When doctors told Kamal Meattle that his lung capacity had dropped to 70%, and it was Delhi’s air that was killing him, he had two choices: leave friends, family and the life he had built for more than five decades, and move to New Zealand or Canada – or find a solution. An MIT and Sloan School of Management graduate, Kamal was on the Board of Governors of India’s premier technology institute – IIT New Delhi, and now it was payback time. “Where was the solution? Who had been thinking about and researching on air purity,” he asked. Together, Kamal and a team from IIT began the search for a solution. “One place we discovered was NASA,” he says. In their research for off planet colonies, NASA had been experimenting on using plants to “grow” fresh air, but their research was classified. Creating fresh air classified? you ask. So it seems, but Kamal recalls, “We knew that we had found an idea worth exploring.

The thought of using plants to ‘grow’ fresh air was a green and healthy solution – something that should have been so obvious and intuitive, but had been overlooked completely by all but a very few researchers.” They were onto something, and that it was leading edge research made it all the more fascinating to Kamal.

Kamal recalls that “What we eventually found, through our own (Paharpur Business Centre) research [how did they find this?] was three common and easily grown house plants that can grow all the fresh air that is needed indoors”:
· “The Living Room Plant” Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpis lutescens) which converts CO2 to oxygen during the day.
· “The Bedroom Plant” Mother-in-law’s Tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata) which does the same at night.
· “The Specialist Plant” the Money Plant (Epipremnum aureum) that absorbs formaldehydes and volatile chemicals from the air.

[consider something about how Kamal implemented these ideas in his building as an intro the following paragraph]
He runs off figures from recent studies in the office building that he manages, Paharpur Business Centre (PBC), in the heart of New Delhi, “when compared to other Delhi buildings, these plants lower eye irritation by 52%, respiratory symptoms by 34%, headaches by 12%, lung impairment by 24% and asthma by 9%. They also found a 42% probability of increasing blood oxygen by 1%. All this has led to 20% higher productivity and has also reduced energy requirements by 15%, because less outdoor ‘fresh air’ needs to be cycled into the building.” The improved air quality is immediately noticeable; you feel like you are at a hill station the moment you enter the building.

Their research soon began to attract the interest of others, and hearing of him, Chris Anderson at TED invited Kamal to address the TED Conference and bring his ideas on how to grow fresh air to the world.

Kamal is a big thinker. He is not intimidated by the challenges that face him; rather, he seems to draw inspiration from them. There are many who talk about the environment and its problems, but Kamal is really doing something. He quotes and lives the motto of Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

The Earth’s climate is a complex, non-linear system, and the exact details will always be debated, but the trend is real, observable, and quickly moving towards critical tipping points. We are presently approaching many interconnected tipping points, which once crossed will be irreversible and where each one will feed into the next. Perhaps the most important and critical of these are: Instead of this para we suggest – Climate Change is real and is happening over time and humans are contributing to it, perhaps the most important and critical evidences are as under:
· The melting of the polar ice cap. Large ice sheets act like gigantic mirrors, reflecting sunlight back into the cosmos. As sea-ice melts, it exposes a much darker ocean surface, which absorbs more radiation – amplifying the warming. It is expected that this will lead to far-reaching changes in ocean circulation and climate patterns across the whole Northern Hemisphere.
· The thawing of the permafrost in northern Canada and Russia which holds an estimated 500 gigatons of carbon that is being released into the atmosphere as methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
· The oceans act as the planet’s main carbon sink and currently absorb over 40 % of the CO2 emitted by human activity. As the planet warms so to do the oceans, losing their ability to absorb CO2. Once they become saturated and no longer absorb CO2, planet will warm even more quickly. This will accelerate the warming of the oceans, which will then begin to give up the CO2 that they have sequestered for centuries.

Geo-engineering will not solve the problem; it will only buy us time and allow us to make the necessary changes. If those changes are not made, and these tipping points are crossed, what scientists fear is that runaway global warming could be unleashed and that the planet will no longer be able to support life as we know it. It is impossible to overstate the direst implications of what this will mean.

Kamal states, “I knew we had only a few decades to find solutions to these problems, and I began looking for ways to help. Inspired by what I had discovered in growing fresh air with plants, I began retrofitting PBC with green, healthy, energy efficient technologies. As a result, PBC is now targeting LEED EB O&M Platinum Certification by mid of 2010. PBC became a study in the best technologies available, and when a UNEP press release on the energy footprint of buildings caught my attention, my interest in green building technologies grew into the solution I had been looking for.” PBC posts its daily indoor air quality readings / data on its website

Buildings account for 50% of all Green House Gas emissions, and the building sector makes up roughly 40% of global energy use. According to the UNEP press release, “building sector world-wide could deliver emission reductions of 1.8 billion tonnes of C02. A more aggressive energy efficiency policy might deliver over two billion tonnes, or close to three times the amount scheduled to be reduced under the Kyoto Protocol.”

Kamal comments, “This presented a real opportunity to make a difference. I decided that if we could build the world’s greenest, most energy efficient building, and showcase the technologies used, it would serve as an example on which all future buildings could be modeled.” And so the concept for GreenSpaces began to take shape. “I again called on friends and colleagues from around the world to help,” says Kamal, and before long he had attracted the attention of international organizations, businesses and government laboratories ready to partner with him in his project. These included: the OECD; the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) an international non-treaty agreement among Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the China, South Korea, and the US; as well as a number of US government energy research laboratories, IBM, GE and others.

He maintains, “It is no exaggeration to say that this will be the world’s greenest and most energy efficient commercial / office building over a million square feet. When built, GreenSpaces will showcase the world’s best and most energy efficient technologies and demonstrate that the energy footprint of buildings can be economically reduced from 40% to 10%, with today’s proven technologies.” And, this will not be achieved at a cost to quality of life. Rather, using Kamal’s special plants to grow fresh air in the new building, as well as other innovations he has discovered, will put GreenSpaces in a class by itself. Not only will it be one of the healthiest buildings in the world, but the improved energy efficiencies brought about by the use of plants and other innovative energy efficient technologies will mean that GreenSpaces will be at least 15%(To check with Mr. Meattle if its 15% or more) more energy efficient than the newly constructed Bank of America Tower, New York, USA.

Kamal says, “One of our goals in GreenSpaces has been to prove that this can be done in a way that is financially viable. It is all but meaningless to build this building if costs are not controlled.” Even though the projected cost of GreenSpaces is 263 million US $, with an incremental cost of 58% compared to an “A” class commercial building. The energy efficiencies achieved will mean that additional costs will be paid back in six years.

Kamal says, “Even though we have chosen the best technologies known to us, there are certainly technologies which we haven’t discovered that could improve on energy efficiencies or reduce costs further.” But what are those technologies? Where are they? How would you find them? These questions seemed unanswerable, until a small Canadian internet startup called Blue-Green Spaces which had been studying the use of collaborative networks for the environmental community approached him. Kamal recognized that this might be the opportunity he was looking for to uncover those new and hitherto, unknown technologies.

Initially inspired by the collaborative spirit that had made Wikipedia a reality, Blue-Green Spaces was at the leading edge of what was being made possible by the Web 2.0 internet. As recently as two years ago, Wikipedia had only 3 fulltime employees, and even now it numbers only around 20. Wikipedia, the encyclopedia, owes its existence to the real genius of its founder, Jimmy Wales, in creating a loyal, dedicated online core community of around 16,000 core users. It is a global collaborative volunteer effort that administers, monitors and cares for the Wikipedia project with love and dedication.

The question they had asked themselves at Blue-Green Spaces was this: why is it, if people are this dedicated to an encycleopedia, that something like this has not happened in the environmental community? Everywhere you go, you encounter a rising frustration in people who want to help, who want to really do something, to make a difference that matters, but who find no opportunity to truly make a difference on a scale that they feel would be meaningful. The answer to this problem was at the core of what Blue-Green Spaces had been studying.

Kamal’s entrepreneurial spirit saw an opportunity and together they launched the GreenSpaces Challenge. The idea was to invite people from across the Globe to contribute innovative, energy efficient and cost effective ideas, products and services. This is a platform for people to join in and make a difference to the way buildings will be built in future.

IAQ system at Paharpur Business Centre, saves Energy:  ‘We grow fresh air’ at PBC, with an IAQ system retrofitted in the building.  Paharpur Business Centre (www.pbcnet.com) is a 50,000 sqft office building offering “instant office” solutions. The IAQ system helps us save 30% on the fresh air load in our HVAC system.

Details:

‘We grow fresh air’ at PBC, with an IAQ system retrofitted in the building.

Natural bio method of purification has been adopted using green plants.

This was presented at TED 2009 Conference, held at Long Beach, California, ‘how to grow your own fresh air indoors’ with just three varieties of plants, namely, Areca palm, Mother-in-Law’s Tongue and Money Plant.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_own_fresh_air.html

Ambient air picked from a height of 120 feet is passed through an air washer having pre-filters of MERV 6 and scrubbed using UV treated soft water.

This pre-filtered air is made to flow into a Green House holding over 300 plants of the three specific species and grown in hydroponic culture.

These plants not only convert CO₂ into O₂, but also remove toxins like VOC’s from the air and absorb microbial pollutants.

This oxygenated air is then fed into a Heat Recovery Wheel, which increases the efficiency of HVAC system by pre cooling /pre-heating the incoming air.

Further, demand control ventilation system is used by means of CO₂ Sensors & fresh air dampers in the Air Handling Units (AHUs) located on each floor of the building.

Electronic filters are used to clean the incoming fresh air.

AHU has a combination of pre-filters (MERV 8 ) and bag filters (MERV 13 ) to clean the re-circulated air.

UV light installed on the cooling coil in AHU has a germicidal effect on micro-organisms.

This treated and conditioned air is supplied to building floors.

Regular duct inspection and cleaning ensures that the ducts are free of microbial growth.

As per ASHRAE 62.1: 2007, the fresh air ventilation rate required to control both, people related source and building related (or area based source), is the sum of ventilation required to control each of the sources for the breathing zone.

As per ASHRAE, for offices, fresh air base rate is 0.06 cfm/ft2 to handle building sources and to this is added the base occupant rate of 5 cfm per person. (For typical occupant densities and typical ventilation system efficiencies).

This total building fresh air ventilation rate usually results in an overall ventilation rate of about 20 cfm per person for office spaces.

The various IAQ initiatives resulting from use of Green Plants in the PBC building, have allowed the Facility Manager to maintain IAQ as per ASHRAE and USGBC LEED(for Platinum rated buildings – i.e. 30% over ASHRAE base) specs. with minimum 15.3 CFM per person fresh air, resulting in energy savings.

Thus, as compared to ASHRAE recommended 20 CFM, PBC saves 4.7 CFM/ person of fresh air load, on the HVAC system.

The fresh air load is 0.60 watts per ft2, a reduction of 0.18 watts/ft2.

This gives an energy saving of 30% in terms of reduced load.

For Reference:

PBC facility is rated as one of the healthiest buildings in Delhi, by Govt. of India, in a report published by Central Pollution Control Board in September 2008.

Compared to other buildings in the city, the incidence of eye irritation was found to be reduced by 52%, respiratory symptoms down by 34%, headaches by 24%, lung impairment by 12%, and incidence of asthma by 9% at PBC.

www.cpcb.nic.in/newitems.php

VOCs and RSPM samples have also been collected by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA in January, 2010 for validation of PBC’s IAQ system and results are expected by February, 2010.

The IAQ System not only leads to a fresher indoor air, but also increases productivity by almost 20%.

After studying the effects these plants had on air quality at PBC, it was found that there was a 42% probability of increasing saturated blood oxygen levels by 1% simply by being in the building for 8-10 hours compared to an adjoining building which did not have the green plants.

PBC runs a conference, interviews and training facility provider business, besides renting fully serviced offices for short and long term.

www.conferencespa.com

The Trainers find their students learning faster as retention of information in these learning events is higher for students, due to the healthy IAQ.

Besides having a well-defined IAQ system, we at PBC follow certain practices/rules that help us in maintaining a world class IAQ in our building. We have benefited from these practices; the results show higher productivity and fewer occupant sick days. These practices can be further improved upon.

IAQ Best Practices at PBC

• Smoking / Eating is allowed only in designated areas not connected to centrally air conditioned space.
• Elevator Area & building envelope are sealed to avoid any untreated air ingress.
• There are air curtains at all entrances into the building.
• To check spread of communicable diseases like active TB, occupants are tested. Visitors are not as it is not practical to do so.
• Door handles, telephones, elevator buttons etc are sanitized on a daily basis.
• Hand sanitizers are placed in all the washrooms and at relevant areas.
• Everyone entering the building is requested to wash their hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizers.
• All housekeeping chemicals used in the building are Green Seal Certified.
• Tight vacuuming of the carpet and upholstery is carried out on daily basis. The dust collected is measured and monitored.
• The outdoor mats are kept moist for increased dust removing efficiency.
• The carpet tiles placed in all the rooms are CRI Green label plus and are shampooed on weekly basis or as required.
• 30 feet entry way system (doormat) from 3M Company, removes most of the dust from shoes at the building entrance.
• The paint and polish is done only during the weekends using eco friendly, lead free and low VOC paint and polish.
• Building is flushed as per requirement after any paint work.
• All incoming parcels and courier packets are received outside the building and only brought inside after cleaning.

In Energy management we follow certain practices that help us in reducing our electricity bills without affecting the quality of life. We have benefitted from these practices; our results show maximum 30% reduction in our electricity bills. These practices can be further improved upon.

We at Paharpur Business Centre follow these best practices in energy management

• Instead of GLS lamps, we use PL lights, which are plug in CFL lamps, they use compact fluorescent (CFL) technology meaning they are efficient and less costly to replace.
• All fluorescent lights in our office are Philips trulite which are BEE 5 star rated with electronic ballast.
• Motion sensors are used to switch off lights in unoccupied common areas.
• All our displays are energy efficient LCDs/Plasma to save on energy.
• Energy consumption is monitored and analyzed on daily basis.
• Green mesh & heat reflective film has been put on the south wesh side of the building to block the direct sun heat into the building.
• High albedo paint has been put on the building envelope to reduce the indirect heat gain into the building.
• The heat gain into the building from the rooftop is minimum because of green house.
• Use of  five star rated equipments especially air conditioners.
• High Efficiency Super Diesel is used for all DG sets to reduce pollution.
• Diesel is centrifuged to clean it before use in the Generators.
• Energy consumption is monitored and analyzed on daily basis on a BAS system
• Green mesh & heat reflective film is put on the south west side windows of the building to block the direct sun heat into the building.
• High albedo paint has been put on the building envelope to reduce the indirect heat gain into the building.
• The heat gain into the building from the rooftop is minimum because of green house that has been created on the roof.

Energy Saving Features of our HVAC System

• Chiller has a COP of 6.15; it’s an efficient 212 TR water cooled screw chiller from Trane.
• Two way valve regulate the chilled water inlet into the AHU coil as per the heat load.
• CO2 sensors have been put to regulate the fresh air inlet inside the air conditioned space. Its demand controlled ventilation.
• New Pumps and all AHU motors are VFD controlled.
• UVC light have been installed on the AHU cooling coils to keep the air & coil clean of indoor air contaminants.
• The new system has VAV in air circuits to regulate the air supply as per heat load.
• New Double skin AHU help reduce the leakage & noise.
• Heat Recovery wheel unit ensures that incoming fresh air is precooled before it is let in into the system
• Complete system is managed centrally through BMS

To check spread of communicable diseases like active TB, occupants are tested for such diseases.

We also request our clients to fill in and forward forms for their visitors who have come from viral infested places- Swine Flu, SARS etc.

We have installed TFT screens and monitors in the entire building including the offices, conference rooms & even wash rooms and we use this to effectively communicate with our clients, visitors etc on the various initiatives taken for ensuring their well being at Paharpur Business Centre.

Paharpur Business Centre is a no-smoking building, however we have a dedicated area with a separate exhaust.

We measure our water consumption on a daily basis – water meters are installed at all points of consumption at Paharpur Business Centre.

At Paharpur Business Centre we have installed all water efficient fixtures i.e. waterless urinals, sensor taps, dual flush cistern based water closets.

We use drip irrigation for watering the plants.

Reject water from the RO plant is used to water the indoor plants.

As part of our 4R policy – Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle & Re-charge – we also harvest water and recharge it into the ground.

Dishwasher is used to clean all the dishes in our cafeteria and the first rinse water that is without the detergents is re-used by diverting it to our vermi-compost pit.

At Paharpur Business Centre, we have placed hand sanitizers at all strategic locations in our building i.e. at the reception, security desk, lobbies, cafeteria, toilets / wash rooms etc – to check the spread of communicable diseases i.e. H1N1 Flu.

Visitors / Guests entering the building are requested to wash their hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizers placed at the Front office & security desks.

We sanitize the doors, handles, knobs, elevator buttons; telephones etc are wiped with alcohol-based sanitizers on a daily basis.

All housekeeping chemicals used in the building are “Green Seal” certified & the crew wears hand gloves while cleaning the rest rooms / wash rooms.

Tight vacuuming of the carpet and upholstery is carried out on daily basis. The dust collected is measured and monitored.

Use of touch free taps and soap dispensers. (Touch free towel dispensers being planned in future).

Tight vacuuming of the carpet and upholstery is carried out on daily basis. The dust collected is measured and monitored.

The carpet tiles placed in all the guest and conference rooms are CRI Green label plus and are shampooed on weekly basis or as required.

The outdoor mats are kept moist for increased dust removing efficiency.

30 feet entryway system (doormat) from 3M Company, removes most of the dust from shoes at the building entrance.

Pest control is carried out twice a week with eco-friendly chemicals after office hours.

Housekeeping supervisor ensures that there are no unauthorized people in the premises when the pest control is being carried out.

All incoming parcels and courier packets are received outside the building and brought inside after cleaning.

Extensive regular training is imparted to the housekeeping Crewmembers with special emphasis on hygiene, health & safety.

We also have sustainable purchasing systems and as a result all the machines that we have in our housekeeping department are energy efficient i.e.  CRI certified vacuum cleaners and are star rated wherever possible.

New Delhi, 7 July 2009

As leaders of the world’s 13 major countries prepare to meet at the G8+5 summit in Italy this week, 24 leading scientists from these countries have appealed to them to take immediate action to combat climate change.

“We come together to call on our government leaders to recognise both the unacceptable risks that climate change creates for our societies, and the unprecedented opportunities a clean energy, low-carbon transition creates for our economies,” the scientists said in a joint appeal.

The appeal appeared as an advertisement in the International Herald Tribune newspaper Tuesday. The scientists asked the leaders of the industrialised eight and developing five countries to take five specific steps at their summit this week:

• Recognise that present global warming of 0.8 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels is already having a significant impact, and that warming exceeding 2 degrees Celsius predicted for later this century would create great risks and have irreversible consequences.
• Commit to peak global greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2020 and reduce these by at least 50 percent relative to 1990 levels by 2050.
• For developed countries, commit to emissions reductions of at least 80 percent relative to 1990 by 2050 with appropriate intermediate targets set in time for Copenhagen (the next climate summit scheduled this December).
• For developing countries, commit by Copenhagen summit to significant gains in energy efficiency, reductions in carbon intensity, and cuts in non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades; this should be designed to support sustainable development and to lead to substantial reduction from business-as-usual emissions.
• Recognise that the impacts of existing changes in climate are primarily due to past emissions by developed nations, and that unless the burden of poverty in developing nations is alleviated by significant financial support for mitigation, adaptation, and the reduction of deforestation, that ability of developing countries to pursue sustainable development is likely to diminish, to the economic and environmental detriment of all.

Read the full article here

New govt buildings must be sustainable

Kamal Meattle, June 4, 2009

The Indian construction sector is growing rapidly at 13%, despite the recession and slowdown in the global economy, contributing 10% of India’s GDP.

The need of the hour is to look at clean and environment friendly construction technologies and this must set the tone of the agenda for the new government. The government must ensure that all new construction, at least all government buildings in the country, is green, and effectively demonstrates the benefits to the private sector.

In the past few years, the concept of green buildings has caught the imagination of the real estate sector. It has been proven over time how a green building can help in reducing operational expenditure by a marginal increase in CAPEX, thereby shoring up the financial bottom line.

The reason why developers do not invest in green buildings is because they don’t run the building and are not aware about the savings in running costs. The buyers of such buildings need to be made aware of this fact and be informed so that they demand buildings with lower running costs from developers.

The slowdown also poses a great opportunity for the construction and real estate sectors in terms of reducing chances of cost overruns and hence it’s attractive to build green now.