Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints
Architects must be conscious of the environment and their design’s impact on the community.

Pramod Jain - Founder, Creative Architects & Interiors (CAI)

Residential and commercial projects should go green by adopting sustainable and environmentally friendly practices through design, construction, and operation phases for the environmental, health, economic, and maintenance benefits.

Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints can be reduced by minimizing a building’s energy consumption. This is achieved by reducing waste, conserving natural resources, and consciously using energy-efficient appliances like LED lights, motion sensors, and energy-efficient HVAC systems. In addition, utilizing renewable energy sources, reducing water usage by recycling greywater, installing rainwater harvesting, and natural STP can improve air quality and minimize negative impact on the environment.

Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints

Sustainable buildings are designed to be energy-efficient, which means they use less energy to operate than traditional buildings, which can result in lower energy consumption and costs over the lifetime of the building. Energy savings can be achieved through passive methods like strategic placement and orientation of openings, efficient glazing, and providing thermal insulation through heat-resistant material. Installing energy-efficient lighting, HVAC systems, radiant cooling systems, and appliances and using natural light and shading systems help save energy. Use of water-efficient fixtures and appliances, such as low-flow toilets, faucets, and showerheads, reduce water usage and resultant costs.

At CAI, we adopt many eco-friendly features in our designs to elevate our buildings and design. These include double walling, Porotherm smart bricks, and Aerocon blocks that have lower U- value. We have introduced filler slabs and are using locally available materials where possible. We also use fresh air ducts, self-shading, and fenestrations/jaali work to improve natural wind flow.

These passive climate response design modifications along with installing solar panels, greywater recycling plants, radiant cooling, and HVLS fans make our designs highly sustainable. We also consciously use materials like bamboo, pine wood, and rubber wood, which can be easily regenerated. In apartment developments, we have projects that have got IGBC certification. In some of our recent projects like Dharmshala Butati - we are working towards creating Net Zero Energy buildings. In these projects, we have aimed to reduce the Heat Island effect and have designed patches of vegetation and Miyawaki forests that are easy to maintain.