ABSTRACT:

The Energy conservation concepts can be traced back in the history of ancient Greek built
cities where they used passive solar design so that all the homes recovered solar heat in the
winter. In the recent times, the oil prices increase in 1970’s combined with environmental
movement led to the earliest experiments with contemporary green building concept.

In India construction industry being the second largest sector after agriculture,
contributing around 7% of India’s GDP growth, is forecast to grow at a rate of around 9.2%, as
compared to Global average of 5.5%. This industry consumes 40% of total energy and about one
half of the world’s major resources. Thus, the issue of energy security and green building
initiatives is required to be taken up seriously.

This report discusses the concerns over energy security measures and energy
conservation in Indian context with a brief idea of different policies made and effected to
construct new and renovate existing buildings in a direction towards Green Building concept.
The potential for energy savings is 40-50% in new buildings designed based on Green Buildings
where as for existing buildings it can go up to 20-25% based on retro fitting measures. The
incremental cost vis-à-vis conventional building is around 5-8% with a pay-back period of 2-4
years. The importance and benefits of Green Buildings have been highlighted in the paper in a
view to save our planet and sustain life.
1. INTRODUCTION Energy efficiency and optimum use of energy in today’s
scenario is equally important than it’s generation i.e. coal, gas, uranium etc. most of the
energy requirements of today’s demand are met by fossil fuel (coal, gas, uranium).
These are called Conventional Resources of Energy, the major problem with these kind
of resources is they are limited in nature.
One other problem which is matter of concern is the pollution which is generated by
the fossil fuel based generation methods. In short run these are associated with human
health, safety and living standards or in long run threats like Global climate change and
Ecological imbalance are very dangerous for our existence.