Prospects of Sustainable Buildings in Pakistan A Case Study of Risalpur

Abstract

�Sustainable building� is the design and construction of buildings using methods and materials that are resource efficient and that will not compromise the health of the environment or the associated health and well-being of the building�s occupants, construction workers, the general public, or future generations. Sustainable building is the foundation of the sustainable construction development. Construction industry with the high contributes with gross domestic product, has undeniable impacts on the economy. Although Sustainable buildings provide a wide range of benefits for the society, their development suffers from different kinds of market barriers in developing countries including Pakistan. In order to meet Sustainable building development in Pakistan, this study aims at investigating the prospects of sustainable buildings in Pakistan. The objective of this research was to identify the factors affecting the implementation of Sustainable Building in Pakistan and recommend a viable solution to cater these identified factors. A structured questionnaire was used to conduct a field survey. Questionnaire was designed to assess the present barrier faced by construction industry in Pakistan. The ranking of identified barriers were compared to other Asian countries. The result indicated that lack of credit resources to cover up front cost and risk of investment are one of the most important factors contributing as barriers against green construction. In total 152 questionnaire were floated and 97 responses were received making a response percentage of 63.8%. Government support, public awareness and promotion of green building are the recommended solution for green construction found out by interviewing the local vendors and experts in sustainable construction in Pakistan. As of today biggest challenge faced by Pakistan is short fall of energy which is effecting severely to industry as well as community. The peak electricity demand in Pakistan is 21835MW while total generate capacity varies between 17523MW in summer to 14640MW in winter due to seasonal variations of reservoir levels and consequent reduction in Power outputs from hydel projects. As a result the supply- demand gap also varies with session and is between 3500-4310 Mega Watts, which is increasing day by day. The second part of this thesis evaluate three building in Risalpur Cantonment, identifying that how sustainable building techniques can be used to save energy. A cost benefit analysis is undertaken between the present use of energy by Wapda and energy generated by solar panels, which deduced that Solar panels can�t be used efficiently for heat energy. Whereas for cooling and lighting purposes it�s very efficient, requires less maintenance, cheap and long lasting. Especially for office buildings that are mostly used in day light, which reduce the cost of expensive battery replacement. Solar energy can save up to 77 percent of energy cost in office buildings. By extrapolating the results to Risalpur cantonment the saving is calculated to be 42.81 million per annum.