In India, at present, there are predominantly two rating systems to
certify buildings as green buildings, namely GRIHA and LEED-INDIA. These
rating systems have a predefined set of criteria and there are points
for each one of these criterion. The buildings are required to fulfill
the defined criteria and achieve a certain number of points to be
certified.
GRIHA, an acronym for Green Rating for Integrated Habitat
Assessment, is the National Rating System of India. It has been
conceived by TERI and developed jointly with the Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy, Government of India. It is a green building 'design
evaluation system', and is suitable for all kinds of buildings in
different climatic zones of the country.
It is a rating tool that helps people, assess the performance of
their building against certain nationally acceptable benchmarks. It will
evaluate the environmental performance of a building holistically over
its entire life cycle, thereby providing a definitive standard for what
constitutes a ‘green building’. The rating system, based on accepted
energy and environmental principles, will seek to strike a balance
between the established practices and emerging concepts, both national
and international. The guidelines/criteria appraisal may be revised
every three years to take into account the latest scientific
developments during this period.
Going by the old adage ‘what gets measured, gets managed’, GRIHA
attempts to quantify aspects such as energy consumption, waste
generation, renewable energy adoption, etc. so as to manage, control and
reduce the same to the best possible extent.
LEED-INDIA is the Indian counterpart of United States Green
Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
It is led by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in India.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED-INDIA)
Green Building Rating System is a nationally and internationally
accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high
performance green buildings.
LEED-INDIA provides building owners, architects, consultants,
developers, facility managers and project managers the tools they need
to design, construct and operate green buildings. It promotes a
whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in
the following five key areas: Sustainable site development, Water
savings, Energy efficiency, Materials selection and, Indoor
environmental quality.
LEED-INDIA rating system provides a roadmap for measuring and
documenting success for every building type and phase of a building
lifecycle.
Specific LEED-INDIA programs include:
LEED India for New Construction (LEED India NC)
LEED India for Core and Shell (LEED India CS)
