Mr Toine van Megen | Co-founder, Auroville Consulting | The Energy Pyramid:
The road map towards net-zero energy buildings or urban settlements includes the steps as shown in the energy pyramid below.
The Role of Green Building Rating Tools in Advancing NZEBs
Ms Mili Majumdar | Managing Director, GBCI India | The Bayer eco-commercial building located in the clean and green Bayer Campus, Greater Noida, India and the ZEB building in bustling campus of Building Construction Authority, Singapore are thousands of miles apart, yet have a common connecting thread. Both are shining examples of buildings that produce equal or more energy on site than they consume, namely net zero energy building or net positive building.
Introducing NZEB Portal
Anamika Prasad | Director, Environmental Design Solutions | A Nearly Zero (also called Net-Zero) Energy Building (NZEB) can be succinctly described as a ‘highly energy efficient, grid-connected building that generates at least as much energy through on-site renewable sources as it uses, accounted for annually’.
Building Energy Efficiency in India
Mark Newton | Team Leader, Office of Clean Energy and Environment, USAID/India | There is a discernable shift towards high performance buildings in India. State and city municipalities are prescribing green buildings norms for buildings. This is an encouraging sign for the future trajectory of the building sector.
NZEB tour | Infosys campus at Pocharam, Hyderabad
EDS conducted the NZEB tour to Infosys net-zero energy campus at Pocharam on 23 November for a group of 53 professionals and students. Participants got a first-hand experience of the high-performance strategies across the campus.While Infosys has grown over the last decade by more than 150% in terms of the number of employees, the monthly energy consumption per employee has more than halved! Key to this has been stringent standards of building performance.
NZEB Tour | Indian Green Business Centre (IGBC)
The Hyderabad study tour kickstarted with a visit to the first Platinum-rated LEED building in India, the iconic Sohrabji Indian Green Business Centre (IGBC). With an EPI of 85 kWh/sq.m/yr, the centre exemplifies sustainable performance through the thoughtful integration of passive and active measures. The building recently received an ambitious retrofit to target a net-zero energy facility. It now features a 124 kWp bi-facial photovoltaics and a highly efficient water cooled chiller system.
NZEB Tour | SIERRA eFACiLiTY®
EDS conducted a tour of SIERRA eFACiLiTY®, a smart and high-performance office building located in Coimbatore, on 19th September ’19. The eFACiLiTY®- showcases the capabilities of its in-house software solutions as well as locally bought sensors in reducing building energy consumption as well as efficient monitoring and control of various building systems.
NZEB tour | UNNATI: An office building for GAINWELL-CAT
A tour of UNNATI- an office building for GAINWELL-CAT- was conducted on 14th September 2019. The tour was led by members of its design team- including Anmol Ahuja from ABL architects, Mariam Zakaria, the green building consultant from EDS and Vevaik Mahan, the MEP consultant from UEDC. The tour was conducted in two batches over the day, with 22 participants including professionals, academicians and students.
NZEB tour | Godrej Plant 13
EDS kickstarted its NZEB tour initiative with a visit to the first IGBC Net Zero Energy certified project- Godrej Plant 13 in Mumbai on 9th August ’19 . The building is a 24,443 sq. metres office-cum-convention centre. It exemplifies sustainable performance through thoughtful design coupled with efficient systems and controls.
NZEB tour | CARBSE @ CEPT University
EDS facilitated a study visit to the Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science and Efficiency (CARBSE)- an operational NZEB with a built-up area of 800 sq.m- to see and learn about its design, technologies and operations. 35 professionals, faculty and students from across the country joined the tour. It was conducted by CARBSE Executive Director Rajan Rawal and Technical Director Yash Shukla.