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Governance Knowledge CentrePromoted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public GrievancesMinistry of Personnel, Public Grievances and PensionsGovernment of IndiaCase StudyEnvironmental SustainabilityGreen Rating for Integrated HabitatTRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITYAssessmentAugust 2011EXECUTIVE SUMMARYGreen Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) is a Government of India (GoI) ratingsystem1 for green buildings developed by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in2004;Later, in 2007, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) collaborated withTERI to form an independent society called ADARSH to develop and implement GRIHA. Thesociety’s responsibilities are to register projects under GRIHA, and also to advocate andgenerate awareness on sustainable habitats in the Indian context. All registered institutional,commercial and residential buildings except industrial complexes are rated based on 34 criteriathrough the process of building designing, construction, operations and maintenance. It is theonly rating system that covers ventilated, air conditioned and non-air conditioned buildingsystems.Based on nationally accepted energy and environmental principles, this initiative supportsgreen sustainable habitats using minimum renewable electricity consumption, rain waterharvesting and recycled waste materials that costs lesser than a conventional building withoutharming the environment. The environmental principles are adapted to local conditions ofclimate, technology and buildability.In 2009, MNRE made it mandatory for all government ent buildings under Central Public WorksDepartment (CPWD) to be GRIHA compliant.GRIHA is a design evaluation system which rates the environmental performance of a buildingholistically over its entire life cycle, thereby providing a definitive standard for what constitutesa ‘green building’. GRIHA ensures compliance with Energy Conservation Building Code(ECBC), National Building Code 2005 (NBC), Environment Impact Assessment, Norms ofCentral Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Bureau of Indian standards and local byelawrequirements for Solar Water Heating and Rain Water Harvesting.A wide range of computation and simulation tools including DOE2, TRNSYS, ECOTECT,RADIANCE etc are used to assess the environmental and cost impact of the design decisions.1 A green building rating system is an evaluation tool that measures environmental performance of a building through its lifecycle. It usually comprises of a set of criteria covering various parameters related to design, construction and operation of agreen building. Each criterion has pre-assigned points and sets performance benchmarks and goals that are largelyquantifiable. A project is awarded points once if it fulfills the rating criteria. The points are added up and the final rating of aproject is decided. Rating systems call for independent third party evaluation of a project and different processes are put inplace to ensure a fair evaluation. Globally, green building rating systems are largely voluntary in nature and have beeninstrumental in raising awareness and popularizing green building designs.2Researched and documented byOneWorld Foundation India