Sustainable, energy-efficient building: the BCIL approach By Chandrashekar Hariharan, Biodiversity Conservation (India) Ltd

1. [ ]1
H
UMANS ARE JUSt one of the many species affected by
climate change – the number could be anywhere from
four million to 8.5 million, according to various scien-
tific and historical sources. But there is clear evidence that
human excesses have caused significant environmental damage
over the past 100 years, and that we now need to find ways to
reverse this trend or to use natural-resource management that
enable efficiency while continuing conventional development
objectives.
One hugely significant element of this problem is that
nearly 50 per cent of all fossil energy consumed in the world
goes to just one industry: building. This understanding is
essential if humans are to find effective ways of reducing the
consumption of fossil fuel and the damage it does to the envi-
ronment.
For 50 years, many in the environment sector have focused
on how to get governments to enact policies that will make
businesses behave more ‘responsibly’ in their use of natural
resources. Embedded in this logic is a notion that there is a
conflict between markets and the environment.
Beyond the Green Brigade
Over the past decade there has been significant growth in India,
with a compounded annual average growth of eight per cent on
gross domestic product. New avenues have opened out,
enabling some ‘renegade’ institutions in the development sector
to move away from ‘activism’, beyond the current crop of the
‘Green Brigade.’ Instead, they are looking for solutions using
technology, both ancient and modern, which can continue to
serve the conventional objectives of economic development
while being sensitive over the use of natural resources.
Sangharsh (in Hindi, meaning struggle or political activism)
and nirmaan (development that brings social and economic
value) represent polar opposites that have been seen by envi-
ronmentalists and governments in India – and throughout the
world – as mutually exclusive, conflicting objectives.
Management gurus today are beginning to see that the world’s
business sector and governments have to take a different view.
C. K. Prahalad, hailed recently by BusinessWeek as a business
prophet, says: “Increased efficiency through innovation is the
key to sustainable development.” Arthur D. Little talks of how
Sustainable, energy-efficient building:
the BCIL approach
By Chandrashekar Hariharan, Biodiversity Conservation (India) Ltd
EFL 801
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
Zed partial basement Conventional
full basement
CO2emissions–MT
1165
10089.56
0
850
900
950
1000
1050
1100
1150
Zed load bearing
hybrid structure
Conventional RCC
framed structure
CO2emissions–MT
966.1
1144.12
Basement structure Independent home super structure
Source: BCIL

2. [ ]2
doing so, it has shown that governments must first dispel the
notion that there is a trade-off between growth and being envi-
ronmentally friendly. As a developing country that imports 70
per cent of its energy, India cannot ignore the need for strate-
gies in the building industry that will reduce consumption by
enhancing the country’s energy security.
Energy security is not primarily about generation so much
as it is about achieving energy efficiency. The question that
BCIL has often asked is: if economic agents reduce their energy
use, and therefore their costs, how can this be bad for the
growth and productivity of a company or government?
If you observe the quality of a product and service, or
customization in the marketplace, you will see that until very
recently, these goals were considered costly to achieve. What
BCIL has effectively done over the past decade, with every evolv-
ing project, is to break free from this dominant logic and use
quality and customization as means to both acquire customers
and reduce costs. This is both applicable at the capital stage of
construction, and at the post-project stage when reduced energy
and water use brings financial savings to customers. The graphs
accompanying this article illustrate the approach, the strategy
and the process management methods that are employed to
achieve such goals at the brick-and-mortar level.
Incentives and subsidies only encourage excess use, and waste
precious resources. Energy efficiency does not need any incen-
tive, for it always shows a positive impact on corporate bottom
lines across the board. That is adequate motivation for compa-
nies like BCIL, and should be so for all corporations. Subsidizing
energy or water costs, instead of focusing on their efficiency, is
against growth, as indeed it is against sustainability.
As a corporate enterprise, BCIL has been mindful of the
comfort and convenience that our products offer to our
customers, be it in the segment of the urban rich or the rural
poor. Normal market behaviour suggests that higher comfort
means higher use of resources.
“sustainability is the key to winning tomorrow’s markets.” And
Kofi Annan said recently: “I hope corporations understand that
the world is not asking them to do something from their normal
business; rather it is asking them to do business differently.”
BCIL’s raison d’etre
In 1994, a fledgling group of development workers in the sub-
Himalayan districts of India chose to move away from ‘social
models’ of development with grants and subsidies. The group
established an enterprise that sought to identify an array of
technologies in building, water and energy management that
could demonstrate resource-sensitivity while also being finan-
cially viable. Eleven years down the road, Biodiversity
Conservation (India) Ltd. (BCIL) has shown that sustainabil-
ity can be a central platform for business growth.
In 1995, its first year of operations, BCIL had a business
value of USD 500,000. From this modest beginning, it has
grown to become a USD 25 million enterprise. This clearly
suggests that markets are both willing and in need of processes
and technologies that make no compromise on the defined
urban frameworks of development, comfort and convenience,
while delivering efficiency in natural resources.
This philosophy lies at the core of BCIL, which is India’s
largest Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) enterprise today.
BCIL has made a case in every business and development
forum for ending the present perverse system of offering subsi-
dies and incentives in the form of artificially lower prices for
‘green’ technologies. BCIL sees a highly productive marriage
between the two forces of growth and environmental respon-
sibility, which need to be made compatible.
With 330 per cent annual growth registered in just the past
year of performance, BCIL is a standing testimony for moving
away from such regressive thinking on ‘nurturing’ green devel-
opment. Since its inception, BCIL has promoted successful
business models that have mainstreamed the ‘alternative’. In
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
CFL lights Halogen and
flouroscent lights
Kwh
56.92
269.85
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Zed SSB and
laterite walls
Conventional solid concrete
blocks and burnt clay bricks
CO2emissions–MT
769.31
1360.01
External walls Home lighting
Source: BCIL

3. [ ]3
In every one of the 1.4 million square feet [or 150,000 square
metres] of building projects that the enterprise is executing
today, BCIL has looked at implementation that pursues a four-
pronged strategy for bringing natural resource efficiency:
• Environmental compatibility
• Economic efficiency
• Endogeneity
• Equity.
These are addressed while focusing on two primary ideas:
1. How to improve transport energy within our campus areas
2. Building efficiencies in home energy use – this covers better
washing machines, refrigerators, air-conditioners and water
coolers; smarter lighting systems; efficient cooking systems
and water heating systems.
BCIL’s adherence to these values, as a profit-making company,
is non negotiable. BCIL is about the human spirit; our mission
statement is merely a hollow catchphrase. As an organization,
we have pushed the boundaries of economic possibility, always
knowing that we will not bend to curtail that spirit or the soul
of our company.
With this bedrock foundation, we have created an entirely
new business model in India, which offers us the opportunity
to grow exponentially as an organization. If the past five years
has shown a cumulative growth rate of a staggering 5,000 per
cent – from USD500,000 to USD25 million – the next three
years (financial years 2007-2010) will take us to a top line
revenue, on projects that are already committed to being
executed, to the region of USD150 million. The bulk of the
revenues today arise out of sustainable buildings, while our
businesses in areas of sustainable built environment – water
supply to the urban and rural poor; organic farm products that
enhance growth potential and improve soils; and afforestation
with corporate partnerships – are all well on the way to becom-
ing robust revenue models over the coming years.
While many analysts have successfully outlined contours of
such strategies for the building industry as a view from the sky,
little is available in the world from companies that have success-
fully created projects and management systems that recognize
these imperatives at the stages of design, architecture, and
further down into the various components of execution.
There is either a fixed mindset that refuses to comprehend
the compatibilities that lie between successful business models
and ecological compatibility, or there is an unwillingness to
invest in innovation and incubation that can show the way for
the future. The idea in itself is not new, of course. Inventors
like Thomas Alva Edison in the late nineteenth century regret-
ted their inability, or lack of time to work on technological
directions for such a future: “We’re like tenant farmers,” said
Edison, “chopping down the fence around our house for fuel
when we should be using nature’s inexhaustible sources of
energy – the sun, wind and tide.” With breathtaking foresight,
Edison added, “I’d put my money on solar energy. What a
source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until coal and oil
run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”
Case study: T-Zed
The T-Zed campus is the first of its kind. Located at Airport
Whitefield Road, Bangalore, this five-acre site comprises 95
homes built on the principles of sustainable resources.
Every aspect of T-Zed has been designed to conserve natural
resources and to have minimal impact on the environment. In
these homes, built-in, customized environment-friendly (brine-
based), zero electricity fridge-freezers, fully controlled
air-conditioning based 100 per cent on fresh air, and built-in
energy-efficient lights are among the features that help to bring
down energy consumption in the home while preserving
comfort levels and ensuring market value.
At another project of ours, BCIL Collective, we have devised
air conditioning systems that keep homes dust-free and cool
0
5
10
15
20
25
Zed LED/CFL
street lights
Halogen lamps
CO2emissions–MT
1.66
20.81
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Zed solar
water heating
Conventional
hot water geysers
CO2emissions–MT
1.71
337.32
Water heating Street lights
Source: BCIL

4. using energy-efficient appliances such as earth tunnel venting
systems, nocturnal cooling systems, or the stack effect, which
draws ambient air and cools it by convection
Intelligent lighting systems blend motion sensors, ambient
light sensors and timers to ensure that lights are switched off
when not needed. Compact fluorescent lamps and light emit-
ting diodes are used, cutting power consumption by up to 80
per cent while protecting lighting efficiency.
Washrooms are ventilated using noiseless, energy-efficient
DC and AC fans. DC fans are powered by photovoltaic panels
and run from dawn to dusk, while AC fans can be switched on
and off as needed.
External walls are built using soil-stabilised blocks, laterite
blocks and surface engineering with stone chip plastered
surfaces. This ensures that surfaces are non-erodable, need no
external paint applications, and are thermally efficient.
Green roofs or ‘sky gardens’ also contribute to the thermal
comfort of the dwellings. These provide a planting space for
every home while serving as thermal insulation for adjoining
and lower-built spaces. Each sky garden uses lightweight mulch
and coir pith instead of heavier soil, and is irrigated via a drip
method. The degree of self-sufficiency enabled by this promo-
tion of urban agriculture also helps to decrease the ‘food miles’
and encourage more organic urban agriculture.
Rubberwood which is a non-forest timber is used for door
shutters, and as flooring. Palm wood has been for external
walkway decking. We have also used compressed coir door
panesl for door shutters, while bamboo composites provide
roofing for parts of the club and interior woodwork in places.
These are local resources which cost less than imported
timber and use less energy to produce, thus reducing carbon
emissions.
A centralised, district refrigeration system using an
ammonia-based chilling unit means that there are no compres-
sors in the individual refrigeration units installed in each home.
This in turn enables better management of cooling needs and
more space for storage within each fridge.
A self-sufficient and secure water supply system is also
provided, using rainwater collected from the roof and stored in
a shallow aquifier, through a system of drains, percolation pits,
trenches and wells. Trenches are shallow at ten metres, so
ground water is not depleted. Water treatment costs are
reduced via direct tapping of rooftop rainwater.
Each home also has ‘conscience meters’, monitoring electric
watts and water consumption. As the number of electrical devices
increases, so does power consumption. An electric watt meter
fitted in each home indicates the wattage used at a particular time
and thus allows users to monitor their power consumption and
introduce efficiencies. Meters on the kitchen and bathroom taps
help to monitor the volume of water used in litres.
[ ]4
How BCIL goes about its business
‘Technology’ at BCIL is not some new-fangled, modern-day electronic
wizardry. A 200-year-old traditional system of lift irrigation is as much
‘technology’ as is a microchip-based motion or temperature sensor that
brings lighting efficiency.
The key to decision-making in the organization has been a combination of
six factors:
• Cost (always relative to what you are ‘buying’)
• Aesthetics (should gain acceptance among customers)
• Function (must serve the basic purpose and not be there for
its own sake)
• Ease of execution (skills and material resources must be available within
a reasonable distance and time),
• Time (else, the organization fails as a delivery company)
• Environment (has to be resource-sensitive and/or bring social value,
or must bring domino impact of replicability and scale).
Design must recognize the ‘Four E’s’ of Ecological compatibility; Economic
efficiency; Endogeneity and Equity.
Architecture must adhere to a six-strand approach entailing integrated
management of all aspects that relate to:
• Earth (avoid bricks that employ precious topsoil and use 400 deg C
energy; use soil stabilized blocks)
• Energy (both embodied energy and active energy use on consumption,
while engineering active and passive elements on energy saving)
• Water (infrastructure approaches and plans that help communities grow
their own water; waste water management that reduces fresh water use)
• Waste (to ensure that communities of companies in an office block or of
homes in a residential enclave assume responsibility for managing the
spectrum from degradable to toxic wastes)
• Air (with passive cooling and active cooling systems that are energy-
efficient and ozone non-depleting)
• Biomass (to improve the microclimate of a land zone in a way that
reduces demands on cooling).
Blending aesthetics and sustainability: Club Zed, India’s first carbon-neutral residential campus that hosts 95 homes in the Silicon City of Bangalore
Photo:HarrisBacker