Sustainable Campus Initiatives
Tezpur University
Sustainable buildings or Green buildings are environmentally responsible, resource-efficient throughout the lifecycle of the buildings from design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This type of buildings built on principles of ecological sustainability, is one that uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste, and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building. The design aspects of a green building are looked into in an integrated way from site planning, building envelope design, building systems design like HVAC, lighting etc., integration of renewable energy sources to generate energy on-site, and waste management.
Green buildings consume 40 - 60% (depending on the range of measures adopted) lesser electricity as compared to conventional buildings. This is primarily because they rely on solar passive architectural interventions in the building design and technologies in the engineering design of the building. Green Buildings also attempt to work towards on-site energy generation through renewable energy utilization to cater to its energy needs.
An Electricity Neutral Building (ENB) or net Zero Electricity Building (nZEB) is a building with net-zero electricity consumption, meaning the total amount of electricity consumed by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy based system generated electricity on the site. The goal is that these buildings contribute less overall greenhouse gas emission to the atmosphere during operations than similar non-nZEB buildings. The Electricity Neutral Building (ENB) or net Zero Electricity Building (nZEB) at the University are (a) Department of Energy (b) Academic Buildings II (c) Department of Chemical Sciences (d) Students Activity Center (e) Library buildings and (f) Department of Environmental Science (g) Patkai Men’s Hostel, (h) Kanchenjunga Men’s Hostel (i) Pragjyotika Women's Hostel, (j) Subansiri Women's Hostel and (k) KBR Auditorium. In all these buildings’ annual electricity consumption is met by the solar power plant generation.