Maha mulls adopting 'life cycle cost' model for green products

The Maharashtra government is thinking of procuring green products on the basis of its life cycle costs rather than through lowest bidder (L1) process, which is currently followed in construction of buildings.
"We are discussing with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) the process of procuring green products in the government," state Public Works Department's Principal Secretary Ashish Kumar Singh said at an event organised by CII yesterday.
"We are discussing how to build a competitive environment in which the bidders can compete by writing contracts which make life cycle costs more relevant than just L1 kind of an understanding of procurement," Singh said.

Green products are the materials used to build environment-friendly buildings.
According to IGBC, the demand for green products is projected to touch USD 300 billion (or about Rs 19,80,000 crore) by 2022.
India, which has the second largest footprint of green buildings in the world after the US, is targeting to increase its footprint to 10 billion sqft by 2022 from 4.5 billion sqft of footprint at present.

About 70 per cent of India's infrastructure is yet to be built, Singh said adding that "we should not miss the opportunity."
"All government buildings that will be built in future in Maharashtra will be green buildings," he said.

The government has also decided to identify one iconic building in each of the six regions in the state for retrofitting and ensure that they use net zero conventional energy, he said.
Green buildings bring down energy and water consumption levels by 40-50 per cent by using environmentally sustainable products.
The green products rating council of CII-IGBC has certified over 150 products, such as LED bulbs, biotoilets and windows, produced by nearly 30 companies over last two years.
The IGBC has already certified 3,900 green buildings in the country.