Dr Fixit Institute promotes eco-friendly construction through a series of seminars. Anshu Awasthi reports

The construction industry has inarguably the largest environmental impact than any other sector as it consumes about 40 per cent of the planet’s material resources and 30 per cent of its energy. The construction of buildings is reported to consume 3 billion tonne of raw materials per year and generates between 10–40 per cent of the solid waste in most countries.

With the intention of promoting green building practices in India, Dr Fixit Institute of Structural Protection and Rehabilitation (DFISPR) held lectures and seminars on the ‘Sustainable Construction and Green Buildings’ as a part of the company’s Healthy Construction Lecture Series in Mumbai and Bangalore from June 3–5, 2010. The quarterly event is held every year in different cities.

This year’s event featured Dr Gajanan Sabnis, emeritus professor at Howard University, Washington DC who interacted with leading architects and engineers in India. Globally respected and leading expert in his field, Dr Sabnis emphasised the need for the Indian construction industry to explore the best global practices and create a platform where important professionals related to construction can gain knowledge about cutting-edge developments in relevant technologies.



To illustrate how other countries are taking cognisance of the need for sustainable construction norms and undertaking projects incorporating these norms, he highlighted the case of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi—a $22- billion, zero-carbon, zero-waste community. However, he wasn’t very impressed by the construction procedures in India. “Construction sites in India display an utter disregard for stipulated guidelines. You see heaps of sand and aggregates, high noise pollution, low use of ready-mixed concrete, fly-ash based brick blocks and a poor quality of recycled building products,” he pointed out.

AK Chatterjee, Director, Dr Fixit Institute said, “We chose Mumbai as the venue since this city has the highest population density and maximum construction activity. The focus of the seminar is to impress upon the need to build with the future of the world in mind.”

“Using the right construction materials and adopting proper design procedures are inevitable for environmental damage control and influence the sustainability of a green concrete structure,” he further elaborated.

In India the concept of green building has been spearheaded by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). Green buildings exhibit a high level of environmental, economic and engineering performance that includes the following:
􀁘 Energy efficiency and conservation

􀁘 Improved indoor air quality

􀁘 Resource and material efficiency

􀁘 Occupant health and productivity

􀁘 Proximity to public transport system

􀁘 Improved environmental quality covering
air, water, land and ecosystems

Globally, the US Green Building Council ranks buildings according to its LEED ‘green’ ratings in terms of construction materials used, among other parameters. Environmental issues such as climate change, fossil fuel depletion, ozone depletion, human toxicity, waste disposal, water extraction, acid deposition, eco-toxicity, eutrophication, seasonal smog and mineral extraction are taken into consideration while ranking.