Tuesday 4 November 2014

MASTERS contribution to a Green Building Project!!!

MASTERS contribution to a Green Building Project!!!

Like all other completed projects, Red Fort Parsvnath Tower (at New Delhi) project is nearing to become yet another Diamond in Masters journey; an end result which is achieved by synchronization of our core values, our people and our systems & SOP’s reaching to add another jewel in our crown!!

This project holds a special place in the crown as apart from delivering the product to the Client it also is on its way to become a LEED Certified Green Building, one of its kinds in CBD of Central Delhi. MASTERS has been instrumental, along with all other stakeholders of the project including Client, Consultants and Contractors, in achieving this target.

A Green Building is a structure that is environmentally responsible and resource efficient throughout its life cycle, from inception to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and demolition resulting in low green house emission and low operation cost.

The project Red Fort Parsvnath Tower launched by Red Fort and Parsvnath Developers Ltd. in October 2010 is a 5,00,000 sq ft Grade–A project in the heart of New Delhi, India. The project has been carefully designed and constructed in line with the Green Building principals and LEED (Leadership Energy & Environmental Design) standard under guidelines of IGBC.

A LEED feasibility study was conducted for the project in 2010 in which the project was evaluated under LEED-India core & shell rating system. Thereafter, the documentation and document control system followed and maintained by MASTERS, throughout the project, in accordance with the LEED requirements enabled the project to achieve the LEED Silver rating with 30 LEED points.

The LEED-India green building rating system for core & shell (LEED India CS) provides a set of standards for certifying the design and construction of core & shell building. LEED-India CS addresses environmental issues in six distinct categories viz. Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Material & Resources, Indoor Environment Quality, and Innovation & Design Process, and Masters ensured to achieve credits in each of the afore categories to ensure Green Building Certification!!

For achieving Sustainable Sites credit points, an Erosion and Sedimentation plan was developed during the construction phase which integrated various erosion control measures like stabilizing soil stockpiles on site, water sprinkling to prevent loss of soil from storm, water runoff and/or wind erosion. Another credit was achieved by providing electric charging points (16A sockets, 240 V) for 3% of the total vehicles parking capacity. In addition to this, the roof/ terraces were designed to minimize the Heat Island effect, terrace gardens were developed and roofing materials with high solar reflective index were used.

Talking about credit points for Water Efficiency, a Sewage Treatment plant (STP) of capacity 150KL/day was constructed. The STP was developed not only to treat waste water and supply treated water for landscape irrigation and flushing purposes, but was also developed to serve the requirement of cooling tower of the building. Additionally, low flow water fixtures were installed to reduce potable water consumption.

R134a refrigerant was used in the project to meet the requirement of CFC reduction in HVAC equipment and Refrigeration equipments for achieving Energy and Atmosphere credits.

A waste management plan was developed and implemented on site for segregation of recyclable and reusable waste materials to accrue credits for Material & Resources.

The Red Fort Parsvnath Tower has been designed meeting the minimum requirement of voluntary consensus standard ASHRAE 62.1-2004 (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers) which specifies the minimum ventilation rates and Indoor Air Quality level to reduce the potential for adverse health effects. Additionally the HVAC system of the building was designed to meet the requirements of ASHRAE 55-2004, environmental factors like temperature, thermal radiation, humidity and air speed were addressed and adhesive/ sealants with low VOC content were used. The intent was to maintain a healthy atmosphere in the building that would improve the productivity of the occupants and therefore smoking in the entire campus of Red Fort Parsvnath Tower is prohibited to avoid any exposures to ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke).

The project achieved three credit points for Innovation and Design process, for its exemplary work in the Construction Waste Management, Recycled content and Reuse of materials and for Regional Material usages.

Green Buildings, also known as sustainable or high performance buildings, increase the efficiency with which building and their sites use and harvest energy, water and materials. Masters has been fortunate and proud for its contributions in the project which makes it one of its kinds (soon-to-be) LEED Certified Green Building in Central Delhi, India.

Mukesh Kumar
(Asst. Manager – Safety)
MASTERS Delhi