Getting your home a green rating can help increase its value by a lot. GRIHA rating is one of the rating systems that you can use in India. Keep reading to find out about the GRIHA rating system and how you can apply for it.
What is GRIHA?
GRIHA or Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment rates the performance of a green home in energy consumption, waste management, and renewable energy resource management.
Eligibility to Apply for a GRIHA Certificate
Any building under the design stage and covering more than 2500 square meters can apply for a GRIHA certificate. These buildings include residential buildings, office spaces, institutions, hotels, shopping complexes, hospitals and so on, but exclude any industrial units like factories and plants.
Process of Application for a GRIHA Certificate
First, you have to register your property on the GRIHA website by filling up the online registration form. Register at the pre-design stage to clarify any construction issues.
Next, you need to submit soft copies of the documents pertaining to the criteria. The final step is the evaluation, which is conducted by the Association for Development and Research of Social Habitats (ADaRSH).
How GRIHA Certifies a Building
Under the GRIHA system, the ADaRSH team evaluates green homes in India based on 34 criteria and rates them on a scale of 1 to 100. The 34 criteria fall under four sections, each section dealing with a particular aspect of building a green home. Each criterion has a number of points allotted to it for scoring purpose.
1. Site Planning
GRIHA rates green homes based on the various phases of site planning. This includes site selection, preservation of landscape, soil conservation, minimizing air pollution, provision of proper sanitary facilities for construction workers, and so on. There are 24 points allotted for this section.
2. Building Planning and Construction Stage
The building planning and construction stage is the most important criterion. This includes regulating water usage and water quality, optimization of energy demand and the performance of the building, implementation of renewable energy systems, proper waste management system using environment-friendly construction materials, and so on. GRIHA has allotted a total of 68 points for this section.
3. Building Operation and Maintenance
This phase has only 8 points and includes the preparation of the energy audit report and the protocol regarding operation and maintenance of the building infrastructure.
4. Innovation
The final criterion is innovation. Four extra points are allotted to this section. A green home can score these bonus points if it can implement new, innovative ideas on modes of alternative transportation, environmental education, and so on.
GRIHA Star Ratings for Green Homes
A green home needs to have a minimum of 50 points to be GRIHA-certified. A home is awarded a particular star rating depending on the number of points it scores.
Points Scored by a Green Home & Star Rating
- 50-60 – 1 star
- 61-70 – 2 star
- 71-80 – 3 star
- 81-90 – 4 star
- 91-100 – 5 star
