Photo Courtesy - Asahi India Glass

Across the world, people have never spent as much time at home as they have during successive lockdowns. One of the outcomes of this greater engagement with residential spaces, according to Sumit Joshi, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Signify Innovations India, is a growing realisation of the link between green buildings and health and, consequently, demand for more sustainable building products.

When a well-known commercial real-estate services firm surveyed 264 tenants in the Asia-Pacific over March and April on their industries’ response to the COVID-19 crisis, nearly half said it would lead to a stronger preference for buildings with wellness and environmental features, shares Sanjay Sudhakaran, Vice-President, Digital Energy, Schneider Electric.

Green buildings are designed and managed with the intent to promote environmental sustainability. A general view is that “owners and occupants of sustainably designed buildings are more likely to manage the equipment fitted within these buildings efficiently and adopt better standard operating processes,” points out Anup Mathew, Senior Vice-President & Business Head, Godrej Construction. In the context of the pandemic, “such owners/occupants are also likely to be better equipped to respond to health and safety-related emergencies for the wellbeing of the building’s occupants.”

A new ‘green’

The pandemic has put the spotlight on health and wellness in every kind of building—residential, commercial, hospital and institutional. But designers will need to bring in a paradigm shift in tackling COVID-19 like situations. For instance, “we used to consider 100 sq ft per person till the IT industry whittled this down to 40 sq ft, which was for the good. We could bring down HVAC, lighting and equipment loads,” says Srinivas S, Principal Adviser, CII-IGBC. “After the pandemic, some sectors would accept working from home so that investments on additional infrastructure can be deferred. Working from home would perhaps become a new normal.”

Mathew expects COVID-19 to establish a new normal for the development of habitats in future. “Existing building codes and standards for the design and development of built environments, including green buildings, are likely to undergo significant amendments based on societal learnings from the pandemic, possibly becoming more intensely focused on integrating sustainability, health and wellbeing-related aspects during the design and development of built environments, to cater to increasingly health-conscious stakeholders,” he elaborates.

Srinivas expects hygiene and resilience measures to be increasingly factored in the design of buildings; this would include HVAC, interior layouts, the choice of materials for interiors, and more. As examples, he says the healthcare sector is already talking of using copper-coated handles and knobs, as copper repels germs. In general, designers will prefer materials that don’t absorb moisture or dust; this may spur some thinking about innovation in alternate materials and products. In HVAC equipment, Srinivas points out that the regular cleaning of diffusers, ducts and filters would get the attention it deserves.

“One of the big learnings from the pandemic is that building design per se doesn’t offer any solution for buildings that are free of dust, insects, parasites and other harmful microorganisms,” explains Kavinkumar Shanmugam, Founder & Managing Director, EPMCR. ‘People have adapted to live with harmful cohabitants, insects at the macro level, amoeba, bacteria and viruses at the micro level. Insect bites, allergies and infections (parasitic, bacterial and viral) are regularly treated without understanding their root cause.”

Kavinkumar sees scope for creating safe spaces by design, and for walling, flooring and other interior materials exhibiting anti-viral properties, which can protect against contaminated surfaces. Materials supporting social distancing, minimal contact, better hygiene, the circulation of fresh air, access to sunlight and touch-free access would also be helpful. Digital technologies could be used for cautioning against overcrowding, close contact and poor air quality and measuring microorganisms in the air and water and on building surfaces.

George Menezes, Chief Operating Officer, Godrej Electricals & Electronics, sees a greater thrust on automation such as sensor-based taps, door operation, the monitoring of indoor air quality, the density of occupation, rate of movement and real-time data with alerts to manage and avoid the concentration of occupants. As far as office design is concerned, he believes flexibility may become an essential design feature so that workstations can be reconfigured to maintain social distancing norms at short notice, if such a scenario were to reoccur. “While there have been no mandatory codes released, organisations like ISHRAE, IGBC, etc, have already come out with guidelines for designing office spaces in the post-COVID scenario,” he adds.

In the following pages, CW explores what materials and products might find greater usage and, possibly, make their way to a revised green building code for being health- and environment friendly.

Lighting

Green buildings make use of smart lighting that helps manage facilities more efficiently. Signify energy-efficient LED lighting saves about half the electricity consumed by conventional lighting. Additional savings of around 30 per cent may be achieved by using connectivity and lighting control systems that automatically track occupancy of spaces and adjust the lighting accordingly.

In the context of COVID-19, “the occupancy analytics feature of connected lighting can help identify the most densely used spaces that need to be cleaned more frequently,” suggests Sumit Joshi, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Signify Innovations India.

Additionally, Joshi recommends the use of UV-C lighting solutions, which can effectively disinfect air, surfaces and objects, adding an extra layer of safety. Philips UV-C upper air disinfection luminaires are installed on the wall or ceiling, at a height of at least 2.3 m, where, in combination with shielding and optics, they ensure people can continue to work in the lower sections of a room. “For surface disinfection, we offer Philips Automated UV-C Disinfection system, a fixed installation luminaire with a sensor, having emergency override functionality on detecting human presence within 5 m, and multiple safeguard controls ensure occupant safety,” he says.

HVAC

HVAC is playing a major role in bringing employees back to work by ensuring better indoor air quality, points out Sanjay Sudhakaran, Vice-President, Digital Energy, Schneider Electric. “Practically, this involves actively monitoring temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, noise, light and volatile organic compound (VOC) levels, aggregating and ranking these conditions with a comfort score and pinpointing issues to improve work environments.”

With the onset of the pandemic, containing viruses and contamination has become all the more important to regulate indoor air quality; to achieve this, there is a need to draw as much fresh air from outside, or what is called demand-side ventilation, explains Dharmendra Pratap Singh, Senior Vice-President & Head - Infrastructure Solutions, Voltas. “As this particular provision is a regular feature of green buildings, those are healthier spaces to live and work in.”

To curb the spread of COVID-19 in offices and commercial spaces, Singh also recommends introducing ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) in the air-handling units of existing central HVAC systems. Its RUKS GermiTron UVGI system kills 90 per cent of bacteria and viruses, per pass. In fact, during the pandemic, Voltas has helped leading hospitals build testing centres and/or convert standard wards into COVID-19 isolation wards using smart ventilation solutions.

In future, in the commercial segment, Singh anticipates high demand for ultra-modern HVAC systems that help prevent bacterial infections by maintaining optimum temperature and humidity levels. Digitalisation and remote monitoring will be sought after to improve the efficiency of these HVAC systems.

To speak of monitoring, traditionally, a comprehensive building management system would help manage all the indoor air quality aspects as well as ensure overall efficiency. Now, given the preference for contactless, non-human intervention, Schneider Electric offers the EcoStruxure Building Advisor, EcoStruxure Power Advisor and Workplace Advisor—intelligent tools enabling condition-based monitoring and the maintenance of power networks, to create autonomous buildings.

Glass

Has the pandemic so far impacted the usage or typology of the glass? “Prima facie, not significantly,” responds Shailesh Ranjan, Head - Business Planning & Operations, Asahi India Glass. “However, as an immediate solution, a few companies have introduced glass partitions as separators between workstations and at front-facing areas. We have recently introduced AIS Secure+ which helps to maintain social distance and is used for separators in commercial and retail spaces.”

As for the usage of glass in new green buildings, post COVID-19, Ranjan expects human wellbeing and safety to take a front seat and people to look more aggressively for a product with a Health Product Declaration (HPD).

Ranjan also expects a significant change in the design of residential as well as commercial buildings. As the work-from-home culture is expected to stay longer, interior design will change and the use of smart glass like switchable glass as partitions may increase. Comfort expectations from residential spaces have also risen; this might escalate the requirement for high-performance glass for better indoor environment quality.

Plumbing

As far as water is concerned, a green building has traditionally been considered one with plumbing fixtures designed to save water. For instance, water-saving faucets and WCs that use less water. CERA’s water-saving WCs use 3.6 litre as opposed to the regular 6 litre, without compromising on flushing efficiency. “We have achieved this through design improvements and technological features like glazing the interior of the WC trap, etc,” explains Atul Sanghvi, Executive Director & CEO, CERA.

Now, “to cater to health and hygiene-conscious customers, CERA has designed products appropriate for COVID-19 times,” he shares. These include touchless, sensor-activated faucets and urinals, rimless WCs, anti-microbial seat covers and foot-operated faucets, which are apt for high-usage public places like railway stations, bus stations, etc.

Taking the traditional water-friendly green building concept further, CERA has brought out a series of new aerators to reduce water consumption per use, which can be a retrofit option. Its new anti-microbial seat covers may also be fitted on existing WCs to make them more hygienic.

Wastewater

Does the presence of contaminants in wastewater from people affected with COVID-19 merit any additional treatment?

“The treatment of wastewater uses select microorganisms that act upon the faecal matter in water,” explains Mangesh Surve, Director, Envicare Technologies. “No extra treatment is possible at the inlet as that would hinder this natural process.”

However, sewage water may be filtered at the inlet and the treated water may be additionally passed through an ozonator and exposed to UV light to be absolutely certain it is safe, he adds. While this isn’t a prerequisite of green buildings today, he believes the norms may evolve if the pandemic persists.

Survey suggests the use of modified septic tank concepts over conventional septic tank treatment in both domestic and industrial settings. Modified septic tanks offer 70-80 per cent treatment efficacy (as against 30-40 per cent for conventional septic tanks), cost almost nothing to maintain, and the treated water can be used to water plants.

Blocks

The construction of bigger buildings to safely house/seat the same number of people may increase the demand for every kind of sustainable material, including blocks.

Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks are a lightweight, environment-friendly walling material that helps reduce the load on building structures, optimises the structural design of the building and reduces the cost of construction, explains Anup Mathew, Senior Vice-President & Business Head, Godrej Construction. “In many major cities, the use of traditional clay bricks is being discouraged in favour of AAC blocks, even for the repair and rehabilitation of buildings.”

Godrej Construction’s AAC blocks and recycled concrete blocks (RCB) are IGBC GreenPro-certified.

A variant of the AAC block is the cellular lightweight composite (CLC) block. Whereas AAC blocks are foam concrete blocks made of cement, fly ash and sand with aluminium powder, cured under heat and pressure in an autoclave, CLC blocks are cement, fly ash, sand-based concrete blocks manufactured with a foaming agent in the mix in the natural atmosphere. CLC blocks are denser than AAC blocks and consume less energy during the manufacturing process for not needing autoclaving, an energy-intensive process.

Mahindra Happinest, the affordable arm of Mahindra Lifespaces, opted for specially designed CLC blocks for Happinest Palghar, a IGBC Green Homes-certified value homes project. Explaining the choice, Amar Tendulkar, Chief of Design and Sustainability, Mahindra Lifespaces says, “CLC blocks are lightweight with a density of 600-700 kg per cu m, thereby reducing thermal conductivity and heat ingress.”