GRIHA Summit 2023 champions the cause of 'Empowering Sustainable and Resilient Communities’
New Delhi, November 25, 2023: The 15th annual GRIHA Summit organized by the GRIHA Council successfully concluded at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on November 23-24, 2023, with a focus on the theme "Empowering Sustainable and Resilient Communities.
Eminent leaders, industry experts, and community representatives gather to shape the future of sustainable development
A lot has been said and done about climate change, climate policies, climate finance and climate action. But what is it that always acts as a hindrance to its implementation? It is the last mile gap of implementation of climate action by the end user, due to lack of awareness and understanding. Synergies of climate change mitigation action have been seen in the individual industry silos energy, water, waste, socio-economic, agriculture, textile, transport, etc. To have a holistic and comprehensive approach to sustainable development, cross-sectoral partnerships among various sectors have also been established. Yet there are challenges when it sums down to a new emerging term – “accountability at the individual action level”. Against this backdrop, the theme for this year's GRIHA Summit was conceived as "Empowering Sustainable and Resilient Communities," emphasizing the pivotal role of communities in climate action.
There are innumerous ongoing pursuits around the keywords of ‘climate change’, ‘global warming’, ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable development’. The development of “Green Habitats” alone will not only ensure infrastructure, but also address the most important component of user accountability, user behaviour and lifestyle choices impacting these two factors. As H.E. Mr Freddy Svane highlighted during the 14th GRIHA Summit, that the focus needed to shift towards “Green Habitats”.
The event was graced by the presence of Smt Leena Nandan, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India, Shri Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India, Prof Abhay Vinayak Purohit, President, Council of Architecture (COA), Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, International Solar Alliance (ISA), Prof Sunaina Singh, Former Vice Chancellor, Nalanda University. The Summit was attended by senior officials from departments of the central and state governments, policy makers, bilateral & multilateral cooperations, corporates, influencers, academia, industry experts and building practitioners. Some eminent dignitaries and speakers who attended the event were Prof Santosh Kumar, Senior Advisor, National Institute of Disaster Management, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Dr Shailesh Kr Agrawal, Executive Director, Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, Mr Greg H Kats, Coalition Founder and CEO, Smart Surface Coalition, Mr. Saurabh Diddi, Director, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, Government of India, Mr Ashish Chaturvedi, Head - Action for Climate and Environment, UNDP India, Ms Urmi Goswami, Assistant Editor, The Economic Times, Ar Chitra Vishwanath, Principal Architect and Managing Director, Biome Environmental Solutions Private Limited, Ms Manisha Natarajan, Consulting Editor, Urban Development & Real Estate, NDTV, RJ Khurafati Nitin, Ar Sonali Rastogi, Co-founding Partner, Morphogenesis and many more.
The occasion marked the unveiling of GRIHA Council's publications, including the 10th edition of the annual magazine "Shashwat – Let Nature Be," the GRIHA rating for Interior Spaces, and a captivating coffee table book titled "GRIHA’s Impactful 50 – Beyond Green Building Blocks." The Summit also featured the acknowledgment of GRIHA-rated projects of the year across various variants and the honouring of winners at the GRIHA Exemplary Awards ceremony.
The two-day Summit encompassed a series of sessions addressing key themes, including restoring harmony in critical geodiversity zones, understanding the impact on micro-level regions, implementing interventions for disaster resilience, exploring the role of influencers in raising awareness, leveraging local economies for self-sustaining models, embracing circularity, drawing insights from indigenous concepts and practices, assessing India's preparedness for climate change, integrating sustainability into education, promoting inclusivity, and encouraging the acceptance of sustainable market products, along with advocating for less consumptive practices in the fashion industry, among other topics.
A Paryavaran Rakshak Programme involving school children, a technical workshop on Thermal Comfort, site visits to green building projects – one in Indian Institute of Hyderabad and the other to Bestech House, Gurugram were conducted as a series of preludes to the Summit.
Over the years, GRIHA has fostered long-standing associations with multiple stakeholders working towards the common goal of implementing sustainable and a low carbon footprint future. This year associations were established with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and NRDC India, Smart Surfaces Coalition and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS).
GRIHA Council expresses gratitude to its partners, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Coal India Limited, Council Of Architecture (COA), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC India), Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Smart Surfaces Coalition, Elan Group, Godrej Interio, Knauf India, Saint Gobain, AIS Glass and many more.
About GRIHA Council
GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment), an indigenous green building rating system is the national green building rating system of India. Established in the year 2007 with the combined efforts of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India and TERI to develop a rating system that suits Indian climate and construction practices.
India, in its INDC document submitted at COP 21 in Paris has highlighted GRIHA as an indigenous green building rating system developed in India. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in their third biennial update report on India has acknowledged the work done by GRIHA in the field of carbon mitigation in the building sector. GRIHA, the national green building rating system of India, received accolades in the spheres such as energy efficiency, site planning, and conservation and efficient utilization of resources.
GRIHA Council is working in complete alignment with the targets set by India in the COP26 for achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2070. In this regard GRIHA Council has launched the decarbonization programme to meet carbon mitigation targets in the built environment.