With the building sector emerging as one of the major contributors to GHGs, it is imperative that sustainability is mainstreamed in this sector. In 2007, our rating system for green buildings, GRIHA, was adopted as India's national rating system. Our green building advisory has helped design hundreds of future-ready buildings that use less resources and give more to the environment.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) recently inaugurated the ‘Model Demo Habitat’ developed under the “Habitat Model for Efficiency and Comfort” project supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India at its Gwal Pahari campus.
'Buildings' are the most pronounced elements in the fabric of any city. The housing sector in India is growing at a rapid pace and contributing immensely to the growth of the economy. The simultaneous increase in the demand for homes has caused a significantly high pressure on natural resources causing ecological imbalances such as loss of resilience to fight climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution. In this article, Pratiksha Baruah discusses about the tangible and intangible benefits of green buildings.
आने वाले वक़्त में तापमान बढ़ेगा। बढ़ती हुई गर्मी के साथ देश में कूलिंग की ज़रूरत कई गुना बढ़ जाएगी। कूलिंग की आवश्यकताओं को नियंत्रित करने के लिए हमें एनर्जी कंज़र्वेशन बिल्डिंग कोड्स और ग्रीन बिल्डिंग रेटिंग को बड़े पैमाने पर अपनाने की ज़रूरत है। "कूलिंग इंडिया" को एक अभियान की तरह आगे बढ़ाना होगा।
The Covid 19 pandemic conditions pose challenges for air-conditioned buildings and their occupants. One solution is to look at passive architecture office buildings that maintain indoor temperature through the right mix of fresh air and recirculation, daylighting and artificial lighting etc.
The sector-specific allocations for health, education, and infrastructure the Union Budget 2020-21 collectively make up only a fraction of India's GDP. Our rapidly developing economy is threatened in the wake of a new global pandemic, COVID-19.
An exponential increase in the population over the past decade has led to the emergence of rapid urbanization as a key global trend of prominence and concern. It is expected that more than 40% of the Indian population will be dwelling in urban cities by 2030, and the total urban population of India is anticipated to hit the three quarters of a billion mark by 2050.
TERI is conducting a webinar to share the findings of the 'Guidelines on Water-Efficient Measures for Residential Townships' and sensitize stakeholders on water conservation and its management. The guidelines will be jointly released by MLDL and TERI on the occasion of World Water Day.
This year's event aims to bring together the green building fraternity and the wider community to work towards restoring a green economy.
On 10th December 2021 | 1700 to 1915 hrs (IST)
The three-day long webinar series focused on developing stakeholder awareness, and share guidelines and toolkits produced under the Mahindra TERI Centre of Excellence (CoE) Programme through carefully curated presentation and panel discussions by built environment experts.
Mahindra Lifespaces (MLDL) and Sustainable Habitat Program, TERI are jointly releasing a study on 'Water Sustainability Assessment of Gurugram' on the occasion of 'World Nature Conservation Day'.
On 28 July 2021, 15:30 to 17:30 hrs
Mahindra Lifespaces (MLDL) and Sustainable Habitat Program, TERI are jointly releasing a study on 'Water Sustainability Assessment of Chennai' on the occasion of 'World Environment Day'.
MTCoE released a technical report, guidebook, and online toolkit (sky type finder) defining sky luminance across various sky conditions in landlocked cities. Mr Sanjay Seth, senior director, TERI, emphasized that sky modelling is one of the research activities being carried out at MTCoE with an aim to categorize the sky patterns subset from the CIE standard general sky that best represents the sky luminance distribution in Gurugram.
The Millennium City is developing its way into a severe water crisis. There is a need to ramp up water infrastructure such as water meters, pipelines, treatment plant capacities, to meet the demands of rising population. An immediate intervention for restoring the dying water bodies such as lakes, ponds, bundhs, etc. should be done.
CEO of GRIHA Council Mr Sanjay Seth said that green buildings have a mix of active and passive features. From a buyer's perspective, that means having power from renewables, water reuse for toilet flushes, low-flow taps to cut wastage, segregated garbage collection, facades that reduce heat, cross ventilation to reduce the use of air conditioners, and concrete that has lower carbon footprint, among others.
At every level of government, India is developing strategies for managing heat and heatwaves. At the national and state levels, multiple initiatives are underway to address rising city temperatures. These are yet to cohere into city-wide cooling strategies.
Developers have continuously redefined the township model as per the market demand. But now, there is an urgent need for the township model to be rediscovered with a growing focus on water conservation and zero-wastewater discharge. Residential housing forms one of the most significant parts of the real estate sector in India. It contributes to 80% of the sector, which is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030. It is estimated that around 10 million people migrate to cities every year in search of better employment opportunities.
Sustainable water use in habitats is one of the key areas of research of the Mahindra-TERI Centre of Excellence, and the guidelines can play a pivotal role in aiding townships to move on the path of becoming net water positive.
We have been actively involved in providing technical consultancy for the design and development of sustainable building complexes. The scope of work has been to review designs provided by architects so as to incorporate energy efficiency measures in the building envelope and systems design. We provide complete green design consultancy, including site planning inputs, full building performance analysis, evaluation of energy systems, renewable energy integration, water and waste management strategies, and achieving indoor air quality standards.
We conduct capacity building for architects, building developers and service engineers on issues such as Green & Resource Efficient Developments, Construction Site Planning and Management- A GRIHA Approach, Resource Efficiency (Energy & water) in Building Sector, Smart Cities/Urban Infrastructure, Green Construction, Developments in Construction Technology, Disaster Management & Mitigation, Energy Conservation in Buildings, Future trends in Construction Technology, Construction & Demolition Waste Management, Development of Zero Discharge Campus, Solid Waste Management - Bui
We undertake resource (energy and water) audit/resource conservation studies for existing buildings/complexes. We have conducted energy audits of around 200 buildings of various categories like hotels, commercial offices, hospitals, schools, universities, shopping malls and theatres. Resource audit and conservation studies are aimed at exploring energy and water conservation possibilities in built environment.
We carry out research on energy efficient building envelopes including materials, energy efficient/low cooling technologies etc. A few important project includes UTC-TERI Centre of Excellence on Efficient Buildings, Mahindra-TERI Centre of Excellence on Energy Efficient Building Envelopes and Sustainable Water Use in Habitats, Thermal and Visual comfort studies on somfy roller blinds.
We have successfully completed several policy initiatives at central and state government levels towards mainstreaming high performance buildings in India. Senior members of the group are members of the committee of experts for development of the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) of India (2007). The manual for environmental clearance of large construction for the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India has also been developed at CRSBS.
We undertake water audit of existing buildings/complexes to quantify the impact of water efficient solutions adopted and implemented by the project/organization to reduce their water footprint and also provide technical assistance for enhancing water efficiency of the projects in order to achieve the 'GRIHA Water Positive Certification'.
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