Wednesday 3 June 2015

Green Building Material - Bricks from excavated soil...

The Economic Times of India, Mumbai Edition (dated 3rd June 2015) has published an news article that states "Green Building in City may Get up to 20% Discount on Property Tax". It seems that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is in discussions with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) on the proposal. Well... that is a great news as the proposal is aimed at a discount on property tax paid by developers and residents and aims at popularizing and boosting the demand eco-friendly and energy-conserving structures.
If the proposal is accepted and it goes through that I believe this will help "green" become more mainstream and popular in the Real Estate market. Also, in the present stagnant Real Estate market where the supply seems to be more than the demand for housing, a "green" building project is perhaps easy to sell and more importantly today's environmentally conscious buyers are willing to pay a little higher price to buy into a "green" building project. A favorable decision on the proposal by the MCGM will also trigger a large market and demand for "green" materials and thus perhaps may bring down the overall cost of construction of "green" and sustainable buildings. Also, the said proposal could be in line with the Government of India's "green" policy because "green" buildings will lead to "green" cities which would be self sustainable.  
Now, if the primary objective of a "green" building is to reduce the impact of building on the environment and human health, then why can the excavated soil that is removed whilst laying the foundation of the building be used to make bricks. These bricks can be used directly in the project itself, making it a true "green" project as one will save on removal of the excavated soil and transportation and dumping of the same to an alternative location; mind you, there is a cost associated with all that removal of the excavated soil and its transportation and every cost does count. Using hydraulic presses, the excavated soil mixed with about 10% of cement as a binding factor can be compressed into bricks which directly used to make walls. The existing moisture content in the soil itself is good enough to form the brick structure. Walls made from such hyper compressed bricks will need minimal plastering as they would be on a very smooth surface and also be uniform is shape and size. So, the fact that these hyper compressed bricks are compressed at high pressure, their crushing strength would also be far superior to the normal kiln-burned clay bricks. Also, the fact that these hyper compressed bricks would not need any "curing" as in case of cement blocks, the speed of construction and overall project timelines can much faster.
In fact, the MCGM themselves can also consider setting up a hyper compressed brick making plant and supply the hyper compressed bricks to the Real Estate developers, thus also compensating for the loss of revenue on property tax as a result of the above proposal. As for the raw material, I am sure there is enough construction rabble available which is freely in large volumes the MCGM perhaps does not know what to do about other than using it for land filling.

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