A Critical anlysis of

LEED Abstract: India

standards and its relevance to India
by Somshankar Bose AIA Architect | Planner BLIPS NCARB| PMP | LEED AP BD+C

This paper is a critical analysis of LEED v.1.0 (India) green building standards and a commentary on the operational processes that went in evolving these standards by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The paper analyses the structure, content and metrics cited in the LEED v.1.0 (India) standards. It challenges some of the metrics that are referenced for buildings to achieve LEED certication. It does so by evaluating the metrics against the contextual competing pressures that are relevant to the Indian building and construction industry. The paper also provides a commentary on the development of the LEED standards and the management of the process with limited information available. The paper nally brings out the failures of LEED v.1.0 (India) and provides some correctional paths. In view of the lack of transparency of IGBC, the paper relies on the limited information available from sources available in the public domain and the IGBC website.

Operational Processes for LEED-India:

For all purposes the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) is modeled and nds itself as a derivative of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). USGBC is a private 501(c)(3), membership based non-prot organization. At the end of February 2010, USGBC had more than 18,500 member organizations from every sector of the building industry, including members representing the various construction trades, industry lobby groups, industry associations, trade membership association and unions representing the construction industry . As of 2010, the executive committee of USGBC did not comprise of any licensed architects, interior

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designers etc. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has been reluctant to endorse LEED as the only green standard . Almost 90 percent of members of the board are represented by building manufacturers industry and trade associations. Having most of the funding raised through private corporate donations and memberships, there is clear power equation ruled in the favor of large manufacturers of building materials, construction companies and trade associations reected in the composition of the leadership at USGBC. Unfortunately, professional bodies like the AIA, ALA, ASPE, ASME, NSPE, IEEE and AITP, ILSNA, ASHRAE, etc. are under-represented .

Coming back to India, although on a much smaller scale, the operational narrative published by IGBC mirrors a model similar to USGBC claiming a membership of over 125 companies and organizations that contributes to what it describes as consensus based standards. It also claims of a coalition of committee members that volunteer and seek expert opinion that seek to resolve differences, forge co-operative solution for inuencing change in all sectors of the building industry. Unlike the core values of transparency espoused by USGBC, it is glaringly absent in the IGBC with no

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information available on these members, their participation, the processes, the management structure, leadership and committees. The narratives also speak of setting policy, goals and working on strategies and devising work plans to address member needs. All these process description reads like an

What is missing is the transparency of these background processes or any information in the public domain.

exact text extract from the USGBC operation narrative. What is missing is the transparency of these background processes or any information in the public domain. LEED v.1.0 (India) certication is still in its nascent stages and the market for project certication is very asymmetrical from many angles. There is a geographic imbalance in projects across the major metropolitan regions as most projects are based in the North and South, with very few LEED . Across disciples from the construction industry, the interior industry has

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embraced the standards more rapidly than the architecture and building industry. The certication of ofces buildings is clearly ahead in numbers among project typologies, a denite result of most projects being interior t-outs. Having seen the trends stated above, we should ask explore some of these issues related to the focus areas in further detail. Also, having observed these asymmetries in LEEDs acceptability in the Indian market, we could better inform ourselves of the impact these standards could make to the sustainability goals of India and relevance of the standards in the Indian market.

Sustainable Sites:
Among the criteria listed under this focus area SS.Cr.1 is that land not prime farm land be not used for development. This should be assumed as a misprint, because the use of prime farmland is clearly works against

achieving a goal of sustainability, which preserves the existing farm land. There is no elaboration of what is meant by public parkland for development. It also is silent on undeveloped land around water bodies, which is a requirement in the USGBC LEED V.2.2 onwards. It should be noted the Protection of Water Bodies Bill, 2004 was tabled in parliament but is still not been accepted. More glaring is the requirements for the SS Credit 2 which deals with development density. LEED v1.0 requires a development density of 60,000/acre, which is the exact standards, used

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by LEED US. One could easily conclude that there have been no empirical basis to arrive for this gure by observing three simple differences between the US and India. The US has roughly the population of India with 3 times the landmass, which equates that India has roughly 12 times the pressure on resources as the US. See the graphic below is comparative difference of population and density between the two countries.
Population density (person per km) 35000

The US has roughly the population of India with 3 times the landmass, which equates that India has roughly 12 times the pressure on resources as the US.

Population density ( persons per sqkm)

30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0

hi Ch en na i Su ah ra m t ed a Hy ba de d ra ba Ba d ng al or e Ko lka ta Ka np ur Pu ne Ka m ar ha t Ja i ig ao n

Mumbai Hyderabad Jaigaon Bangalore

DelhiCities Kolkata

Chennai Kanpur New York

Surat Pune Los Angeles

While India has a population density of 363 person per sq km, the United States has a population of 32 persons per sq km. This means that there is more than 10 times the number of people in India than the US. Despite this simple statistical comparison, the target density for LEED is bizarrely the same for both India and the US. If we consider some cases of the metropolitan areas the numbers are even more confusing.

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Lo s
ahmedabad Kamarhati

Ne w

Yo r An k ge le s

ba i M um

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For SS Cr 3.0 there is no stated position on the standards for testing contaminated soil, land and the US EPA guide is taken as a guide for brown eld site development and rehabilitation. For SS Cr 4.0 the metrics for Public transportation access is exactly the same as the US. It calls for 0.8km of the distance of the project from commuter rail, 0.4 km from two or more public or campus bus linesetc. This is despite the fact that India has a denser connectivity of bus lines and the clear asymmetry of population/density data between the US and India.(see gure) There has been no incentive/credit assigned to co-operative housing societies to adopt LEED certication, despite almost 90% of housing in the private sector being co-op housing. For SS Cr. 5.0 there is no requirement for vegetative space for site without ordinances.

No incentive has been provided for rainwater harvesting on site or the storage requirements for potable water on a project using rainfall.

Water Efciency:
Unlike the US LEED, the water efciency credits do not have any prerequisite requirement. Fresh water is acutely scarce in India and many cities are beginning to face acute water shortage. This is despite the fact that India gets a very good monsoon season every year. No incentive has been provided for rainwater harvesting on site or the storage requirements for potable water on a project using rainfall. There are numerous indigenous rain water harvesting technologies available in India . WE.Cr.2.1 addresses large Air-conditioned building, however the water purity requirements and standards for capturing rain

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Many projects in India are hijacked to an infrastr ucture that does not feature promoting sustainability like a separate sewage system (two pipe).

water has not been mentioned. Resources available in India to perform these tasks will be crucial to make this credit successful. Many projects in India are hijacked to an infrastructure that does not feature promoting sustainability like a separate sewage system (two pipe). This should have clearly been a stated goal to the authors of LEED India by requiring on site capture/treatment of rainwater in accordance with the rainfall zones of the projects. There could also have been credits assigned to developer who adopt a two pipe system to the municipal connection. Under WE Cr. 4, squat type water closets are not addressed in the ow requirements and it will be worthy to note India has a large number of squat-type water closest and these squat types WC uses less water under more gravity.

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Energy and Atmosphere:

This credit is probably the only credit that seems to have Indianized and some effort put it by the authoring committee. The credit refers to the ECBC for the minimum energy performance of buildings. The compliance path using modeling a base building in the ECBC is valid for building that use 500kW of power or buildings ,which are approximately 500K GSF or larger(1.0W/sqft base case). Considering this the ECBC is applicable only for larger buildings. The ECBC also excludes buildings that do not use fossil fuel or electricity and are engaged in manufacturing. This would

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exclude the industry , currently a large emitter of green house gases. A large numbers of buildings in India use natural light, ventilation and no air-conditioning and the cumbersome requirements of the code without any incentive do not help to promote betterment and pursuit of this type of buildings. The metrics for EA Cr. 2.0 for Renewable Energy is a direct replica of the US LEED and it is not clear how this will align with Indias goal for pursuing renewable energy. The associated 1.0 credit for EA is so limited that this is usually not attempted considering the cost implications. The restriction to the use of ozone depleting HVAC refrigerants have been kept optional in LEED credits and do not really push the envelope for India to get rid of HFCF or Halon free refrigerants. This in itself renders comparison of LEED systems across different parts of the globe meaningless. The effort of a standard is to promote best practices and it seems that accommodating the pro-HVAC refrigerant lobby is a compromise than a pursuit of best practice.

The Indian building sector offers a huge potential for greenhouse gas reduction, but only a small part can realistically be tapped by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. This is due to the fact that transaction costs may be prohibitive for all but the biggest commercial buildings or large-scale appliance diffusion programmes. The initial focus of the CDM projects should be on service sector buildings such as hotels, headquarters of banks and large companies with high specic energy consumption and with large potential for energy savings (Singh & Michaelowa 2004). Although the cumulative energy saving potential of the hospitals, schools and other public buildings in India is considerably bigger, the problem is that their energy bills are currently paid directly by the government through the respective ministries supervising their 25 operations. Such a situation completely discourages the operators of these buildings to introduce any energy saving initiatives. However, a large-scale unilateral CDM programme of the Government could change the picture (Singh & Michaelowa 2004).

Although the cumulative energy saving potential of the hospitals, schools and other public buildings in India is considerably bigger, the problem is that their energy bills are currently paid directly by the government through the respective ministries supervising their 25 operations.

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Materials and Resources:

LEED India does not promote or applaud the collection and recycling of waste by numerous salvage collectors, which is uniquely an Indian model.
Under storage & collection of recyclables, LEED India does not promote or applaud the collection and recycling of waste by numerous salvage collectors, which is uniquely an Indian model. The denition of local or regional materials under MR Credit 5 is an exact conversion of distance from US LEED. Considering in India short distances are the norm, it would be worthwhile for this credit to be empirical with a reduced number and promote use of the public transport system of railways, which is seriously considering freight corridors at different sections of the country. The distance could then be reduced by the amount that the shipped material travels by railways. Only a few rapidly renewable materials have been listed but it would be worthwhile to promote use of local handicrafts for building nishes in lieu of materials listed. There should have been an incentive and llip to cottage industries by using their products in the building industry. Traditional industry based building materials have a larger carbon footprint in construction. (see box below) Finally, Certied Wood refers to use of 50% wood-based materials in accordance with FSC principles and criteria despite the fact that FSC does not have an Indian certication chapter or program. Only recently some wood merchants have adopted FSC certications for Chain of custody documentation. According to an Australian study, the reuse of building materials can

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commonly save up to about 95% of embodied energy that would otherwise be wasted. Savings from recycling of materials for reprocessing varies considerably with savings up to 95% for aluminum but only 20% for glass. That is because some materials, such as bricks and roof tiles, suffer damage losses up to 30% in reuse. Of course, it should also be kept in mind that the single most important factor in reducing the impact of embodied energy is

to design long life, durable and adaptable buildings (Milne 2005), however the use of industry processed non recyclable products for the nishes and t-out of indoor environments could be minimized to reduce waste generated by changing tenant or building occupant needs. By extending the life span of a building, the energy and costs associated with demolition and construction of new buildings are deferred until later. In conclusion, buildings should be designed with due consideration to factors such as local

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climate, transport distances, availability of materials and budget, balanced against known embodied energy content. Building should also be designed with the following strategies as listed below Use locally sourced materials when possible (including materials salvaged on site) to reduce transport; Select low embodied energy materials (which may include materials with a high recycled content) preferably based on supplier-specic data; Avoid wasteful material use; Specify standard sizes, Avoid use of energy-intensive materials as llers; Ensure that off-cuts are recycled and avoid redundant structures. Some very energy intensive nishes, such as paints, often have high wastage levels; Select materials that can be re-used or recycled easily using existing recycling systems; Use efcient building envelope design and ttings to minimize materials (e.g. an energy-efcient building envelope can downsize or eliminate the need for heaters and coolers, water-efcient taps allow downsizing of water pipes, etc); Ask suppliers for information on their products if not provided (Milne 2005).When choosing a building material, these guidelines should be followed: Design for long life and adaptability, using durable low maintenance materials; Use locally sourced material that helps the indigenous handicraft industry; Ensure materials can be easily separated; Avoid building a bigger house than you need. This will save materials; Modify or refurbish instead of demolishing;

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Ensure materials from demolition of existing buildings, and construction wastes are re-used or recycled; Energy used by traditional building materials

Embodied energy in buildings

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Indoor Environment Quality:

One of the most important focus areas from the Indian standpoint are the IEQ credits of LEED . India suffers from an array of pollution in the indoor environment. It also lacks clear federal codes on protection of Indoor as well as Outdoor environment quality in relation to air quality, noise, temperature and odor. LEED India could have emphasized on the control of pollution of dust, odor, and sound through prerequisites during construction. Almost 80% of the construction projects create demolition noise, quite often in densely populated spaces, dust that leads to lung and other respiratory conditions and odors that are repugnant to human habitation. LEED India does not address with specic and explicit guidelines for controlling these environmental issues. MR Cr. 3.0 in LEED India requirements leave out a lot considering they mirror the standards of the USGBC LEED and thereby suffers because in the United States a federal code exists mandates air quality, pollution and noise. MR Cr 4.0 heavily refers to US standards and certication, which would be expensive for product manufacturers in India to pursue and maintain thereby rendering their products unqualied and opening the door to foreign company domination and monopoly in this area. MR Cr 7.0 is again

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designed around ASHRAE standards for non air-conditioned buildings. No reference has been made to ECBC standards of GOI standards. Building mold, decay and immediate environment could be an area of focus for this building. Standard O&M for smaller building could included by USGBC in their operational narrative and made mandatory requirement for projects seeking LEED . Most building does not have such operating and maintenance standards because of the cost and lack of knowledge base to adopt such O&M procedures. These areas could have been paid much more attention to make LEED India worthy of recommendation by the design community for adoption by their clients and building owners.

Endlogue:
Anyone who knows Indian history would see many examples of how India has always been at the forefront of global thought. Sustainability in its holistic form is an Indian idea by design, knowledge and implementation. The Vedic thought, often referred to as Hinduism in the modern world and its various Upanishads have time and again espouse the concept of the interdependence and interconnectivity of all living things. The Indian thought of the inherent interdependence of living beings as the basis of existence seen permeates across different religions, peoples, cultures that have come or invaded India through centuries. The Vedic philosophy is the harbinger of many modern philosophies that promote a more holistic lifestyle, including Yoga, vegetarianism, animal rights, democracy, reverence and congruence of nature etc. and are being increasingly accepted in the western world today.

Hindu philosophy has always had a humane and dignied view of the sacredness of all life, and that humans are but one link in the symbiotic chain of life and consciousness. Western philosophy, on the other hand, treats man and nature as separate entities believing that the former has the prerogative to exploit the latter. Thomas Carlyle in Signs of the Times says, We war with rude nature; and by our restless engines, come off victorious and loaded with spoils. Western world nds itself at the crossroads and is desperately looking for a new philosophy to get rid of the ecological crisis which threatens mans existence on earth. Global Warming Is an Immediate Crisis - By Al Gore

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Despite this it pains me that as we come aboard the world stage by adopting western scientic standards without critical analysis. We forget that the roots of these sciences may be amidst ourselves if we look far back into our history and culture. I draw some concern from the lessons learnt from the NPT regime, which administered an inequity of power in the world stage by a nuclear apartheid by the rst movers of technology. Drawing lessons from that, India and Indian institutions should stay clear and away from organizations that promote apartheid in ideas that would cancel access to the poor in India and create entry barriers to ideas from India and outside. It will also be cognizant to recognize here that the burden of responding to the climate change crisis still falls with the developed countries. See graphic below

Western world nds itself at the crossroads and is desperately looking for a new philosophy to get rid of the ecological crisis which threatens mans existence on earth. By Al Gore

USGBC is a great organization but its efforts could serve well as a mentor than in the driving seat. USGBC has a large membership of corporations and big US companies, whose interest could be in conict with that of Indian companies and thereby could jeopardize the indigenous nature of the Indian economy that is trying to get a foothold in the global economy. USGBC referenced standards are welcome to be implemented in India; however there are numerous differences in the context in, which the US standards were authored.

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Professional bodies like the AIA in the US do not play an effective role in the authoring of these standards and should hint us to the nature of monopoly. Although, these standards are beginning to become benchmarks in the construction industry they are an industry enabler for companies that have power of capital, clout and reach that many smaller manufacturers of better products do not have across the globe. It is also been proven that LEED buildings and their rating often do not meet the performance standards for which they were being designed. The volume of construction spending in dollar terms in India is still a miniscule amount of what it is globally or even in the US. However, the growth of construction spending is the highest among the emerging nations and it will not only be important to align our policies and standards well above and beyond the existing standards globally, but also to have such standards free from dictatorship from outside our borders.

The audience was assured that zero construction worker death would be a basic pre-requisite for LEED projects, as death on construction sites were a common phenomenon, but the letter of the standards does not spell it out as such a condition.

Having said that a few years back at an USGBC convention in Chicago, I had the opportunity to interact with the leadership of LEED India and I had appraised the speaker on these asymmetries and despite verbal assurances of looking into these asymmetries listed above, no change has occurred in the last three years since that convention. Also, The audience was assured that zero construction worker death would be a basic pre-requisite for LEED projects, as death on construction sites were a common phenomenon, but the letter of the standards does not spell it out as such a condition. It is evident these standards are not leading to better quality or designed buildings, a case in point is the ITC Green center in Gurgaon, which received the LEED platinum. The building leaves a lot to be desired from an aesthetic perspective as well as to be a posterchild of green design. By many measures as well as the comparison of credits in this white paper exposes the myth we always suspected that LEED buildings in India are not exactly an apples to apples comparison with similar buildings in the US. That leaves a lot of things to be desired with many questions that are to be answered.

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The faith of the small clientele that would support LEED project and Green buildings can be diminished if money and effort spent in on questionable standards.

The faith of the small clientele that would support LEED project and Green buildings can be diminished if money and effort spent in on questionable standards. It is only in the interest of IGBC to look into these matters at the earliest before LEED becomes a meaningless exercise.

(Endnotes)
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Information sourced from the USGBC website AIA Document D503-2011, Guide for Sustainable Projects, including Agreement Amendments and Supplementary Conditions (Guide) does not endorse LEED as the only green standard. Information sourced from the USGBC website Status of Green Buildings in India, ENVJS, Center for Human Settlements, SPA-Delhi-02 Status of Green Buildings in India, ENVJS, Center for Human Settlements, SPA-Delhi-02 http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/Rural/Traditional1.htm#kuis http://www. unepsbci.org/SBCIRessources/ReportsStudies/documents/Buildings__Climate_ Change_/Buildings_and_climate_change.pdf http://www.unepsbci.org/SBCIRessources/ReportsStudies/documents/ Buildings__Climate_Change_/Buildings_and_climate_change.pdf

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Somshankar Bose AIA Architect + Planner M. Arch (USA) | B. Arch (India) NCARB | PMP | LEED AP BD+C Address: C-23, 2:3 , Sector-4 , Palm Beach CHS, O Palm Beach Marg, Nerul, Navi Mumbai -400706 MH India. Phone : +91 9167423648 /49 email: bose.dzine@gmail.com www.somshankarbose.com

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