientation of the building to maximize daylight penetration and reduce undesired thermal effect inside buildings. It uses non-conventional energy sources such as solar, wind and bio-gas. Natural ventilation adds to air and thermal comfort to occupants.

To put it in a nutshell, green buildings are buildings that hurt the planet less.

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Be the change,
Krish Murali Eswar

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Gandhiji."