Challenges that an Eco-House Builder Faces

Green Builders

An eco-house builder building ‘green’, home faces more challenges that one can imagine. Although the idea of having green buildings sounds extremely great in theory, the actual practice, especially in developing countries, can be extremely costly. Apart from the financial hurdles, policies, clearances, and acceptance for green architecture are just some of the problems faced by eco-home builders today. Summarized below are some of the top problems they face –

Heavy initial cost

One of the biggest challenges being faced by enthusiastic green builders in the country is the higher costs of constructing such buildings to achieve energy efficiency. These costs are mainly due to the industry’s own ignorance of technological trends in managing waste, water and energy. It leaves even the most passionate of all eco-home builders diffident about spending that extra 5–7%, even though it is said that the additional costs get paid back within 3–4 years due to a decrease in operational costs.

Falling demand for space

Another major challenge lying in front of eco-building developers in India is the falling demand for space. In fact, according to a statistic, the country’s top 7 cities ar expected to observe vacancies of almost 25% in 2014. Hence, searching for buyers who are willing to pay more from green spaces becomes a serious challenge for an eco-house builder. Since prospective apartment owners won’t pay the premium asked by them and private homeowners see no immediate motivation to go green, the buyers’ pool is running dry for green builders.

Lack of acceptance

Anything new means uncertainty and risk, and what the green builders pushing for sustainable architecture are facing is no different. Getting the populace, both the buyers as well as the subcontractors working with them to open up and embrace the idea in itself is a challenge, let alone getting them to pay more for it. Mindset and culture play an important role in implementing green practices, and since people are used to living and building in a certain way, getting the people, both the buyers and the contemporaries who work with them, to accept change is a big challenge for eco-building developers.

New-age gap

One major hindrance to the masses’ complete acceptance is the gap between economic status and technology, strange as it may seem. On one end, few can afford the green building solutions that are being offered to improve energy efficiency due to high initial investment. On the other end, although low-cost, affordable building technology such as mud architecture is available, it does not fit in with the upwardly mobile urban population’s aspirations. Hence, there is not a single specific buyers group that the green building developers could target.

The only way for an eco-home builder to overcome these challenges in India is to begin pushing for a policy change. If the government was to come up with an outright incentive, or outright stipulation, or a combination program of both to encourage buyers to go green, then the acceptance and awareness of the issue would increase, hopefully paving the way for widespread green architecture in the country. Despite these odds there are quite a few reputed builders in Chennai who have gone an extra mile to provide a green community. Shriram Shankari in Guduvanchery is one such project. Do check it out.

A premium green community for sensible living – Shriram Shankari

A new community in making, book a villa at Shriram Onecity

The post Challenges that an Eco-House Builder Faces appeared first on Shriram Properties.

by Balaji R via Shriram Properties