As the green building movement in India gathers steam with growing numbers of real-estate developers adopting eco-friendly construction methods, it is trying to overcome a huge shortage in green-friendly industry professionals.

The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) - the nodal body for eco-friendly construction - has some 190 buildings registered with it for certification and is drawing up plans to try and overcome the shortage, said Dr Prem C Jain, the Council's Chairman, speaking at a seminar on 'Green Buildings in India: challenges ahead', organised by Zicom-CNA Automation Ltd and The Economic Times.

To start with, the Council proposes to train a team of architects from each real estate firm in eco-friendly design and construction. The council is also working with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to introduce specialised green-building courses in schools of architecture. The session was moderated by Ashish Rakheja, president, ISHRAE and director of Spectral Services, who managed to extract insightful responses from all the esteemed panelists.

"Traditionally, Indians are known to be green in their construction practices, using materials that were locally available. But then we began aping the West and now use more steel, glass and concrete than required. Training professionals in ecofriendly construction methods is not difficult. Reducing our dependency on man-made materials like steel, cement and glass is the key to eco-friendly development," said Sheetal Rakheja, a leading architect and green building consultant.

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