For businesses, building green is almost a no-brainer. Examples of green homes and offices across the country have shown energy savings of 20% to 30% and have lead to approximately 30% to 50% savings of fresh water.

"Promoters of green buildings also attribute massive benefits to projected reductions in sick time and improved productivity resulting from better office conditions, such as lighting and air quality," says Turab.

Crunched Resources

Further, green buildings are addressing India’s scarce resources. "In the West, there is no real shortage of energy or water. Hence, green buildings somehow get linked to climate change and building life-cycle cost savings," Turab explains.

In India, on the other hand, "it's practically impossible for even the most efficient government machinery to supply water and electricity to 1.3 billion people and also manage the waste generated by them at little or no cost. Hence, I believe it is only common sense to insulate oneself from the resource crunch and strive toward self sufficiency and smarter living," Turab says.

India's proximity to the equator makes a strong and obvious case for harnessing solar energy, Bahri points out. Every part of the country has a minimum of 300 sunny days a year.

"But expensive technological roadblocks are a deterrent to acceleration in growth," Bahri notes.

Despite the benefits, India still faces challenges in green building. Hurdles include greenwashing, lack of awareness, non-availability of green product certifications, poor practices among builders and inadequate project management skills. Too few people are trained in eco-friendly construction, experts add.