LEED Consultants |
The CII-IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) is the regulatory body for IGBC Green Homes, LEED® India CS and LEED® India NC. The focused study does not cover the LEED® India - Factory, SEZ, Township rating systems as they are not primary applicable for buildings.
LEED® - INDIA rating system provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle and is awarded by a third party IGBC. LEED® -INDIA promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in Sustainable Site Development, Water Savings, Energy Efficiency, Material Selection and Indoor Environmental Quality. The system awards different levels of ratings such as certified, silver, gold and platinum depending upon the number of points attained by the respective building. The point band under each level varies from one system to another.
1. LEED® India for Core and Shell (LEED® India CS): It is a set of performance standards for certifying the design and construction of Core and Shell buildings. Core & Shell buildings are those where the owners or developers do not control all aspects of the building's design and construction.
2. LEED® India for New Construction (LEED® India NC): Its eligibility for Commercial buildings include (but are not limited to) offices, retail and service establishments, institutional buildings (libraries, schools, museums, etc.,) hotels and buildings of four or more habitable stories.
The scope of work of a LEED consultant involves the rating of green buildings. The rating procedure for most of the rating systems is the same with a slight modification which is evident from the above table. The procedure below describes the rating process as well as document submittal required for getting an IGBC Green Homes rating:
• Registration: In order to get a project rated, the project team must first register the project on the IGBC website (www.igbc.in) under IGBC Green Homes. Once that is done, the team can access the required documents, templates and other necessary information.
• Pre-certification: Pre-certification gives the developer/owner an advantage to market their products to the potential buyers. For getting a building pre-certified, the following documents need to be submitted:
o General information about the project including project brief stating project type, occupancy, no. of floors, area statement and a brief narrative on the project
o General drawings( in pdf format only):
Site Plan
Floor Plans
Elevations
Sections
Image/ Rendered view
Parking Plans
o Filled in master templates ( in excel format)
o Narratives and supporting documents such as drawings, calculations, declaration, manufacturer’s cut sheets, material test reports, etc for each pre-requisite/credit
Pre-certification happens at the design stage and the IGBC team may conduct a site visit depending on the level of rating applied for. There is a concept of credit interpretation rulings (CIR) which can be used by the design team to gain clarity over certain mandatory criteria from the IGBC team. The design team is allowed to post two CIR queries on the website free of cost and for any queries beyond that a fee of Rs. 5 000/CIR is charged. Post the document submittal, IGBC would take about thirty working days to review the documents. After receiving the clarifications posed in the first review, IGBC would take another thirty working days to award the pre-certification. A certificate and letter are provided to the project on precertification. The project which gets pre-certified need to submit a status report to IGBC every six months till its certification is complete.
• Certification: Documents are submitted in two stages— design submittal & construction submittal. The design submittals include those credits which can be evaluated at the design phase. After the submission, the review is done by third party assessors which provide their comments within thirty days. The next phase of submission involves the clarification to the queries from the first review and the construction submittal which are submitted post construction. The final review takes another thirty days after which the rating is awarded.
• Acceptance of Certification Award: Upon communication of the certification, the project team has fifteen working days to either accept or appeal the awarded certification. If the project has not accepted the rating within these fifteen days, the rating would be considered final.
• Appeal: If the project team feels that they have been denied points under a credit which they deserve, they can appeal for a higher rating. The appeal fee is Rs. 20 000 per credit. If the appeal is pursued, a different review team will access the appeal documentation.
IGBC would recognize the buildings getting rated under their system with a formal letter of certification and a mountable plaque.
LEED requires simulation in line with ASHRAE 90.1-2004/ ECBC/ NBC specifications. The simulation would consider appropriate modeling assumptions, accurate schedules for every project for various occupancies, defining equipment power densities, air changes per hour, lighting density, occupant density, determining window-wall-ratio, floor-to-floor heights, plenum height, SHGC and U-factors for fenestration, etc.
Lighting Simulation is used to optimize day lighting inside the building to minimize light trespass from the building and to reduce sky glow during nights. Optimum day lighting reduces the energy required for lighting building interiors. Day lighting and outdoor views also connect the building to nature thus helping increase occupant productivity. Day light design involves a careful balance of heat gain and loss, glare control and visual quality. Shading device, light shelves, courtyards, atriums and window glazing are all the strategies employed in day lighting design. Important consideration includes the selection of building's orientation, window size and spacing, glass selection, reflectance of interior finishes and locations of interior walls.
Proper day lighting not only saves electrical energy used by artificial lighting but it also reduces the energy required for running the air conditioning system. Proper glazing design helps reduce the heat energy coming inside the building but at the same time allows for adequate day lighting. Light pollution reduction involves strategies of reduction in light trespass from the building. Minimum light pollution provides better visual comfort and improved visibility resulting in aesthetically pleasing environments. This also helps in improving night time visibility through glare reduction and also reduces development impact on nocturnal environment.
The LEED consultants facilitate dynamic thermal modeling which is an advanced way to simulate the thermal environment of a building element. The simulation captures the heat transfer process and thermal capacity into and through the window frame. This understanding allows us to assess opening’s thermal behavior and that, precisely, is responsible for temperature and humidity difference between inside and outside of the building environment.
|
|
|
|
