Ecological footprint reduction of built envelope in India

Abstract

Built envelope significantly influences the environment during construction as well as the operational phase of the building. The present study examines environmental impact reduction of a building in tropical climate through low environmental impact materials and the reflective roof. Ecological Footprint (EF) analysis has been done for two different design models: (1) Model I based on conventional design, (2) Model II based on modified design. It has been observed that modified design reduces the EF of the built envelope significantly, simultaneously, improved the thermal comfort inside the built envelope. In this study, experimentally has been examined the thermal characteristics of the external wall/roof structure as well as analyze the EF (constructional & operational) of the built envelope in the different climatic zone of India.The constructional EF of the external wall surface of Model I and Model II are 0.0074 and 0.0053 gha/m2, respectively. However, roof constructional EF of both models does not significantly differ, it's 0.0074 and 0.0073 gha/m2 for Model I and Model II, respectively. The annual operational EF reduction potential of the external wall and roof of the Model II as compared to Model I are 21.9% & 15.5%, respectively. The constructional cost per unit external wall surface area of the Model II is 3.6% lower than the cost of the conventional external wall (Model I), while the constructional cost of reflective roof (Model II) does not significantly high than conventional roof (Model I).