State of green construction in India: drivers and challenges

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a workshop organized in New Delhi to assess the current state of green construction in India and highlight the major drivers and challenges faced by the construction sector. Design/methodology/approach - The data collection for this paper is conducted through two sources; a survey and a facilitated brainstorming session. The survey provides an opportunity to compare practices in India to global trends and the facilitated sessions provides a platform to collect data on more subjective, experiential knowledge about green construction in India. Findings - Some of the major findings of this endeavour are: there is an awareness about green construction in India; It is primarily driven by the governmental and international regulations; with the current energy crisis customers in India are actually willing to pay extra for going green; and there is a lack of accurate lifecycle cost assessment models which results in misconceptions about associated costs of going green. Originality/value - This paper has provided a brief overview of green construction in India. It has also provided a list of major challenges and drivers for implementation of green. This list of challenges and drivers can provide practitioners, regulators, and academics knowledge about means to focus their future efforts in implementation of green.