India’s architectural landscape grew on the promise of progress of India’s Green Revolution for decades, with glass, steel, and concrete rising over old neighborhoods and cities expanding to keep pace with rapid changes. But somewhere along the way, a quieter awareness began to surface: that buildings were living ecosystems of energy and materials that could either heal or harm the environment. And with this awareness came a shift in intent.
Developers, architects, and citizens began to ask, “How do we build without borrowing endlessly from the planet?” It is in this evolving design consciousness that the India Green Building Council finds its purpose. IGBC is a formal recognition that redefines what it means to build responsibly in India. The benchmarks set by IGBC are designed around the realities we live with: monsoon cycles, tropical heat, material availability, and regional construction practices. It is responsible for promoting healthier materials, resource conservation, and energy efficiency. Several parameters are used to measure sustainability performance that typically include site planning and materials, energy and water conservation, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and waste management.
Globally, there are several certifying bodies for driving sustainable practices. However, in India, IGBC started its journey in 2021. A building is typically rated by IGBC at four different levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. A certified project sends a message to developers, occupants, and regulators that the project adheres to the sustainability standards. Over the years, the scope of IGBC has grown into a wide umbrella of rating systems. One that respond to India’s diverse building culture. Including redevelopment projects, new construction, interiors, industrial buildings, townships and cities, and even net-zero water, waste, or carbon rating systems.
Homes and residential societies find guidance under Green Residential ratings, and offices, malls, hotels. Industries look to green industrial buildings, further classified into green factory buildings, green logistic parks & warehouses. Cities and townships explore the more ambitious ratings for green cities, townships, transit systems, hill habitats, and villages.
At the forefront of this evolution lies IGBC’s Net Zero Systems, an early sign of the direction India’s construction sector must follow: net-zero energy, water, waste, and carbon. Some of India’s landmark projects across categories include Mahindra Splendour in Mumbai. Which became one of the first projects to achieve a Platinum pre-certificate rating under the IGBC Green Homes system, and Gujarat’s Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium,the world’s largest cricket stadium. Which proudly holds an IGBC Gold rating, an acknowledgment of its careful planning, high-performance systems, and resource efficiency.
Bengaluru’s metro stations, Rajkot’s smart city initiative, and projects like BPTP Capital City and Omaxe Multilevel Car Parking in Chandni Chowk are evidence of the large-scale developments. Alongside these projects, some renowned architects include Anupama Kundoo, Karan Grover, Manit and Sonali Rastogi (Morphogenesis), Yatin Pandya (Footprints E.A.R.T.H), Chitra Vishwanath (Biome Environmental Solutions), Hafeez Contractor, Gopal Shankar (Habitat Technology Group), Rajinder Kumar Associates (RKA India), Samhita Venkatesh (Ela Green Buildings), and Payal Seth Rastogi & Sachin Rastogi (ZED Lab).
The benefits of this movement, while often expressed in percentages and performance charts, are deeply human. Buildings that admit natural light and ventilation make room for healthier, happier, more productive occupants. Reduced water and energy dependency translate to lower operational costs, something India’s urban households and institutions deeply value. Certified buildings increase market recognition and attract investors, developers, and end-users who value sustainability credentials.
And most importantly, every certified building is a small promise kept, one that helps reduce India’s collective ecological footprint. Yet the path is not free of challenges. Sustainable materials and technologies may raise upfront costs, and smaller developers often hesitate to make that leap. Awareness gaps persist, particularly in government-led projects, and navigating the layers of documentation, updates, and rating pathways can be daunting. At times, the absence of post-occupancy performance data makes it difficult to measure long-term impact. With many categories and rating systems, navigating the criteria, documentation, costs, and maintenance can be resource-intensive. But despite these hurdles, the movement keeps pushing forward with remarkable clarity.
As of 2025, India stands among the world’s leading contributors to the green building footprint, with over 18,100 registered projects and 7,200 certified developments covering 14.8 billion sq ft. In 2025 alone, 1051 projects have been certified by IGBC. The state of Maharashtra has over 1,700 registered IGBC projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. This is including 550 certified green building projects and 45 net-zero emissions projects. Cities like Mumbai and Pune lead in numbers, while newer markets rapidly join the fold. As climate risks intensify and consumer expectations evolve, the conversation around sustainability is becoming more and more prevalent. Given these, one can reasonably estimate that in 2026, certification will actively scale in new building certification as well as in non-building typologies (townships, transit, and net‐zero systems).
Text Description by Sukanya Bhattacharjee
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