Waste management Mantra for new-age business parks

Sustainability and ‘green’ are words synonymous with energy renewal, re-use, saving natural resources, and harnessing the power of the sun and wind. With growing awareness and the understanding of the benefits of a ‘Green Building’, developers are conscious of creating spaces compliant to these criteria.

Bringing value to the same, K Raheja Corp’s participation in the Green development space is praiseworthy. Backed with its 'Green Vision,' to commit towards making their commercial and residential LEED & IGBC Green certified, the company signed an MoU with the CII-Green Building Council to construct Green buildings, back in 2007.

The company has developed over 40.9mn sqft of Green building footprint, spread across the West and South of India. Raheja Mindspace in Madhapur is a methodically crafted, gated business park with a detailed set of Green initiatives that drives it as a self-sufficient offering. Mindspace Business parks have huge green expanses.

The park also has its own end to end waste management system. From water to dried leaves, to wasted food to use of glass in the buildings, this Business park does not give out any waste into the local municipal waste and it is all re-used within the business park.

We work closely with the US Green Building Council and the CII Indian Green Building Council to ensure all necessary steps are taken to implement the green standards. We have been committed to creating Green Workplaces from 2007 and have meticulously created best practices to ensure least carbon footprint.

Mindspace in Madhapur is a place of work for over 80,000 people and remains our responsibility to provide a sustainable green work environment that is not just safe, but also healthy. Here are a few of the latest technologies used for sustainable construction at Raheja Mindspace, Madhapur.

Glazing
It is a technique wherein a low ‘e’ double glazed glass is used to reduce the heat ingress into the building. These windows help make the indoor area more comfortable, it dramatically reduces energy costs and helps to create a brighter, cleaner and healthier environment.

Water efficiency
Use of low flow fixtures, sewage treatment through reuse of recycled water for flushing and landscaping, and appropriate use of drip and high efficient sprinkler irrigation system is a prime criterion at the place. Since 2009, this method has helped us reduce operating cost in terms of lesser energy and water bills for the end users.

Sewage treatment
This helps remove contaminants from wastewater through physical, chemical, and biological processes and produce environmentally safe treated wastewater. This treated water is reused for flushing, gardening and HVAC. This reduces demand for municipal potable water. This reduces the daily water demand by 20-30 per cent at the project.

Rainwater harvesting
From 2009, the rainwater is reused for landscaping & flushing. The various initiatives to save and re-use water has resulted in an average of 25% reduction in usage of water

Dry waste composting
The composting plant has been employed to reduce waste in an environmentally sound fashion. The efficient composting program can produce high-quality soil amendment and has a large variety of end users. K Raheja Corp has undertaken this initiative in 2009, by using manure that helps in cutting costs and not contributing to the city waste.

Trees
Trees planted at Mindspace Madhapur are native and use less water; making them low in maintenance.

Low-emitting materials
Local and recycled materials having lower embodied energy are used in the project. The project also ensures the reduction or no use of low-VOC paints, adhesives, and sealants which are better for the environment and indoor air quality. This is too being introduced in 2009.

Renewable energy: Installation of rooftop Solar PV modules was done four years ago, to generate power at various buildings of Mindspace. This has resulted in lower power bills to building tenants.

LED lights
Lighting is a major contributor to overall building energy consumption. Lower power requirement than ordinary incandescent lamps and CFLs, high efficiency and long life are the major advantages of using LED lights. LED lights were installed in 2013, in all common areas of Mindspace campus projects like landscape, lift lobbies, street lights, entrance lobbies, etc. (The writer is senior Vice-President, K Raheja Corp)

By Shabbir Kanchwala