As we make our way through 2025, looking at the constantly changing Mumbai skyline, I am reminded of the crossroads we are at. Although the dynamism of new buildings cannot be denied, we must also face the essential fact that the traditional building sector is a huge strain on our planet. It’s a heavy user of the world’s energy, a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, and a heavy producer of waste. For more than two decades, both academically and practically through my work in environmental solutions, I’ve seen how much pressure the conventional approach imposes on our valuable resources and contributes to climate change.

Yet I strongly believe a thoughtful approach provides an enticing solution: Green Architecture. This isn’t just a stray exciting thought; it’s an essential and inherent move toward designing and building buildings in concurrence with our world, leading the way to a very sustainable future – a kind of future that I’ve campaigned for many years. In this sharing of my thoughts, I’d like to set out my view on how green architecture sets out this necessary framework.

What is Green Architecture?

In my understanding, developed from years of education and practice about the environment and environmental best practice, green design, or sustainable design, is more than it seems. It’s a basic philosophy, an approach that deeply lies in lessening the damage to the world that our structures cause while deliberately maximizing their goodness. It is not just putting a few solar panels as an afterthought onto a building, but requires a considered, holistic approach that wholeheartedly encompasses a building’s entire life cycle – from its initial site identification and design through to construction, operation, maintenance, refurbishment, and indeed its eventual demolition.

To me, the overriding objectives are unambiguous and echo my own green values: significantly minimize energy, water, and raw materials use; minimize waste and pollution throughout all phases; and, above all, develop healthier, more livable, comfortable spaces for human beings. One has to look at the core principles of green architecture to understand this further.

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Pillars of Green Architecture: Core Principles and Strategies

For quite a few years, I watched green architecture remain solid on some interlinked pillars:

1. Sustainable Site Design

It all begins with the land. In my experience, truly green design starts with choosing locations wisely, perhaps prioritizing the redevelopment of existing urban sites – brownfields – rather than encroaching upon untouched natural landscapes. It’s about minimizing disruption during construction, a point particularly relevant in a densely populated city like Mumbai. Effective rainwater harvesting via permeable paving or rain gardens, so critical during our hot monsoons, and wisely orienting buildings to harvest maximum natural daylight and breezes while reducing unmitigated solar heat gain are also important factors I’ve always prioritized.

2. Energy Efficiency

This is, by far, of greatest importance. Many of us, especially from the environmental design background, have long championed a stratified strategy, beginning with passive design – designed for lots of daylighting, using overhangs or screens for beneficial shading, creating strong natural ventilation, and employing materials with high thermal mass to modulate indoor temperatures naturally. These passive design elements are complemented by active systems such as high-performance insulation, energy-efficient single/double-glazed windows, smart HVAC systems, and extensive use of LED lighting. Notably, the use of renewable energy sources, including rooftop solar panels for electricity (photovoltaic) and water heating (solar thermal), is becoming a more common practice, and one I fully endorse.

3. Water Conservation

In a nation such as ours, where water shortages are a continually increasing issue, this is not only important – it’s crucial. I’ve witnessed the effects of water-conserving practices firsthand. Methods such as harvesting rainwater for non-potable purposes such as irrigation or flushing toilets, using greywater systems to recycle sink and shower water, applying water-efficient fixtures such as low-flow faucets, showers, and dual-flush toilets, and utilizing xeriscaping – landscaping created to survive on little water – are all integral measures I’ve advocated.

4. Material Sustainability

The products we use carry a significant environmental impact. Within my practice, I always make recycling, reclaiming, or salvaging materials the first choice. I am also of the opinion that utilizing fast renewable resources such as bamboo or cork and sourcing materials locally as much as possible, to greatly limit transportation emissions and support our regional economies, is a need of the hour. Assessing the ’embodied energy’ of materials – overall energy used to produce them – is also crucial, as is a pledge to select non-toxic products like low-Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints, adhesives, and finishes to maintain healthier indoor conditions.

5. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

Buildings can directly affect occupants’ health and well-being. Green design, as I see it, inherently emphasizes maximizing daylight and outdoor views, having great air quality through good ventilation (natural cross-ventilation), using non-toxic materials, controlling acoustical comfort, and carefully integrating aspects of biophilic design – bringing people in contact with nature through use of interior plants, natural finishes, and visual access to greenery. These elements make a major contribution to a healthier and more productive space.

6. Reducing Waste

Sustainability needs to be carried to how we treat waste. It means creating tough, resilient buildings that can be repurposed in function during their lifetime, having effective plans for waste during construction to enable maximum recycling and reuse of waste materials, and even planning to deconstruct to extract valuable material readily at the life cycle. This cradle-to-cradle philosophy I firmly subscribe to and communicate the same to my students at VESCOA from time to time.

By observing and applying these core fundamental principles for a project it is very much possible and feasible to have far reaching benefits in most of the spheres of our living habitat. To spell a few, the environmental sphere, the economical sphere and the societal or social sphere. These three most vital components of our living habitat comprise of the triple-bottom line concept.

The Triple Bottom Line (Environment, Economy, Social): Why Going Green is Essential

The benefits of green architecture, in my opinion, are not only theoretical; they are real and compelling, addressing three essential dimensions:

1. Environmental: The advantages are clear: lower carbon emissions, the crucial conservation of valuable water and energy resources, less waste making it into our landfills, cleaner local air – a huge issue in cities such as Mumbai – and the preservation of our precious biodiversity.
2. Economic: While there may be the perception of greater initial costs, the long-term economic benefits are unbeatable. Huge savings on energy and water bills over the life of the building, commonly greater property values and marketability, possible access to government incentives, and, most importantly, studies consistently indicate improved productivity and fewer sick days among occupants of well-planned green workplaces.
3. Social: In addition to the environmental and economic advantages, green architecture promotes the development of healthier indoor spaces, resulting in enhanced occupant comfort, overall well-being, and physical health. It also promotes a sense of community pride and openly shows a dedication to environmental awareness and servitude – something I believe in.

There can be no better way to experience these than being able to engage with such practices at one’s own end, which I have been lucky to be able to in the past few decades and realize the forthcoming advantages for our larger good.

Green Architecture in Action: Examples and Certifications

Across the world, we see inspiring examples such as The Edge in Amsterdam, which stands out with excellent energy efficiency and technology integration. In our region, India has seen a remarkable and encouraging increase in green building activity. While pathfinder projects such as the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad led the way, many commercial complexes, offices, and even residential projects in the major Indian cities, including our own Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Pune, are now being designed and constructed following good green principles.

To make sure that these activities are benchmarked and authenticated, internationally accepted certification systems like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and BREEAM are used extensively. Notably, India also has a strong national rating system, GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment), and the IGBC Indian Green Building Council, specifically designed to our specific climatic conditions and construction methods. GRIHA & IGBC will go a long way in ensuring sustainable habitats throughout the nation.

From where I see this very context and the forthcoming opportunities, it would be wise to understand the nature of the challenges in front of us and the way we could bridge them as sensitive professionals and creators of the building environment.

Challenges and the Road Ahead: Reflections on Bridging Obstacles

Even with the obvious and convincing advantages, we still have challenges to overcome. Misconceptions of higher upfront costs, which are frequently more than compensated by long-term operational expense savings, an increased need for greater dispersion of awareness and acumen among certain developers and consumers, working around prevailing regulatory structures, and the need for a uniform and reliable source of sustainable materials can pose obstacles.

And yet, I am hopeful. We are increasingly heading towards net-zero energy buildings – buildings that generate as much energy as they use each year – and even more challenging regenerative designs that seek to have a net positive environmental benefit. The use of smart building technology for energy and water optimization is accelerating fast. Ideas such as the circular economy, oriented around designing out waste, and biophilia are becoming ever more mainstream in architectural ideology. With increased environmental consciousness and increased policy backing, I have absolutely no doubt that green architecture is not only a nice-to-have; it is very much on the way to becoming the norm, the default way of constructing. 

Conclusion: Building a Better Tomorrow, Starting Today – A Personal Commitment

To me, green architecture is so much more than a design preference or technical requirement; it’s a vital approach to truly addressing climate change, wisely managing our valuable resources, and building healthier, more vibrant spaces for everyone. As vibrant, changing cities like Mumbai expand and develop, adopting sustainable design practices is not only good – it is necessary. By consciously choosing to build green, we are not just investing in reduced operating expenses and healthier living environments, but, more significantly, we are making a significant investment in a strong, sustainable, and durable future for our children and grandchildren. The plan for a greener, sustainable tomorrow is there; it is our shared mandate, and for that matter, my own pledge, to build accordingly, today and always.

Author: Dr. Prof. Anand Achari, Principal, Vivekanand Education Society’s College of Architecture (VESCOA)