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AR Unnikrishnan is Managing Director –Saint-Gobain India – Glass Business.

The increasingly adverse impact on the environment, led by climate change and global warming, is for all to see. But what is the need of the hour, is a suite of solutions that reduce the impact and pave the way for a greener future. 40% of energy consumption in industrialised countries is attributed to the construction sector.  Constructing green buildings is one such solution that will further the cause of sustainability, while minimizing the burden on the environment. Green buildings are known to effectively reduce the carbon footprint and save energy. What’s more, they also enable the judicious use of resources and improve human productivity as well as cognitive functions. 

Glass as a Green Building Material

Glass is fast emerging as a preferred building material for Green Buildings. Glass qualifies as an eco-friendly material by virtue of it being recyclable, causing least burden to the environment and reducing the embedded carbon. 

And as a building material, it is increasingly popular given its  inherent property of transparency. It helps people to see through,  to stay in touch and to communicate. It connotes openness: an  important trend in green architecture. And today there is  so much more possible with glass because of technological  advantages –in terms of enhanced strength, increased safety,  superior acoustics, exceptional energy control, excellent  daylighting etc. And on the aesthetics front glass has always  scored high in terms of embellishing the beauty of any  architectural creation. 

Glass optimises the use of natural light to illuminate the interiors, thereby not only making them more comfortable for occupants but also reducing the use of electricity. In tropical countries like India a major requirement is air conditioning of the building. Proper usage of glass can ensure that the air-conditioning loads (and therefore the air-conditioning expenses) can be reduced by controlling the heat coming into the buildings. 

With the increasing focus on health, glass helps ensure a high degree of Indoor Air Quality given it has no Volatile Organic Compounds (VoCs).

Glass is also gaining traction as a light material in the Indian construction space. Unlike its traditional counterparts that are bulky, glass is significantly lighter and is also easy to install, thereby aiding significantly in modular construction projects.

Constructing a typical building of 15 floors height with a floor space of 300,000sqft, with glass envelope and glass interior partitions, reduces the weight of the building by 3500 tons as against conventional construction methods. This not only consumes less materials from mother earth but also makes the construction faster, reducing the embedded carbon of a built space. And with its lower envelope thickness, glass adds up to 8 per cent of the carpet area.

Clearly, glass is catalysing modern architecture towards a more sustainable one.

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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