Technology doesn't alone suffice a smart city

(With inputs from Geetanjali Prasad)

Ever since the '100 Smart Cities' mission has been announced in India, the entire nation has been gripped with excitement, with each passing day witnessing brainstorming for the same.

Experts are of the opinion that technology is not the only factor that defines a smart city. "Systems under people need to be in synergy, only then it can be truly called a smart city," says H. M. Shivanand Swamy, Executive Director, Centre of Excellence in Urban Transport, and further explaining that a smart city is determined by economic activities and development, sustainability and smart people. 

                        

Furthering the discussion on the dependence of technology for smart cities, Akshay Aggarwal, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technological University, says, "Technology that is smart today might become a nightmare of tomorrow,” while mentioning that his university now boasts of a smart city lab.

While technology forms a small part of smart cities, there are many aspects that really make a city smart.

Energy efficiency forms an integral part of smart cities, and renewable sources of energy using wind, solar and hydro power is indeed the need of the hour which will take cities of future in the right path of being environmentally responsible. 

Eminent civil servant from Gujarat, Punamchand Parmar, raises a spirit of hope and grit in this concern while announcing,"I will rate the engineer or architect number one who will build a city which will not consume a single unit of electricity".

Much focus is on the empowerment of local government bodies to ensure smooth functioning of smart cities. "Local municipalities in India have a dearth of funds and the centre should direct appropriate funds to the municipalities for the development of smart cities," says Utpal Sharma, Director, Nirma University.

Sustainability, undoubtedly, is the keyword when it comes to smart cities, and each expert have their own interpretation of sustainability. Loveleen Garg, Head - Environment and Sustainability, GIFT City points out that carbon is a sustainability indicator. GIFT City has pledged towards green and sustainable future by joining hands with U. S. Green Building Council.

A representational picture of GIFT City

Anil Roy, Associate Professor, CEPT University opines that smart city and sustainability should be used separately. "Indian cities, though not smart yet, have sustained for many years now," he says.  "Sustainability is a subjective term. While many Indian cities sustained, cities like Fatehpur Sikri did not survive because of socio-economic reasons. Hence a synergy between all these aspects in necessary," says Kedarnath Rao Ghorpade, President, Building Environment India, who is currently working on three smart cities, namely, Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Jabalpur and Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

Furthering the thought on how sustainability is prevalent in India, Punamchand Parmar established the relation between Vastu and sustainability by saying,"Vastu is not superstition, in its essence it talks of being sustainable by using wind and sunlight in the right way while designing and constructing homes." 

Scot Horst, Chief Product Officer, U. S. Green Building Council rightly points out 'cities are made by groups not individuals', a sentiment shared by all agreeing to the fact that smart is in sharing, co-operating and being sympathetic towards others in the community. Efforts and determination by each stakeholder will eventually lead to the making of a smart sustainable world. 

Adding to this thought, renowned architect BV Doshi remarks, "If we think of our home as a small city and our city as a big home, change will come." Horst also comments on what role LEED - a premier green building certification system powered by U. S. Green Building Council - plays. "Change is happening one brick at a time but we have to change smartly, and LEED is a tool that knits us together. LEED is a global tool with local implications," he says. 

'Change is happening, but we've to change smartly'

Finally it has been agreed in unison that in an Indian context, not just cities, villages need to be made smart so migration does not occur and each unit is self-sufficient without burdening urban areas. 

Technology and nature need to be brought in co-operation with each other for a truly smart city for the people.

‘LEED is a connecting tool for buildings and communities’

“Citizens are city’s eyes and ears. Let people be smart and green certified before buildings and cities are,” exclaimed Mala Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, PEC Solutions Green Designs while explaining that any smart city development would be futile without people being smart.

Architects and planners agree in unison that people should be at the centre of any development, but time and again the question arises whether people are really ready and actually contribute to the overall growth and development of the nation, more specifically cities and buildings. “Even though we design buildings keeping in mind people’s choice, it’s uncertain that they are using it in the right manner,” reasoned Roshni Udyavar, Head of Department, Rachana Sansad Institute of Environmental Architecture.

Awareness among people about green buildings and smart cities and how to smartly use the resources at their disposal is much required. Architecture students agree that education and awareness among city dwellers is lacking, let alone villages where literacy rate is comparatively lower than urban centres. They feel as students and alert citizens of the nation, they should conduct education programs in villages.

Undeniably, well-informed citizens seem to find bliss in ignorance as they just try to wash their hands away from their duties. Energy-efficient green buildings could function and operate wholly and efficiently if the occupants utilise the resources in a responsible manner, especially in commercial buildings where occupants feel that since they are not the owners, it’s fine if they keep the lights, ACs and computer systems switched on even after they leave the premises. To encounter this, Rajesh Rawal, Towner Planner, Gujarat retaliated, “If government officials are not switching off lights and ACs, they should be fined by deducting their salary.”

Winds of change are blowing though, and definitely in the right direction. There are self-motivated individuals who are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. “We do not permit desktop computers and only allow laptops in our office building because desktop normally consumes about 250 -260 watts of energy as opposed to laptop which only takes up 50 watts of energy,” said Kamal Meattle, Paharpur Business Centre. Paharpur Business Centre in New Delhi, which can accommodate 500 employees, is India’s first top-rated LEED O+M existing building.

Even residents of housing societies are taking initiatives to ensure that their activities have minimal impact on environment, and to achieve this, technology is helping them a great deal. “We’ve created a WhatsApp group wherein we keep on updating about municipality decisions and directives and what each one of us could to make our society green. I’m against wastage of water, so I keep on messaging in the group asking them whether they have closed their taps when not in use”, said Manjusha Pawar, an active and alert resident of Laxmi Narayan Residency – an existing building in the Indian city of Thane which has rooftop solar and rainwater harvesting system in place, and is credited to be the widest building in Asia.

Thane, along with its neighbouring city Mumbai and many other parts of India, is facing severe water shortage for past many months which was followed by a weak monsoon in the year 2015. For Pawar, who is very environmentally conscious, it’s disheartening to see other residents of her society waste water carelessly. “People in my society don’t know the value of water. They waste 5 buckets of water just to wash a 150 sq. ft. balcony. 60 percent of water problem in my society is because of these ignorant people,” she says.

Pawar therefore feels a possible solution to this problem could be by charging each of the apartment for the water they actually consume.  “Water bill is paid by the society to the municipality. Each of the flat owners contribute to this amount by paying maintenance to the society. When I’m not wasting water, why should I bear the brunt of a humongous amount in the water bill. It’s better each flat has their own water meter and based on that, they pay the water bills,” she added.

Ken Simpson, Director, Energy/HVAC, Green Business Certification Inc. suggests that to maintain operational efficiency of buildings, one must switch to native plants. Pawar recalled an incident when she approached the apex committee of her society to get a Neem (Indian Lilac) tree planted in her society garden. “Neem is a local variety, has many health benefits, provides ample shade and keeps mosquitoes away as opposed to certain European tress in our garden that are just show-trees,” says Pawar.

The housing society is also taking steps towards energy efficiency as they keep the common passage lights switched off during the daytime. Very recently, they’ve replaced all the CFL tube lights with LED lights. The residents’ active participation in greening activities has fetched the society third place in ‘Thane Go Green Eco Award’ for best energy conservation. Laxmi Narayan Residency is undoubtedly setting an example of community engagement through its various green and sustainable initiatives.

At U. S. Green Building Council (USGBC) too, community engagement is a major motto which is undertaken by the world’s premiere green building certification system - LEED. “LEED is like a connecting tool for buildings and communities. To me, the exciting thing is to inspire people so that they can make a difference in the work that they do. We are focusing on the next level of technology for us to connect as humans across the globe and we believe this can be brought about by LEED and the LEED Dynamic Plaque”, said Scot Horst, Chief Product Officer, USGBC.

Dodge Data & Analytics World Green Building Trends 2016 SmartMarket Report, of which USGBC was a contributing partner, reveals that 51% of respondents from India consider creating a sense of community as one of the most important social reasons for building green, a statistic that is 22% higher than the global average.

If we are to build green and smart, community engagement and people’s participation are of utmost importance.

Building green a must for urban transformation in India

About 70% of global population will comprise of city dwellers by 2050, with Asian and African cities and towns slated to register biggest growth, reveals a United Nations forecast. Cities are getting overcrowded by the day, with each urban centre either facing shortage or having an issue related to housing, water supply, energy efficiency et al. What makes the issue even more grim are the raising environmental concerns and the impacts of climate change.

                                                      Image source: Internet

India treading the urban development path

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s urban agenda has put India on the global map. Modi recently launched three major urban development schemes and those are ‘Housing for All by 2022’, ‘100 Smart Cities’ and ‘Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)’ – the scheme to provide 24/7 water supply to each and every Indian household. In addition, the government launched the ‘National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana’ (HRIDAY) scheme to preserve and revitalize urban infrastructure in heritage cities. As India is gradually taking a step towards sustainable urban transformation, challenges and opportunities are abundant.

The need for going green

India currently faces housing shortage of 2 crore units. With the announcement of ‘Housing for All by 2022’ mission, the government aims to provide housing units for the common men at affordable rates, which in turn will encourage public housing projects in India at a large scale.

This is, however, not the first time that India has taken up mass housing projects. The public housing projects that had been taken up in the past lacked the basic amenities a regular housing project boasts of, let alone the green elements.

India’s varied geography and climate easily make it vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. Developing nations like India suffer from water table degradation and an inadequate water supply to households.  Building green has thus become crucial now.

A common misconception that is held by most about green buildings is that they’re too expensive. However, a startling revelation is that there is a marginal difference in cost between a green and a conventional non-green building. In terms of residential projects, the incremental cost ranges between 0.8 to 2 percent if the quality of construction is high. Moreover, green buildings are a long-term investment as they heavily cut down on the costs later.

Green buildings help save electricity by 15 percent approximately, and there is a reduction in water consumption by 33 percent approximately. They consume less water by reducing the use of potable water, recycling grey water for re-use and recharging water tables through rainwater harvesting. Such careful use and management of water is crucial to provide adequate water supply to every Indian household which constitutes the major part of the AMRUT mission.

Besides, green buildings ensure enhanced air quality, improved natural lighting, reduced temperature fluctuations and better ventilation, which in turns means improved human health.

Major urban centres in India are already saturated, and greening initiatives in these areas can be taken up by retrofitting the existing buildings. U. S. Green Building Council’s innovation - LEED Dynamic Plaque – can help record the performance of these buildings on factors such as energy, waste, water, transport and human experience. This innovation can even be extended to heritage buildings, preserving which are a part of the HRIDAY mission. While one may argue that ancient buildings are already green – attributing to their construction, since they are already built in a way so that natural light penetrates in, timely retrofits and repairs are a must to ensure the sustainability of these buildings.

Globally, tremendous efforts are being taken to build large-scale public housing projects with green initiatives. US has many green affordable housing projects. “Hong Kong has started public housing projects that are green compliant,” said Dr. Sujata S. Govada, Founding and Managing Director, UDP International.

Lately, India has also been witnessing a revolution in the construction sector as many developers are opting to go green and building climate-responsive structures.

Kesar City in Ahmedabad is an EDGE-rated affordable housing project. Mahindra World City in Jaipur is a C40 compliant project. “It is world’s sixth and the only project in Asia to be C40 compliant,” said Manish Prasad Sinha, Sr. Consultant DES, Tech Mahindra.

Government entities in India are too taking initiatives to come up with green public housing projects. Suresh Babu, Additional Chief Planner, City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) at Municipalika 2015 mentioned that CIDCO is incorporating green features in its upcoming housing project. “We aim to construct 55,000 houses in the coming 5 years. We have a lab that specifically caters to capacity building,” added Babu.

Incentives are provided by certain government organisations to those who take green initiatives. “Thane Municipal Corporation has been in the forefront in this concern, however, the only issue regarding green buildings is that many people are not aware about it, and hence they fail to reap the benefits out of it,” asserted Mala Singh, Founder and CMD, PEC Solutions Green Designs.

Singh also commented on how our existing structures can be made climate resilient. “Green roofs and walls need to be built,” she said.

With U. S. Green Building Council’s commitment at Buildings Day, COP21, Paris to scale LEED and EDGE green buildings to more than 5 billion square feet over the next five years, expectations are raised that India becomes a larger part of this agenda.