Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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The Government of India set up Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). on 1st March 2002 under the provisions of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. The mission of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency is to assist in developing policies and strategies with a thrust on self-regulation and market principles, within the overall framework of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 with the primary objective of reducing energy intensity of the Indian economy.

Commercial building sector in India is expanding rapidly at over 9% per year spurred largely by the strong growth in the services sector. It has been estimated that more than 50% of building stock that will exist in the year 2030 is yet to come up in the country a situation that is fundamentally different from developed countries. Having regard to the fact that the rate of growth in commercial building sector is amongst the highest, and that, this sector needs to be moderated in its energy consumption BEE introduced the Star Rating for existing buildings as a voluntary policy measure to reduce the adverse impact of buildings on the environment.

Star Rating of Commercial Buildings: Launched by the Ministry of Power in India in 2009 the programme is based on the energy usage in the building over its area expressed in kWh/sqm/year. In this program, buildings are rated on a 1-5 scale, with 5-star labeled buildings being the most efficient.

Shunya labelling for Net Zero and Net Positive Buildings: To widen the scope of the Building Labelling Programme based on Energy Consumption, BEE is introducing a Labelling programme for Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) and Net Positive Energy Buildings (NPEB). The programme is named as “Shunya” Labelling Programme. Shunya is the Hindi meaning of Zero (0) thus making it suitable to label the NZEB and NPEB buildings as Shunya.