Techie Blues

The exponential growth of the city in the last few years had robbed it from its much famed green cover. Many people had blamed and criticized the IT industry for this. But now the things are slowly changing in the “Garden City Of India”. Many of the IT biggies likes Infosys, Wipro and TCS are doing their bit for the environment and developing eco-friendly buildings/campuses. The building are being made of natural stone and the canteen have been made plastic free, the water fountains using recycled water.As Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys quoted in an interview “It is about doing things in a way in which water is recycled, waste management, so it’s a whole host of things, which reduce the energy, water, and footprint of the building”.

Other Companies like SAP Labs are also chipping in to do their bit. The SAP Labs’ facility in Bangalore are functioning mainly on natural light. The company sources say that they do not switch on the light till 6pm in the evening. Wipro is promoting their green computers, which uses a minimum amount of hazardous chemicals.

Though it is not just in Bangalore, Infy is planning a similar building in Jaipur and TCS is also opening a “green” campus in Bhubaneshwar.

Bangalore’s Real estate sector is also jumping into this to provide the much needed infrastructure. “The Indian Green Business Council, which is part of the CII, in just the last 60 days has received applications for green home ratings for 50 to 60 million square feet of buildings,” says CEO, Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd, C Hariharan.

The potential of this “Green Building” market is pegged at 30 to 40 billion dollars and even though the initial costs are higher, IT companies are flocking towards this idea as it will help them earn some goodwill and also earn some brownie points or in this case “Carbon points” .