CII’s Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in partnership with The Tamil Nadu government formally inaugurated its three-day annual flagship conference – Green Building Congress 2023 in the city. As a key facilitator in India’s journey towards achieving Net Zero Carbon Emission goal, IGBC announced India’s first ‘Net Zero Carbon’ rating system as part of the inaugural event. The IGBC’s mission on Net Zero serves as a catalyst for the adoption of net zero concepts, supporting the market’s transformation towards total decarbonization of the building sector. The reference guidelines of IGBC net zero carbon rating system publication formulated by IGBC was unveiled and released by Gurmit Singh Arora, national chairman, Indian Green Building Council, Ajit Chordia, chairman, IGBC Chennai Chapter, Oliver Ballhatchet MBE, British Deputy High Commissioner Chennai, Jamshyd N Godrej, chairman, CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, B Thiagarajan, national vice chairman, Indian Green Building Council and Mahesh Anand, co-chairman, IGBC Chennai Chapter.
As part of the inaugural event, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans Atmakuri Ramarao School, (Benefits to Environment), Kendriya Vidyalaya BSF Camp Chhawla, Delhi (Education & Awareness) and Navy Children School, Karwar, Karnataka (Innovation Category) were recognized and awarded as winners for the Green Your School Programme. Founded with a singular motto of instilling a sense of Green amongst young minds, IGBC also initiated a Green Your School Programme for classes starting from 8th to 10th and has been successfully recognizing innovative ideas and initiatives from school children to become a greener nation for the past 17 years. Along with the launch of the new Net Zero Carbon Ration System, IGBC also released updated versions of its existing rating systems for existing buildings, green campuses and green factories.
Arora said, “The government of India over the last two decades has initiated several new missions and policies which support the path towards net zero carbon buildings, cities and nation. The building sector of our country has an excellent opportunity to take the leadership role for accelerating the uptake of Net Zero.Thus far, the Council has been instrumental in enabling 10.42 billion sq.ft. of green building footprint in the country. The Council’s activities have enabled a market transformation particularly in the green building materials and technologies.”
Chordia said, “Tamil Nadu’s commitment towards the green building movement can be witnessed through many landmark projects such as the IGBC certified buildings – Anna Centenary Library, Chennai Metro Rail Limited, Smart Governance Centre and many more. This three-day conference is set to unearth many innovative modals of achieving Net Zero Carbon future and we are confident that there will be significant takeaways for everyone.”
The launch of IGBC Net Zero Carbon rating system is in alignment with ‘IGBC’s Mission on Net Zero’ launched on Earth Day in 2021 and India’s commitment at COP 26 i.e., achieving long-term goal of reaching Net Zero carbon in emissions by 2070. The rating system operates on a voluntary and consensus-based approach, promoting the use of low-embodied carbon materials and technologies, and on-site or off-site renewable energy sources, and adherence to a Whole Building Life Cycle Analysis as per ISO Standard 14040. The rating system addresses projects in both ‘Design & Construction’ and ‘Operations’ phases. This approach allows tailored strategies for minimizing or eliminating carbon emissions at different project stages.
The inaugural event also laid a platform for the eminent guests to recognize and reward the winners of ‘Design for LiFE: Small Medium Large Solutions for a Sustainable Tomorrow’ – a design competition for student of architecture to envision the future. The competition received more than 700+ registrations from students from 140+ architecture colleges across the country. The jury nominated six designs solutions, two in each category for the award and one jury special award under medium & large category. Abhishek Karad from VIT’s PVP College of Architecture, Pune, Heet Sanghvi & Mr Ansh Kadam from SMEF’S Bricks Group of Institutes, Pune and Shaurya Singh from CEPT – Faculty of Architecture, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University, Ahmedabad won the first place in small, medium and large categories respectively. Charankamalpreet Singh from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Maitri Shah from BMS School of Architecture, Yelahanka and Suditi Chaudhury from Lokmanya Tilak Institute of Architecture and Design Studies, Navi Mumbai won the second place in small, medium and large scale categories respectively. The jury special award under medium & large-scale category is won by Sanidhya Shah from VIT’s PVP College of Architecture, Pune.
