AMCHAM’s Karnataka Chapter organized a session on energy neutral buildings and smart corporate offices on 14th July in Bangalore. The speakers included Dr. C. Velan, Executive Director & CEO, TRIL Infopark Ltd, Tata Realty, Dr. Benny Raphael, Associate Professor, IIT Chennai and Ms. Gayathri Chauhan, Regional Manager, APAC and Middle East, U.S. Green Building Council. The session was moderated by Mr. Marnik Vermeulen, Director, Real Estate Strategy & Operations – South Asia, IBM.

Dr. Benny Raphael, Associate Professor, Civil Eng. Dept, IIT Chennai, opened the session. He expanded on the definition of a “smart building” as a building “where information and communication systems work together with building systems to enhance the effectiveness of the resident organisation.” He touched on Facebook recognition and Google Home. He then discussed a case study on zero energy buildings at BCA Academy. By using energy-efficient systems there achieved a surplus of 24,159 kWh and 53% energy saving compared with typical office buildings. He compared the building systems electricity consumption VS. design data predictions.

Dr. C. Velan, Executive Director & CEO, TRIL Infopark Ltd, Tata Realty, spoke next. His presentation was entitled ‘Ramanujan IT City – A Smart & Energy Efficient Campus.’ He gave an overall view of the project and the process of achieving the LEED certification and the IMS certification for the campus. The campus has a high floor efficiency of 80%, a centralised utility block for campus, all renewable energy sources in use such as on campus solar installation and 80% of wind energy (rooftop solar PV system), energy-efficient fittings (use of LEDs in all common area lighting, LED retrofitting), AHU retrofit in EC motors, heat recovery units, use of electronically commutated motors for all common areas, and monitoring of performance through EnMS software. The cost savings were Rs. 51,08,454/- and units saved per day were 2,036 KWH. He also elaborated on the sewage treatment plant and organic waste converter.

Ms. Gayathri Chauhan, Regional Manager, APAC and Middle East, U.S. Green Building Council, then presented details on the LEED certification. She explained further about Arc – a state-of-the-art digital platform that will allow any project—whether a single building, a community or an entire city—to measure improvements and benchmark against itself and projects around it. This new technology facilitates LEED certification, measures performance, and benchmarks green building projects.

Mr. Marnik Vermeulen, Director, Real Estate Strategy & Operations – South-Asia, IBM, moderated the session. This was followed by a vibrant interactive session and all the panellists agreed that it was necessary to get the real estate developers involved in the discussion so that future buildings incorporate energy-efficient strategies. Consultants also need to be educated on these energy-efficient strategies.