Green award for Infosys eco-buildings

Indian Green Building Council has awarded Infosys Ltd with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) India platinum rating for eco-friendly green buildings at its Mysore and Mangalore campuses in the state.

"Our sustainable initiatives are aimed at achieving carbon and water neutrality in campuses across the state and country. The award is a recognition of our commitment to best practices," company vice-president Ramadas Kamath said here Thursday.

The LEED rating system is a global benchmark for design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. Platinum-certified buildings at Infosys cover around 1.5-million square feet of space.

Both buildings are located in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of the IT bellwether's campuses in both cities, which are 140 km and 350 km away from Bangalore.

The buildings were constructed with a holistic approach to sustain water efficiency and harvesting, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

"In our Mangalore campus, we have reduced wasting storm water run-off by 67 percent by building a dedicated rain water harvesting pool," Kamath recalled in a statement here.

Similarly, dependency on artificial lighting has been reduced by ensuring 76 percent of space in the building gets natural daylight for optimal energy efficiency.

"As humankind consumes natural resources at 1.5 times faster than at the rate nature can replace, it is critical for ecosystems the world over to regulate their utilisation and reduce environmental footprint," Kamath added.

The company uses only 50 percent of the green power from the state utility provider at its campuses in the state, including Bangalore.