InHabit is providing green building consulting, facilitation, training and marketing services to Covai Property Centre towards their multi-dwelling retirement village project named Covai Chinmayam.Chinmayam is a 93 villa gated retirement community with its own assisted care centre, community and dining halls and a private park. It is expected to be among the top health and environmental performers in the region with an IGBC Green Homes Platinum rating.

Client: Covai Property Centre (India) Private Limited

Scope of work

• IGBC Green Homes V2 ratings facilitation services.
• Energy modeling & analysis.
• Marketing support and green building training for the staff.
• Green building strategic plan and Project management.
• Materials and systems procurement and advisory services.
• Creating a green home buyer's manual.
• Guidance on best practises.

Covai Chinmayam offers Active Life at an affordable cost for senior citizens. It is a model which subsidizes the maintenance cost and consequently reduces the monthly expenditure.

Embracing principles of sustainability from the project’s inception, Covai Properties are among the first promoters to offer IGBC Green Homes rated developments in the area. The project followed an integrated planning approach where all stakeholders were brought in at the project conception phase and the designs green building strategy were complete well before the construction began. Utmost care was taken in the planning stage to ensure every aspect of sustainable living is taken into account and incorporated in the project. Following are the features, strategies, techniques and materials used to ensure Chinamayam met the Platinum standards in Green Building:

Sustainable Site Planning

1. All required environmental clearances and government approval were obtained before commencing construction.
2. Soil erosion and sedimentation control measures recommended in the National Building Code 2005 were followed, thereby reducing negative impact on the site and its surroundings.
3. The project has more than 25% of its area under soft landscaping in order to minimise site disturbance, thereby reducing long term environmental impact.
4. More than 75% of the paved area in Covai Chinmayam is either shaded by trees or has been installed with open grid paving, thereby minimising the heat island effect and improving water percolation into the ground.
5. The entire roof area of your home and all common buildings have been installed with high performance cool roof materials, thereby reducing the heat gain in the homes and also reducing the impact on the micro climate.

1. As part of the Covai services, many basic household amenities have been provided within the development. This ensures reduced auto mobile use and enhanced quality of life.
2. Every villa has strategically located car charging provision to encourage residents to switch to electric vehicles.
3. All buildings have been designed to cater to differently able. Features include, ramps, preferred car parks, imported senior friendly toilet systems from Pressilit Care Denmark, wide pathways and blindness friendly lifts.
4. All efforts were made to promote the welfare of the construction workforce by providing safe and healthy work conditions.
5. This owner’s manual has been created to educate and help the home owners lead a sustainable lifestyle and ensure residents are aware of all basic information relating to their homes.

1. Covai Chinmayam is a zero discharge development. All rainwater from roof and non roof areas is harvested and percolated post appropriate filtration into the ground.
2. All flush and flow fixtures used in your home is at least 25% more efficient in comparison to conventional fixtures available in the market.
3. Large part of the landscape has been planted with native trees and local drought tolerant species of plants to reduce the water use for irrigation.
4. Irrigation systems like central shut off, pressure regulating devices and drip irrigation have been used to use water more efficiently.
5. Covai Chinmayam has a central sewage treatment plant which treats the waste water from your homes to tertiary standards and reuses the treated water for irrigation purposes ensuring over 50% overall water savings.
6. Water meters have been provided for waste water reuse to monitor the major areas of water use.

1. All cooling and refrigeration equipment used within Covai Chinmayam is free of Cholorofluro Carbons (CFC).
2. Various passive design measures (such as the shading and cross ventilation) have been taken to ensure minimum heat gain without compromising on day-lighting and ventilation. Through the use of cool roof, high performance windows & efficient lighting your home has been made at least 20% more energy efficient compared to conventional homes of the same size.
3. Every home has been provided with solar water heating system to meet at least 100% of the resident’s hot water needs.
4. Every home has a 1KW connected solar energy system which saves overall energy consumption and reduces the annual expenditure on electricity.
5. The development uses BEE 5 star rated pumps and motors along with energy efficient lifts in the common buildings.
6. The development distributed power generation system which monitors the electric load and ensures that only the required numbers of generators are turned on at any time. Saving large quantities of diesel.
7. Energy meters have been installed for all water pumping and external lighting to monitor use and take suitable action to enhance performance.
8. Every living space in the entire development has optimum daylighting, thereby reducing the lighting load.

1. Every household is provided with two bins, one for organic waste and the other for inorganic waste. There is also a common area dedicated to store metals, e-waste, lamps and batteries for recycling.
2. All organic waste generated in your home is mechanically composted and the compost is used as a soil conditioner in the gardens.
3. The project had minimised construction waste being sent to landfills by over 95% through a strict construction waste tracking, reuse and recycle policy.

1. The total money value of all the recycled content used in various building materials in the project is over 25%, thereby reducing the environmental impact caused due to the use of virgin materials.
2. Over 75% of all construction materials procured for the project was manufactured within a 500 km radius of the project site, thereby reducing the negative impacts of transportation.
3. More than 75% of the wood used in the project is either made of rapidly renewable material like sugar cane bagasse or has been certified to be made from wood harvested from sustainably managed forests.