Presentation on how much emissions are generated to produce the materials used in construction of a 100,000 square foot office building in India. I had prepared this presentation as a part of the alumni event at IIM Ahmedabad back in 2010. It paved the way for a change in career from construction to energy management.

1. Introduction
• Motivation: Studies have indicated that
construction contributes to around 23% of
CO2 emissions in India1
1. Jyoti Parikh, Manoj Panda, A. Ganesh-Kumar, Vinay Singh,
CO2 emissions structure of Indian economy, Energy, Volume 34, Issue 8, Aug 2009
Amresh Deshpande October 23, 2010
• How can Greenhouse Gas emission in
construction projects be reduced using
‘smart’ material procurement methods?

2. Building Project “X”
Ground + 4 floors (20,000 sft per floor)
100,000 sft builtup area
Amresh Deshpande October 23, 2010
• Calculate CO2 emissions for materials
used in external perimeter of the building
Steel
Cement
Glass
Bricks

3. So how much CO2 are we
adding?
Material Quantity
used
Avg CO2
emission/
unit1
Total CO2
(tons)
Steel 1000 tons 3 tons/ ton 3000
Cement 3500 tons 0.6 tons/ton 2100
Bricks
(per
100,000)
151,000 38 tons 576
Glass 346 1.5 tons/ton 520
Total @ 6200 tons1. Current Science, January 2008 http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jan102008/38.pdf
Amresh Deshpande October 23, 2010

4. Going greener….
• Purchase from manufacturers with least
CO2 emissions. e.g. cement, steel
– Will the demand from customers improve the
overall efficiency of the industry?
Amresh Deshpande October 23, 2010
If the price difference isn’t substantial, can we buy from producers/
manufacturers who have smaller CO2 emissions?
CO2
emissions/
ton
(landed)
Option A Option B
Steel 2.7 3.2
Cement 0.55 0.75

5. Going greener (contd…)
• Contract with transporters with ‘younger’
truck fleet- less fuel consumption
• Use of Fly ash bricks- lower CO2
emissions, and reduced loss of topsoil
• Cost implications!
Amresh Deshpande October 23, 2010

6. Countering cost implications
Developer/Contract
or
Property Owner
… Can financial incentives help to ‘kick start’ the process?
•A 10% reduction in
Excise duty on cement
= Rs. 176,400 in
savings in the
construction phase
•System of
documenting ‘smart
procurement’ for
possible carbon
credits? (in lieu of a
uniform tax- e.g. Rs.
30 per ton of coal
“green tax”)
•10 % rebate in
property tax = Rs.
100,000 per year in
post-construction
phase
•Reduced stamp duty /
lower interest for
green properties
Amresh Deshpande October 23, 2010

7. CO2 impact- revisited
Mate
rial
Quan
tity
used
Total
CO2
(tons)
Targete
d
Reducti
on
using
‘smart’
procur
ement
Reduce
d CO2
contrib
ution
(tons)
CO2
emissio
n
saved
(tons)
Steel 1000
tons
3000 5% 2850 150
Ceme
nt
700
tons
2100 5% 399 105
Brick
s
151,0
00
576 20% 461 115
Glass 346 520 5% 494 26Amresh Deshpande October 23, 2010

8. Thank You
x10amresh@iimahd.ernet.in