States, UTs Prepare Guidelines To Boost Green Building

NEW DELHI, February 18: Around 26 states and some Union Territories have prepared guidelines for installing rooftop solar power systems, a move that will boost efforts for construction of green buildings in the country, a senior government official said. Director of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) A K Tripathi said the government is also making efforts to incorporate green architecture into civil engineering courses. "Out of the 100,000 MW solar power, 40,000 MW will be in the form of rooftop solar power, which translates fully into the building stock and directly relates to green buildings. "26 states and UTs have established guidelines for rooftop solar power, which will definitely add to the overall effort of enabling green building," a TERI statement quoting Tripathi. He was addressing the inaugural session of 7th GRIHA Summit. TERI-GRIHA, launched in 2005 and adopted by MNRE, is a tool developed by TERI with an objective to ensure energy- efficient building construction. "We are also making efforts to incorporate green architecture into civil engineering and architecture-based courses," he said. DG TERI Ajay Mathur said the dovetailing between Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and GRIHA's works has led us to a process where we have an example of what "good, clean and liveable" buildings can be like. GRIHA council officials said it is also committed to contributing to the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) or climate action goals submitted by India on climate change. "GRIHA is committed to contribute to India's INDC goals and shall ensure that sustainability as a concept touches all strata of our society and reaches all homes and habitats in the country," said Mili Majumdar, Secretary cum Treasurer, GRIHA Council. TERI said the green buildings assume greater importance as India's 'Smart Cities' initiative mandates 80 per cent buildings in the shortlisted cities to be green. With a view to transforming our urban centres into smarter and high-performance habitats, the GRIHA Summit will host discussions over the next two days on vital sustainability issues - energy and water management, innovation in transport and recovery of waste at buildings. The summit will be attended by representatives of government and private entities, who will share their ideas and examine the current endeavours in sustainable design both at micro and macro level. As a prelude to the main conference, the summit hosted a set of events along with an exhibition. -PTI