GRIHA - GREEN RATING FOR INTEGRATED HABITAT ASSESSMENT

Buildings have an impact on the environment in numerous ways as in it consumes resources like land, soil, trees, plastics, metals, water, electricity and also produces waste like site waste, construction waste, chemical waste etc. and because of this mess created by the buildings the cities have become a home of epidemic and causing various problems in the habitat of the general people living in those buildings as well as around them.

Hence, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is promoting construction of green buildings through GRIHA, a green rating system in the Country. Green buildings are those buildings which optimises the use of resources in such a way that it does not harm the environment. In Indian context it refers to compliance of the National Building Code, use of resources and products which are IS certified and generates optimum waste as per Central Control Pollution Board and Ministry of Environment rules and regulations.

WHAT IS GRIHA?

GRIHA is India’s National Rating System for Green buildings. It has been developed by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) and is endorsed by the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy).

It is based on nationally accepted energy and environmental principles, and seeks to strike a balance between established practices and emerging concepts, both national and international.

GRIHA attempts to minimize a building’s resource consumption, waste generation, and overall ecological/environmental impact by comparing them to certain nationally acceptable limits / benchmarks.

GRIHA assesses a building out of 34 criteria and awards points on a scale of 100. In order to qualify for GRIHA certification, a project must achieve at least 50 points. Certain criteria / sub-criteria are mandatory and have to be complied for the project to be at all eligible for rating. 

Project scoring is as followed:-

 1. 50-60 points is certified as a 1 star GRIHA rated building,

 2. 61-70 is a 2 star GRIHA rated building, 

3. 71-80 is a 3 star GRIHA rating building, 

4. 81-90 is a 4 star GRIHA rated building 

5. 91-100 is a 5 star GRIHA rated building

BENEFITS OF GRIHA

• Reduced energy consumption without sacrificing the comfort levels (lower operational costs)

• Reduced water consumption

• Reduced system sizes (HVAC, transformers, cabling, etc.) for optimal performance at local conditions.

• Reduced investment (lifecycle cost)

• Reduced destruction of natural areas, habitats, biodiversity, reduced soil loss from erosion etc.

• Reduced air and water pollution (with direct health benefits)

• Limited waste generation due to recycling and reuse

• Reduced pollution loads

• Increased user productivity

• Enhanced image and marketability

INCENTIVE ON OBTAINING GRIHA RATING

• The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India issued a memorandum to facilitate fast track environmental clearance for GRIHA pre certified projects.
• Ministry of Urban Development issues a notification for local authorities to incentivize and provide 1% to 5% extra ground coverage and FAR for projects of more than 3000 sqm plot size on basis of GRIHA evaluation
• SIDBI has been providing financial assistance to Green Buildings certified by Accredited Rating Agencies including GRIHA by offering concessional rate of interest, presently 0.5%.

Some of the incentives which are provided by the State Governments

• The Haryana Building Code 2017 incentivizes GRIHA Rated projects by awarding additional Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of up-to 15%.
• The Haryana Building Code 2017 incentivises GRIHA Rated projects by awarding additional FAR of up-to 15%
• 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% or 15% additional FAR shall be awarded to all building uses (except plotted residential) for achieving a 1-star, 2-star, 3-star, 4-star or 5-star GRIHA Rating respectively. Same kind of benefits is also notified by Pune Municipal Corporation with different discount rate.

Similar kinds of incentives are also provided by other State Governments of Jharkhand, Pune, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Punjab and Rajasthan till date.

VARIOUS TYPES OF REGISTRATION UNDER GRIHA RATING MECHANISM

1. Product Registration-Facilitates listing of products (meeting GRIHA parameters) in a catalogue developed to facilitate easy availability of information to architects, engineers, builders and other buildingprofessionals for using in their GRIHA registered buildings.
2. Project Registration-There are different categories in which the new building, existing building and existing schools registration in which rating can be obtained for the status of 'GREEN BUILDING'.
3. Member Registration 

• Associate Members- GRIHA Council offers membership opportunities to various individual and collective stakeholder groups that are associated with the building industry, whether it be directly (developers, contractors, designers, engineers, consultants etc.) or indirectly (product manufacturers, students, or the general public). Join the league of 'Developers of a Green Nation', an GRIHA Council initiative and become an Associate Member"

• Student Registration- For students enthusiastic in MAKING a greener INDIA, Agents of Change for Environment (ACE) is a student membership program by GRIHA Council to bring along the future generations of architects and engineers together and provide an interactive platform for disseminating knowledge around GRIHA way of greening INDIA  ACE members become the torch bearers to fight for their and coming generations future.

MODE OF REGISTRATION 

The registration can be done through online or offline mode for different the types of registration as per the availability of the facility for each type.

The GRIHA Rating tool, by its qualitative and quantitative assessment criteria, is able to ‘rate’ a building on the degree of its 'greenness'. Till now under GRIHA there are approximately 1125 projects which have been completed and achieved the objective to reduce resource consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance the use of renewable and recycled resources by the building sector by agreeing to the norms for GRIHA rating procedure. Many buildings like High Court Complex in Goa, TATA Residential Society Development in Kolkata, IIT Hyderabad etc. have obtained this rating and have taken one step ahead in achieving corporate sustainability.

For more information, please contact below

Compliance Chambers

Advisory & Consulting

Address F-2 / 151, Sector - 11

Rohini, New Delhi |  Pin Code 110085

Email Us at: compliance.chambers@gmail.com

Website: https://compliancechambers.blogspot.in/

Abhimanyu Rajpurohit:  +91 93100 48341, +91 7838060605

Manish Nama:               +91 88007 22330, +91 88004 22330