Although the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard comes from the US Green Building Council, it has become widely adopted outside the US borders. It may come as a surprise to some, however, that India is second only to Canada in the number of LEED-registered buildings listed at the USGBC/LEED site. As long-time readers will recall, this includes the Confederation of Indian Industry's Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre (PDF) in Hyderabad -- the first building in the world to be given the LEED 2.0 Platinum rating, and declared the "greenest building in the world" in early 2004 (the National Resources Defense Council's headquarters (PDF) in Santa Monica, California, has now tied it in its LEED rating). In fact, two of the five LEED 2 Platinum sites in the world are in India.
They may soon be joined by a third.
The Auto Cluster Development and Research Institute Limited (ACDRIL) building in Pune, India, will be registering for LEED status, and the the designers promise at least a LEED Gold, but are aiming at LEED Platinum.
...the auto cluster buildings will use sunlight for most day lighting and natural ventilation to keep the usage of electricity to a minimum for lighting and air-conditioning.The design envisages roof-top gardens for reducing heat pockets, use of recycled and local building materials, vermiculture, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment plant, grey water recycling to be used for flushing toilets and gardens and use of renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) apart from a lot of greenery and water bodies, including a natural stream running through the site to beautify the campus.
The site is expected to be open in late 2006.
But India is not content to use the US standards for sustainable buildings. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Dehli is developing its own set of criteria which take India's local conditions into account. These standards will be known as "TERI-GRIHA, or TERI’s Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment"
(Via Sustainablog)
