According to IEA, the built environment accounts for 40% of global CO2 emissions. Of those total emissions, building operations are responsible for 27% annually.
Therefore, the concept of green building is a critical aspect of a sustainable future. Green building refers to both a structure and the application of environmentally responsible and resource-efficient processes throughout the building’s life cycle.
IGBC-certified green buildings employ green concepts and techniques in the building sector to help address national issues such as water efficiency, energy efficiency, reduced use of fossil fuels, waste management, and conservation of natural resources. Most importantly, these concepts have the potential to improve occupant health, happiness, and well-being.
About IGBC Green New Building Rating Systems
The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), was formed in 2001. The council’s vision is “To enable a sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment by 2025”. The council offers a wide array of services, including developing new green building rating programmes, certification services and green building training programmes.
All types of non-residential buildings, like retail stores, office buildings, IT Parks, BPOs, shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, airports, banks etc., are eligible to apply for the IGBC certification. There are 4 points based IGBC certification levels:
Benefits of Green New Buildings
Green New buildings can provide numerous tangible and intangible benefits. The most noticeable advantages are the reductions in water and energy consumption that begin on the first day of occupancy. Energy savings could range from 20 to 30%, and water savings could range from 30 to 50%. Intangible benefits of green new buildings include improved air quality, excellent daylighting, occupant health and well-being, safety benefits, and the conservation of scarce national resources.
ZenConnect, a full-stack IoT-based energy and asset management solution, can assist organizations in achieving 10-25 IGBC certification credit points in the following categories:
How Zenatix helped a leading retailer achieve eight credit points in the IGBC Green New Buildings certification process
1) About Customer
The customer is India’s leading retailer with a portfolio of 60+ stores with an average store size of 25,000 sq. ft in 5+ cities. The stores are equipped with various building equipment like HVAC, lighting systems, Diesel generators, Solar power systems, UPS, etc.
2) Zenatix’s contribution to Retailer’s Journey to IGBC Green Building Compliance
Zenatix assisted the customer in obtaining IGBC certification by improving their energy performance, enabling smart energy metering, and allowing for temperature, humidity, CO2 monitoring and control. Let’s take a closer look:
2.1 Energy Efficiency
“The building sector is a large consumer of electrical energy. Through IGBC Green New Buildings rating system, buildings can reduce energy consumption through energy efficient – building envelope, lighting, air conditioning systems, etc., The energy savings that can be realised by adopting this rating programme can be to the tune of 20 – 30%.” – Indian Green Building Council
An IoT-based smart building system allows you to understand where, when, and how energy is being wasted in the building. For instance, when equipment is running when it’s not needed or is not performing optimally due to poor maintenance, inefficient settings, or poor power factor (Fig: 3). It can even gather data from sensors and send control commands to building equipment such as lighting, HVAC systems, and so on, without any manual intervention.
ZenConnect is an enterprise IoT automation solution that assists organizations in optimizing their energy consumption through centralized monitoring and control. ZenConnect helped India’s leading retailer achieve 4 credit points in the energy efficiency category by enabling energy metering.
ZenConnect enabled real-time & centralized energy monitoring via smart energy meters. The data collected by smart meters are processed on the cloud & then presented on a web-based dashboard that can be accessed via any personal device like a laptop or smartphone. Real-time & continuous monitoring encourages the user to identify improvement opportunities in the energy performance of the building.
2.2 Health and Well-being of Occupants
“Health and well-being of occupants are the most important aspect of IGBC Green New Buildings rating system. The rating system ensures adequate ventilation, daylight and occupant well-being facilities which are essential in a building. The rating system also recognises measures to minimise indoor air pollutants.” – Indian Green Building Council
ZenConnect continuously monitors the building’s indoor air quality to ensure occupants’ comfort and well-being. It provides real-time visibility into indoor air quality parameters like temperature levels, indoor CO2 levels, heat index, AQI, customer comfort via centralized dashboard (Fig 4).
Furthermore, tickets are issued via a digital ticketing system to alert the appropriate team about the abnormal rise in the CO2 levels for rectification of the issue (Fig 5).
Hence, ZenConnect helped the retailer achieve 4 credit points in the health & comfort category by enabling CO2 monitoring & control, thermal comfort, indoor temperature monitoring & control.
How Zenatix can help your organization achieve credit points for IGBC certifications
Zenatix leverages its end-to-end IoT expertise to create “connected infrastructures” for organizations having energy efficiency and digital transformation goals. Zenatix offers ZenConnect, a full-stack IoT-based energy and asset management solution. It helps retail stores optimize energy consumption, maintain the ambient environment for optimum occupant comfort, enhance asset health, facilitate digital workflows, and provide central visibility across properties.
Zenatix can help you achieve 10-25 points in the IGBC certification process as well. Get in touch with our IoT specialists to know more.