Infosys has been awarded the LEED EBOM (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - Existing Building Operation & Maintenance) Platinum certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) for our Mysore, Chennai, and Chandigarh campuses. The Pune Phase- 2 campus and the Hyderabad Gachibowli campus were rated last year and received this distinction. Infosys now has 18.25 million square feet of highest rated green buildings - out of which 16.9 million square feet are LEED Platinum rated and 1.35 million square feet are GRIHA 5-star rated buildings.
The LEED Green Building Rating System is a globally accepted benchmark for design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. Infosys has the largest building area as LEED Platinum certified in the IT office space category. To make its campuses sustainable and resource efficient, Infosys has followed a two pronged strategy since 2008 - to design new buildings to the highest energy efficiency standards and implement deep retrofits in old buildings. During the journey towards LEED certification, Infosys demonstrated success and leadership in implementing sustainable operations strategies on existing buildings. The point of greening existing buildings was to positively impact the environment through efficient operations.
For all existing buildings, efficiency improvements were achieved through large-scale retrofit projects. This included office buildings, food courts, and training centers, hostels, and sports arenas across locations. Deep retrofits were undertaken in energy-intensive areas. Major interventions included complete re-engineering of chiller plants, air handling units, building management system (BMS) retrofit, UPS retrofit, lighting retrofit, etc. These retrofits were completed within a short duration with effective project management, communication, and coordination between multiple teams, including operations, maintenance, IT, and others. These initiatives have helped Infosys lower operating costs, enhance equipment life, create healthier indoor air quality, and improve occupant comfort & satisfaction.
The review parameters in the certification process critically examine the following:
Some of the key features that contributed to this accreditation are:
Water efficiency: As part of the effort to make all its campuses water sustainable, Infosys completed the implementation of ground water injection wells, smart water meters were installed along with instituting rooftop rainwater harvesting as well as installation of water efficient plumbing fixtures. The overall effort for water sustainability helped in reducing per capita water consumption by 11% in Chennai, 20.6% in Mysuru and 6% in Chandigarh over previous years.
Renewable Energy: The Company installed 1MW capacity of rooftop solar in the Chennai campus during 2017-18, making it the 3rd largest contributor to Infosys' overall solar power generation capacity. The total installed capacity of solar plants at Chennai campus at present is 1.7 MW and the total solar power generated was about 2.2 million kWh. Additionally, The campus procured 0.73 million kWh green power in FY2018. Mysuru has a total installed capacity of 603 kW and the total solar power generated was about 0.9 million kWh in FY2018. Additionally, the campus procured 23.65 million kWh green power in FY2018. Chandigarh has a total installed capacity of 202 kW and the total solar power generated was about 0.32 million kWh in FY2018. We are working with the government to enable green power procurement in Chandigarh.
Energy Efficiency: In 2015-16, one of the buildings in Chennai campus was retrofitted with insulation to reduce the amount of glass on the fa�ade without affecting the building appearance. This reduced the heat ingress by about 25% in turn reducing the cooling energy consumption. Various initiatives like replacing DX units with efficient chilled water units, lighting retrofit in many buildings, etc were taken up over the last 2 years, The campus reduced per capita energy consumption by 8.7% through energy efficiency measures in FY2018.The Mysuru campus has a central Command Center for Integrated Building Management System (IBMS) that helps with remote energy performance management to ensure efficient operation of buildings. In FY2018 the campus reduced per capita energy consumption by about 5. % compared to previous FY, while Infosys Chandigarh campus has one of the lowest per capita energy consumption among different campuses of Infosys in India.
Infosys was able to meet all the pre-requisites as well as demonstrate compliance with internal sustainability policies and USGBC requirements.
Over the years, Infosys has demonstrated leadership in implementing innovative technologies and practices to foster sustainability, leading to high operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts.