28 Oct 2021
On the last day of this month, over 190 leaders from various countries will gather in Glasgow to discuss and finalize climate action at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26). The goal is to minimize the damages of climate change by limiting global warming to 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and ultimately target a future where temperature does not rise beyond 1.5 degree Celsius
India is on track to reduce its emission intensity. It has already reduced emission intensity of its GDP by 28% over 2005 levels against the target of 33-35% by 2030. It has increased its installed power generation capacity from renewable sources to 38.5% against the target of 40% by 2030.
With a vision to facilitate India’s transformation as a global leader in green businesses by 2022, CII established the Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre (CII-Godrej GBC) in 2004. Acting as CII’s developmental institute on green practices and businesses, the centre offers world class advisory services in resource efficiency, environment sustainability and equips the Indian industry with emerging concepts and skills to gain global competitive advantage.
Green buildings are built structures that are resource-efficient in terms of design, construction, operations and maintenance. The Centre of Excellence spearheads the green building movement in the country through onsite assessments and ratings, certification programmes, technology analyses, studies of operating practices, market studies and capacity building in energy management, green buildings, green companies, renewable energy, GHG inventorization, green product certification, waste management and cleaner production process.
CII Initiatives aimed at faster adoption of green practices and businesses
CII IGBC launched the IGBC Mission on Net Zero in April this year. The mission aims to facilitate the achievement of net zero carbon emission status by India by the year 2050. As on date, over 6,780 green building projects, spread across 7.86 billion sq ft of green building footprint, have adopted the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) green standards for buildings and built environment. IGBC aspires to facilitate 10 billion sq ft of green building footprint by 2022.
The GreenCo Rating system by IGBC is the first holistic framework that evaluates companies on the environmental friendliness of their activities using life cycle approach. Implementation of GreenCo rating provides leadership and guidance to companies on how to make products, services and operations greener. GreenPro is a product certification which helps environmentally conscious customers make an informed choice to buy eco-friendly products and raw materials for use in buildings. It encourages product manufacturers to implement green measures at every stage of the product life cycle. As on date, more than 2500 products from over 150 leading manufacturers are certified and available in the market.
GIFT City became India’s first Greenfield Smart City to achieve the IGBC Green Cities Platinum rating in September this year. The centre recognises several initiatives adopted as a part of the project which include integrated land use, compact city development, 35% public green & open spaces, housing, transit-oriented development with BRTS, Metro rail connectivity, 100% road network with streetscape and 100% green buildings mandate in the city.
The Council has been working towards building green and self-sustainable stadiums. In 2020, the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad was awarded a Gold Green rating. It also established the IGBC Green Village Rating System which helps identify green features that can be implemented to make a village green.
CII-IGBC developed a new and exclusive ‘IGBC Green Logistics Parks and Warehouses Rating System (Pilot Version)’ in 2021 to address all the three pillars of sustainability; social, environmental and economical. The unique rating system was designed as per the requirements of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and addresses 14 of the 17 SDGs directly or indirectly.
In order to address environmental sustainability in metro rail systems the IGBC Green MRTS rating was launched as early as in 2014, to address environmental sustainability in metro rail systems as the world’s first such rating. CII-IGBC has also developed a voluntary and consensus-based rating system with the support of the Environment Directorate of Indian Railways. This is a first-of-its-kind holistic rating system which addresses environmental sustainability issues at railway stations and facilitates adoption of green concepts.
The CII-Godrej GBC has been part of CII’s various initiatives for business engagement in sustainable development. It will continue to play a key role in India’s national goal to achieve zero CO2 emission by 2050.