The environmental consultancy market in India has taken the 8th spot in the world in terms of size. It was valued at $0.55 billion in 2016 and reached around $0.75 billion in 2020. It has a share of 1.8 percent in the global environmental consulting market. It is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 4.3 percent in the coming years. This growth is heavily attributed to companies preparing to meet global targets of stabilizing carbon emissions by 2030. Furthermore, Indian environmental laws and regulations relating to emissions are becoming more and more stringent every day, which is compelling businesses to create environmentally sustainable models.
The consumer base of this industry demands consultancy, which provides a wide array of solutions towards mitigating environmental problems and enable the consumer to choose the best and affordable solution to their particular issue, and this is where Vke-environmental comes into play. Ar. Anagha Paranjape-Purohit, Director, Vke-environmental, says, “We work within a consortium of companies that fully service the construction or the real estate sector in India. We are architects, planners, engineers and coupled with the knowledge of executing green technologies & projects. This makes us unique as we share project information across our verticals very efficiently and thus can remain poised to provide the most appropriate and timely service to any kind of construction projects.”
Position In The Market
Ar. Anagha Paranjape-Purohit, “We are one of the big consultants in the sector of Green Building & Environmental Clearance of Construction projects. The construction sector is undergoing massive reform, and we expect a lot of formalization to occur in the way construction companies are run, and projects are executed. Already, the biggest demand for green & energy efficient real estate space comes from multinational companies.” Vke-environmental strives to offer its services to its client base in a manner that prioritizes quality of service along with its timely implementation while promoting sustainable development at each stage of the service, which gives it a unique position in the market by strengthening the relationship with its client base.
Vke-environmental strives towards fulfilling client expectations about the quality of the services offered within the specified time frame. Ar. Anagha Paranjape-Purohit, “We are mainly in the Green Building sector and find that there is a significant growth in the green building materials & technology manufacturing sector. However, most of these materials still lack the popularity that conventional materials enjoy, primarily due to lower costs. Here is where government regulations can play a major role in making this shift towards green products and materials.”
Service And Offerings
Vke-environmental follows a principle called ‘Minimal Impact’, which involves mitigating the impact of the development of hospitals, roads on natural resources to a minimum and ensuring proper compensation. Ar. Anagha Paranjape stated, “The principle that we work under is ‘Minimal Impact’. We use simulation to
understand the future energy usage of the proposed building and recommend ways and means in the design itself, to lower it. Renewable energy still needs better integration with architectural design as it is still looked upon as a necessary ad.
Since the past few years, there has been a very positive uptake of renewable energy solutions. Wastewater treatment, waste treatments have to become an integral part of designing and operating a residential complex. This is still looked upon by residents and developers as unnecessary compliance. However, in order to enjoy the benefits of cleaner rivers and cities, it is essential to decentralize our waste management. We need a massive skill building of operators who operate our buildings, and people need to be willing to pay for these environmental infrastructure operations.”
Vke-environmental provides a wide array of sustainable solutions to its customer base, which are aimed at creating an eco-friendlier environment. These range from providing green building certifications, international certifications, ECBC Code Compliance, Environmental design systems for thermal comfort to Renewable Energy Integration, Value Engineering Assessments and Land suitability Assessments. They also provide a rating system to measure a company’s performance in a particular parameter and suggest ways to improve it. These ratings include Energy Audit, Water Audit, Green Co Rating, Sustainable Reporting to name a few.
Providing Green Solutions With A Better Design Approach
Vke-environmental follows an efficient three-step procedure when providing its services to its clients. The first step involves the appraisal stage, during which the project is evaluated on its merits by the project team in order to determine the innovative ways in which the environment could benefit from the project. In the second stage, or at the Outline Proposals stage, the innovative solutions to the project are checked against government rules and regulations, and a plan is being created which states all the potential initiatives for the project to benefit the environment. At the last and the third stage, which is also known as the Project Delivery stage, the installations are tested in order to determine their viability in terms of installation, maintenance aspects as well the potential monetary returns which could be generated as a result of investment in that project.
The recent pandemic has shown to what extent we lag behind when it comes to the housing of migrants into our cities and also the development of hospitals & medical infrastructure
Rapid Urban growth & development is inevitable as a result of an increasing number of citizens deciding to settle in urban areas. Ar. Anagha Paranjape emphasizes, “India, particularly, is poised at this stage where cities have to grow to be able to bring about the economic development of India. In such a situation, more and more natural areas are coming under development such as roads, buildings and so on. The recent pandemic has shown to what extent we lag behind when it comes to the housing of migrants into our cities and also the development of hospitals & medical infrastructure.
In such a case, where development is necessary, we, as environmental consultants, have to ensure that our impact of development on natural resources is minimized, mitigated and compensated for. This leads to charting optimal solutions for the design of spaces, choice of materials, availability of open spaces, infrastructure for waste disposals which could all work together in synergy and give a completely green environment outlook.” These solutions, which are aimed at increasing the efficiency of the project, on the one hand, would also ensure that human habitats create less impact on the environment when developing, thereby encouraging sustainable development.
Walking Towards A Green Future
Vk:e-environmental aims towards moving to a time when the construction sector will voluntarily undertake measures to reduce the overall impact of the sector’s carbon emissions into the atmosphere. This would be implemented by ensuring the carbon footprint of all the projects and devising strategies to mitigate it. Carbon footprint reduction is the need of the hour to counter the increasing carbon emissions. An annual report system would also be implemented about the operation of the projects to show the level of reduction of consumption of energy on a year-on-year basis. Vke-environmental is also involved in assisting governments in implementing proper policy instruments such as Energy Conservation Building Codes (ECBC).
Ar. Anagha Paranjape concludes, “Environmental Consultants have a big role to play when it comes to improving the state of the environment around us. At this stage, the role played by us is regulatory. We need to move beyond that so that we become globally competitive. To achieve global competitiveness, our industry needs to be able to reduce its carbon footprint and impact on the environment.”
