Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology

State of green construction in India: drivers and challenges

Mohammed Arif Charles Egbu Abid Haleem Dennis Kulonda Malik Khalfan
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State of green
State of green construction construction
in India: drivers and challenges in India
Mohammed Arif and Charles Egbu
School of Built Environment, University of Salford, Salford, UK 223
Abid Haleem
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Received 30 August 2008
Revised 28 November 2008
College of Engineering and Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India Accepted 29 December 2008
Dennis Kulonda
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Orlando and Space Centers, Florida Institute of Technology, University College,

Orlando, Florida, USA, and
Malik Khalfan
School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University,
Melbourne, Australia

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a workshop organized in New Delhi
to assess the current state of green construction in India and highlight the major drivers and
challenges faced by the construction sector.
Design/methodology/approach – The data collection for this paper is conducted through two
sources; a survey and a facilitated brainstorming session. The survey provides an opportunity to
compare practices in India to global trends and the facilitated sessions provides a platform to collect
data on more subjective, experiential knowledge about green construction in India.
Findings – Some of the major findings of this endeavour are: there is an awareness about green
construction in India; It is primarily driven by the governmental and international regulations; with
the current energy crisis customers in India are actually willing to pay extra for going green; and there
is a lack of accurate lifecycle cost assessment models which results in misconceptions about associated
costs of going green.
Originality/value – This paper has provided a brief overview of green construction in India. It has
also provided a list of major challenges and drivers for implementation of green. This list of challenges
and drivers can provide practitioners, regulators, and academics knowledge about means to focus their
future efforts in implementation of green.
Keywords India, Construction industry, Energy management, Waste minimization
Paper type General review

Overview
Environmental concerns play a major role in businesses worldwide. In 1960 and 1970
second environment was regarded as a fringe issue in any project. However, with
incidences like “Exxon Valdez” and “Three Mile Island”, these issues have suddenly Journal of Engineering, Design and
been promoted on the agendas of senior executive meetings (Walton et al., 1998). With Technology
Vol. 7 No. 2, 2009
almost 60 percent of world population expected to be living in urban areas by the year pp. 223-234
2030 (Syal et al., 2006), massive construction activity is taking place globally. In recent q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1726-0531
years India has seen major economic growth and with this growth, the construction DOI 10.1108/17260530910975005
 JEDT activities have increased significantly. In India the current annual investment in
7,2 construction is around $70 billion with an identified need for an additional $50 billion
and a projected annual growth rate of 15 percent. It is estimated that supporting
infrastructure will need an investment of around $163 billion over the next ten years
(CIDC, 2004). With a shortage of 41 million housing units to accommodate the existing
population (Tiwari, 2001), construction activities of all types are taking place at a rapid
224 pace. However, with increased construction activities comes the increased
environmental concern. In developed countries where the benefits of going green are
extensively documented, and construction sector is encouraged to go green and
promote sustainability, there is a reluctance among companies to commit at corporate
policy level to environmental concerns (Ofori, 1998, 2000). However, it would be
interesting to elicit the views of the Indian construction sector on the issue of green
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construction practices and analyze the challenges that can potentially inhibit the
adoption of sustainable practices in a growing economy. In order to achieve this
objective a workshop was organized in New Delhi, India in July 2008, which had
participants from the regulatory bodies, public and private construction companies,
academics, and researchers from India. The workshop was jointly facilitated by
academics from UK and India. A survey was also administered during the workshop.
This paper presents the results of the survey and documents the drivers and challenges
faced by the green philosophy in India. Detailed results of the workshop have been
discussed by the authors in another paper.

Introduction
Green issues have been gaining prominence for the past two decades. With the rising
oil prices and phenomenon like global warming affecting us, it is imperative that we
take a closer look at adapting and making our infrastructure resilient. The definition of
“Green” is quite wide and wide spectrums of issues are subsumed within this umbrella.
Some of the major issues that fall under the “Green”, category are sustainability,
environment, energy, waste minimization, etc. With initiatives like Kyoto Protocol, ISO
14000 and carbon credit system the adaptation of the “Green” philosophy is being
regulated and incentivised.
The major drivers behind adaptation of green are:
.
regulations;
.
cost savings through reduction in energy costs and waste minimization;
.
promotion of corporate green image; and
.
corporate social responsibility.

Although, we talk about green all the time, yet people from regulatory bodies, private
corporations, government agencies and final consumers view green from different
perspectives and use different sets of variables to choose the path of going green. For
every member in the supply chain of any construction project, drivers are different and
hence a view of these drivers for different stakeholders is important to understand how
green can be made successful and popular. With this background in mind, a workshop
was organized by academics from the University of Salford, UK and Jamia Millia
Islamia University, India. The major objectives of this workshop were:
 (1) To obtain an overview of green practices in the supply chain in the construction State of green
sector in India. construction
(2) To provide an opportunity to capture issues, challenges, success factors and in India
research issues in green practices throughout the supply chain in the
construction sector in India.
(3) To provide an avenue for people to get engaged with a community of
organisations and institution within the supply chain. 225
(4) To share experience and learn from others involved in the process.

To provide further focus we limited our definition of “Green” to practices and issues
that were environmentally friendly, energy efficient, and resulted in the minimisation
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of waste. The workshop had 20 attendees that included academics, representatives

from regulatory bodies, public sector and the private sector. A diverse group like this
provided us with different viewpoints and helped us gain a deeper understanding of
various aspects of green practices in India.

Methodology
In order to achieve objective (1) a survey was administered to all the participants from
the workshop. For objectives (2)-(4), facilitated sessions with specific questions were
conducted. Prior to administering the survey and conducting of facilitated sessions two
presentations were made; one highlighting the implementation of green practices in the
construction sector in the UK, and the other highlighting some current green practices
in the construction sector in India. These presentations helped focus the thoughts of the
participants along the three areas of environment, energy and waste minimisation. The
survey instrument was developed after performing a review of literature on green
practices worldwide and is available from the authors upon request. For the facilitated
sessions, eight questions were formulated. These questions reflected the concerns
highlighted in the literature and provided us with an opportunity assess equivalent
issues in India. However, for this paper we have only extracted responses regarding the
drivers and challenges of green construction in India. Detailed discussion on each
individual question is discussed in another paper from the authors.

Development of the instrument

In order to focus the study, the definition of “Green” was limited to practices and
techniques that were environmentally friendly, energy efficient and minimized waste.
After review of the literature some articles were identified that presented a range of
issues under these three headings. Five, Revell and Blackburn (2007), and Pasquire
(1999) have presented a range of success factors that can help make construction
industry environmentally friendly. These issues were used to formulate questions on
the survey for participants of the workshop. These success factors are:
.
imposition of stricter regulations;
.
establishment of longer customer-supplier relationship;
.
awareness of environmental, social and economic impact;
.
implementation of environmental management system;
.
push from the top management;
 JEDT .
implementation of ISO14,000 kind of certifications;
7,2 .
regular audits on green environmental standards;
.
customer’s willingness to pay extra for green construction; and
. engagement by government bodies during the formulation of the regulations.

For waste minimisation, Dainty and Brooke (2004), and Sarkis (1998) have listed and
226 extensive range of practices that can help minimise waste in construction as well as
other infrastructure projects. These practices were also used to assess if they are being
implemented in India and a questions for each of these practices were included in the
survey. These practices are:
.
standardization of design;
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.
stock control to minimize over-ordering;
.
environmental education for the workforce;
.
having recycling and waste disposal companies as part of the supply chain;
.
just in time delivery;
.
penalties for poor waste management;
.
incentives and tender premiums for waste minimisation;
.
waste auditing;
.
increased use of off-site techniques;
.
use of on-site compactors;
.
suppliers required to provide in small batch sizes; and
. reverse logistics.

For energy efficiency in construction, Bartlett and Howard (2000), Tiwari (2001), Sarkis
(1998), and Unruh (2008) have highlighted issues and practices. Based on these
highlighted issues, questions were formulated to assess the practices in the Indian
construction sector that addressed energy efficiency. The list of questions are as follows:
.
setting up energy saving objectives at operational level;
.
consideration of energy objectives at the strategic planning level itself;
.
value management of energy plans;
.
lifecycle costing accuracy;
.
education/awareness to designers about energy efficient materials and techniques;
.
use of cost and environmental assessment tools; and
.
investigation about energy producing opportunities in the project.
The issues highlighted under the three headings formed the basis for questions on the
survey. The following section discusses the questions used for the facilitated sessions
and also elaborates on the methodology followed during the session.

Facilitated sessions overview

In order to satisfy the objectives of this workshop eight questions were formulated that
were representative enough to provide an in-depth understanding of the green issues in
 the Indian construction industry. Out of all the questions, the two questions discussed State of green
in this paper are: construction
(1) What are key challenges (cultural and practices) associated with going green? in India
(2) What key solutions in India are making the greatest difference to greening and
why?

The group of participants was divided into two groups. While forming the groups it 227
was ensured that we had members from regulatory bodies, academia, public
companies as well as private companies in both the groups. Both the groups discussed
the above two questions along with others assigned to them.

Analysis of survey results

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The survey was administered to 20 participants. Among the 20 participants there were
six participants each from academia, public sector and private sector, and in addition
there were two participants representing the regulatory bodies in India (Table I).
Participants were asked to rate the commitment of Indian organizations to green
issues on a five point scale from being very committed to not bothered at all. A total of
12 participants were of the view that Indian construction and infrastructure companies
are committed to the green principles, three felt that they were indifferent and five
thought that these issues rarely made it to the forefront of operational strategies
(Table II).
Participants were asked to rank 11 factors as contributors towards green initiatives
in India (Table III).
Government regulations and laws were the biggest drivers towards going green.
This indicates that presently the Indian construction sector is primarily driven by
regulations on green issues. Voluntary initiatives are rare and most of the initiatives
are being initiated in order to ensure compliance with the law Table IV.
When participants were asked about their perception of the benefits of green
practices in construction, seven ranked tackling of climate change as the biggest
benefits and five of them highlighted that it is to leave a better environment for the
future. None of them ranked energy efficiency and waste minimisation as their
perception of the highest ranked benefit. This actually correlates with the earlier
response to the previous question. Since green practices are primarily driven by
regulations, they reflect the concerns of the government. Waste minimisation and
energy efficiency are issues faced by the users and customers and at the moment they

Public sector Private sector Regulatory bodies Academia

Table I.
Number of participants 6 6 2 6 Participant breakdown

Table II.
Very committed Committed Neutral Rarely committed Not bothered Commitment of Indian
organizations to green
Responses 0 12 3 5 0 principles
 JEDT
Factors Rank 1 responses
7,2
International laws 1
Government regulations 10
Incentives 4
Green image 2
228 Internal strategic policies 1
Pressure from activists 0
Increased profitability 0
Pressure from customers 0
Table III. Pressure from suppliers 0
Contributing High energy costs 1
factors to green Increased internal awareness 1
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Benefits Rank 1 responses

Tackling climate change 7

Being more energy efficient 0
Reducing material waste 0
Cost saving 2
Table IV. Saving natural resources 3
Benefits of green Improving quality of life 3
construction Leave better environment for the future 5

do not have as much influence in driving the construction industry towards green
practices.
Participants were asked on how should the green practices be popularised in the
construction sector and how should they be implemented. One of the participants felt
that we do not need to worry about it, it will come naturally, eight of them felt the need
for an incremental change, six of them felt that there needs to be a significant but
stepped change and five of them felt that there needs to be a complete paradigm shift in
the sector as far as green practices are concerned and some fundamental rethinking on
how they do business is required (Table V).
Responses to questions on environmental issues are summarized in Table VI.
Analysis of the responses to environment related questions reveal that majority of
participants felt that the primary driver behind implementation of environment friendly
practices in the construction sector among the various members of the supply chain is
push from the government in terms of mandatory regulations. Longer term
customer-supplier relationships are definitely going to help drive green initiatives, and
awareness of environmental, social and economic impact is definitely going to be
beneficial. Implementation of environmental management system or certifications like
ISO 14000 and push from the top management will definitely have a fundamental strategic

Table V. Do not worry Incremental change Significant but step change Paradigm shift
How should the change
take place? Responses 1 8 6 5
 State of green
Extremely Very Somewhat Neither important
Issues important important important non unimportant Unimportant construction
Imposition of strict
in India
regulations 13 6 1 0 0
Implementation of
long-term 229
supplier-customer
relationships 3 9 6 2 0
Awareness of
environmental impact 12 8 0 0 0
Awareness of social impact 5 13 2 0 0
Awareness of economic
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impact 5 8 7 0 0
Implementation of
environmental management
system by organizations 7 12 1 0 0
Push from the top
management 12 5 3 0 0
Implementation of
certifications like ISO14000 4 10 6 0 0
Regular audit of green
standards by customers and
contactors 4 14 1 0 1
Customer’s willingness to
pay 7 4 6 3 0
Engagement by
government bodies during
the formulation of
regulation 5 8 6 1 0
Note: Responses to the question – In order to encourage green supply chains in India, rate the
following issues on a five-point scale, please tick one in each row Table VI.

shift in thought process towards the green principles. One issue that was highlighted in the
survey as well as later in the brainstorming session was the need for enforcement and
independent audit of implementation of green practices. One other concern was the
willingness of the customer to pay extra for the green features in the construction.
However, as Tiwari (2001) and Bartlett and Howard (2000) has pointed out this perception
that the cost of green construction practices is significantly higher is primarily due to lack
of accurate lifecycle costing models, and this situation can be alleviated if more effort is
concentrated in developing such models. Participants also felt that involvement of
different stakeholders like private and public sector companies, customers and suppliers
at the time of formulation of environmental regulations will be helpful.
Table VII summarizes the responses to waste minimisation practices in India.
Based on responses it can be seen that practices like design standardization, stock
control and just in time are prevalent. However, issues like education for workforce on
environmental regulations and involving waste disposal and recycling companies in
the supply chain does not happen as often as design standardization. Area of penalties
for poor environmental practices, auditing and incentives for waste minimisation are
not very strong at the moment. Although use of off-site techniques has gained
 JEDT
All the Quite
7,2 Practices time often Sometimes Rarely Never

Standardization of design to minimize waste 6 11 1 1 1

Stock control to avoid over-ordering 5 10 5 0 0
Environmental education of workforce 4 5 8 3 0
230 Having recycling and waste disposal companies
as inherent part of the supply chain 5 2 8 3 2
Just in time delivery 3 7 8 2 0
Penalties for poor waste management 3 3 6 4 4
Incentives and tender premiums for waste
minimisations 6 1 5 4 4
Waste auditing 3 3 7 4 3
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Increase use of off-site techniques/prefabrication 8 9 3 0 0

Table VII. Use of on-site material compactors 1 7 6 4 2
Responses to waste Suppliers asked to provide in small batch sizes
minimisation practices and quantities 2 6 11 1 0
in India Reverse logistics 2 2 8 7 1

popularity, use of techniques such as reverse logistics, and on-site material compactors
are still not popular. Small batch ordering is not popular as well since most of the
construction companies take advantage of quantity discounts.
Responses to questions related to the consideration of energy efficiency related
issues by planners are summarised in Table VIII.
With the current government regulations and high energy costs it is becoming quite
prevalent to set energy savings objectives of new construction at strategic planning
and design stages. Value analysis of energy saving steps is also being performed;
however some participants did highlight the need for more accurate lifecycle costs
during informal discussions. Designers are being educated in energy efficient designs
however as pointed out later in the facilitated brainstorming sessions, this topic needs
to be more closely integrated in university curriculums. Some companies have started
using cost and environmental impact assessment tools like LEED India and GRIHA.
However, these tools are still not very complicated and cannot handle complex
assessments. Assessment of energy producing opportunities happens sometimes.

All the Quite

Practices time often Sometimes Rarely Never

Setting up of energy savings objectives 4 12 3 1 0

Energy objectives considered during strategic
planning 4 9 6 1 0
Value management of energy plans 3 9 6 1 1
Accurate lifecycle costing 1 7 9 2 1
Education/awareness to designers about energy
efficient materials and techniques 6 5 8 1 0
Use of cost and environmental impact
Table VIII. assessment tools 4 8 5 3 0
Energy efficiency Investigations regarding energy producing
practices in construction opportunities in the project 2 5 11 1 1
 Practices like installation of solar panels have been in existence for a while but lot more State of green
need to be done. construction
Analysis of challenges and drivers from the facilitated sessions
in India
One of the questions posed to the participants of the two groups was regarding the key
challenges associated with going green. This was one of the two questions posed to
both the groups. The major challenges highlighted are as follows: 231
(1) Literacy rate is low in general and specifically about the environmental issues.
(2) Cultural deterioration:
.
“We keep inside of the house clean but we don’t think that way for the
surrounding”, this was one of the statements of one of the participants in the
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workshop. Participants realized that the concern for any green issue among
individuals and corporations is limited to themselves and not about the
impact it has on the surrounding. Therefore, a fundamental cultural shift is
needed to address this issue.
.
Older religious activities involved use of trees, and respect for the
environment was part of the culture. Respect for trees and environment
formed part of rituals for several Indian religions. However, people have
somehow lost sight of that respect for trees and environment in their day to
day practices.

Indeed, it was strongly felt that some of the positive cultures, custom and inherent
practices that have been passed on from generation to generation, which have now
been degraded are one of the culprits to embracing and practicing the “green
philosophy”. There was some sense amongst the participants to revive some of the old
ethos. We were reminded of the increasing shift from “collectivism” to “individualism”.
Similarly, we were reminded of the increasing move towards consumerism, and the
increasing rate of discarding technological outputs. Whereas amongst the older
generations, some of the items that are easily and freely discarded these days, as waste,
would still have their use and place. In addition, many of the participants were of the
view that, there is also some sign that there is some resistance to how things were done
previously in the old days.
There was also a strong view from participants about the way we design and how
this has, in a way, contributed to an increase in waste. As an example, many of the
participants felt strongly that there was some evidence from practice that there is
“over-design” and “over-specification” in construction. For some, there is a need for
“optimal design” to be taught at colleges and universities more:
.
Poverty is a major obstacle to implementation of green principles. Quite often
people, despite knowing about the savings over the lifecycle are not able to afford
the additional upfront costs of implementation. This result in them buying
cheaper goods and services that tends to be less environmentally friendly.
.
Technology has been a negative influence as well. For example, the older
buildings constructed had elaborate arrangements for ventilation and
conditioning, quite naturally. However, with the current designs and use of
central cooling and heating systems, the carbon foot prints of buildings have
gone up significantly. Even worse is the fact that during long power cuts they
 JEDT have to be cooled using diesel generators, as they do not have any arrangements
7,2 for natural cooling. This significantly adds to the impact on environment.
.
Cultural evolution has been a matter of convenience rather than a fundamental
change. In India people have adopted practices and technology often mimicking
the west but without the concern for the impact on the environment.
.
Very few schools and colleges are currently teaching optimal green design and a
232 broader inclusion of these topics in the curriculum is needed.
.
Research and development in greener issues is low and technology transfer from
other countries that have investigated these issues is slow. More needs to be done
in this area.
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Both the groups were asked about the key developments that are making an impact
and increasing the implementation of green in India. The lists of developments
compiled by the groups include:
.
More government regulations have come up, and government has offered tax
breaks and subsidies in some projects.
.
Judicial intervention has also further strengthened the case for green. There have
been some cases recently, where the Supreme Court of India has intervened and
have forced the government to make changes in laws. The participants, indeed,
singled out the positive roles of the courts in support of the green philosophy as
one of the key solutions that was making the greatest difference to greening.
An example was given of the CNG use in commercial buses in Delhi.
. International pressure from developed countries has increased on India to control
the carbon footprint of its development. International protocols and expectations
were seen as having positive impacts to the growing awareness, understanding
and implementation of the green principles. In addition, the participants noted
that globalisation and working with foreign organisations that are strict on
compliance and environmental practices are also making a difference.
.
General awareness among the masses has also gone up about environment and
energy.
.
Recent high fuel prices have also provided a major boost to green initiatives in
India and people have started looking at lifecycle cost implications of products
and services.
.
With the growing economy the strain on resources has been immense and this
has resulted in initiatives to analyse the possibility of using alternative sources
of energy.

Summary and discussion

Recent emphasis on environmental and energy related issues worldwide has given
impetus to a wide gamut of green initiatives. A group of academic from UK and India
organised a workshop in New Delhi, to assess the state of green initiatives in the Indian
construction sector. Through this workshop a list of drivers and challenges associated
with the implementation of green were also documented. A total of 20 participants
representing academia, regulatory bodies, and public and private sector took part in
the workshop. There were two components of data collection exercise, the first one was
 a survey and the second were facilitated brainstorming sessions. Although the total State of green
number of participants does not give us a statistically significant response, still we construction
argue that due to the very senior positions held by these participants in their respective
organizations, the data collected is significant and strong inferences can be drawn from in India
this data set.
After analysing the data it was found that there is awareness of green issues in the
construction sector. The move towards green is primarily driven by the government and 233
international regulations but enforcement and audit of implementation of these
regulations is weak. Most of the traditional measures contributing to energy efficiency,
environmental friendliness and waste minimisation are being practiced however newer
creative measures such as reverse logistics and use of compactors have not been
embraced. There is a lack of good lifecycle costing models to assess the financial
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implications of going green. Among the major challenges to green construction are the
low literacy rates, poverty, cultural changes, indiscriminate and often irresponsible use
of technology, lack of sufficient educational programmes at school and college levels,
and lack of research and development to promote green were identified as major
obstacles. Among the major drivers to green construction the participants identified
government regulations, judicial intervention, international pressures, growing
awareness, high fuel prices and strain on current resources to support economic growth.
This paper has highlighted some major issues associated with implementation of
green philosophy in construction in India. The contribution of this paper is the
documentation of the current state of green practices in construction in India and
highlighting the current drivers and obstacle. Future researchers can use these
findings to investigate each of these issues in-depth.

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234
Further reading
Briscoe, G. and Dainty, A. (2005), “Construction supply chain integration: an elusive goal?”,
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 319-26.
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Corresponding author
Mohammed Arif can be contacted at: m.arif@salford.ac.uk

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