Sustainability Certification: Conserve Way of Delivering Performance
Conserve Consultants got associated with the prestigious Mumbai International Airport Terminal-2 project (MIAL T2) in the year 2007-08. This partnership eventually enabled the majestic terminal building in achieving the prestigious LEED India Gold Certification in 2014.
“Conserve team has been able to understand our vision towards sustainability and the complexities of a major airport development program. They have been able to add value and guide us with their technical insight and knowhow.”
The collaboration which spanned over 6 years has been aptly summarized by President, Airports Development, MIAL, Mr Karthi Gajendran in his testimonial.
Initially, Conserve started off with a feasibility study of the project in 2007 to evaluate if an airport of this size and scale could comply with green building norms and sustainable requirements. On completion of the study, it was observed that the project would not be able to meet mandatory norms as prescribed by LEED India governing body. Even if we were able to overcome the mandatory requirement challenge, the study indicated that the project would be able to achieve only a basic rating. The main challenge to even enter the certification race was - mandatory energy compliance- which apparently looked difficult to overcome at the initial stage of the project.
Energy simulation of a project of that magnitude, almost 9.5 million sqft of a single building structure is an extremely rare phenomenon. The complexity of the project in terms of simulation was a huge challenge. Besides, the results were to be delivered in a short span of 6 weeks. We set up a special team for the task along with a focused approach which helped in successfully completing the project within specified time.
Conserve team then proceeded with the analysis of the simulation results, the performance gaps and bottlenecks in the project, and after numerous iterations the areas of improvements were zeroed in to meet the norms. The project team reworked upon the design and specification and after simulating the redesigned specification the mandatory ASHRAE baseline was met with a savings of INR 60 million. Consequently, it raised the confidence of the GVK team and Conserve was entrusted with the task of LEED Sustainability Certification. Despite numerous challenges, all the stakeholders viz. GVK, SOM, Ch2MHill and L&T team were motivated to achieve a higher level of rating. We collaborated and set a target to achieve silver rating.
Satisfied with the sustainable project management, GVK and Ch2M Hill set a new aspiration, to attempt a Gold rating. The task looked difficult but Conserve took it as a creative opportunity. To improve the project performance further, Conserve along with all stakeholders charted out an upgraded sustainable management program to achieve this ambitious target. Finally, in the year 2014, LEED India Gold Certification was awarded majestic MIAL T2 terminal with a number of green features and facilities. To list a few:
- The “Performance Delivered” was an energy savings of INR 310 million lower than the ASHRAE baseline energy cost, which at the beginning was an insurmountable challenge.
- The water savings were at astonishing 200 million litres per annum over the LEED India baseline.
- The indoor air quality and thermal comfort parameters exceed conventional airport requirements. You can feel and notice this difference when you walk through the T2 terminal.
- The substantial reduction in the usage on natural resources has been made possible by strategic green sourcing.
- Some simple but effective method such as signage for empty parking space has been able to reduce the fuel consumption of vehicles as well as time of the visitor/ passenger.
All the sustainable features incorporated in the project have finally resulted in Mumbai International Airport T2 Passenger Terminal being one of the Greenest Airport Complexes in the World.
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Mr. Juzer S Kothari is Managing Director of Conserve Consultants. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the prestigious IIT Kharagpur. Mr. Juzer is one of early adopter of green building technologies in India ; a LEED Accredited Professional (from United States Green Building Council-USGBC) since 2007 and a Certified Trainer for GRIHA Rating System. He is a part of ‘Train the Trainers’ faculty programme of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Department of Energy- USA, for their Energy Simulation Software. A Certified Energy Auditor and Manager from Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Energy, Government of India and ECBC Empanelled Expert (Energy Conservation Building Code, a UNDP-GEF-BEE programme). Mr. Juzer has been in the energy industry for the last 30+ years including 11 years of super specialized expertise pertinent to high performance, sustainable green buildings. He is the recipient of LEED Fellow Award 2016 by GBCI-USGBC for his pioneering contribution to green building movement.
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