Conference on Greening the Commercial Establishments organised by IGBC in Kolkata

Kolkata: A major conference on Greening the Commercial Establishments was organised last evening at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre by Indian Green Building Council in association with West Bengal HIDCO with an objective and intent to encourage the commercial developments to adopt green building practices in their new and existing facilities.

The conference was organised primarily for the land allottees of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) so that the upcoming projects could go green from design stage while the existing projects could be converted by means of suitable retrofits.

In his inaugural address, Mr. Sushil Mohta, chairman- IGBC, and Merlin group said , “ West Bengal  emerged amongst  top five states in India in terms of highest registered green Building footprints, thanks to the visionary leadership of the State  government which notified green building incentives,  for Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), other municipal areas as well as New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA). The majority of projects in Kolkata adopting planning and execution of project as per green building norms  and embracing green building certification are from the residential sector which is showcasing tremendous growth. However, in order to address the sustainable Development-construction practices and resilience in the built spaces, it is of utmost importance that the entire building sectors adopt a holistic green approach.  It is more important to maintain the buildings once developed . As per environment norm, large scale activities including  bigger buildings with more than  20,000 sq meter, must obtain environmental clearance. Therefore it is sensible for the developers to avail green building certification.  Large corporates like ITC, Wipro, State bank, Bandhan Bank etc  have decided that going forward all the building developments will be as per Green Building Norms. I feel more corporates and institutes shall come forward for same.

The existing buildings including the vintage buildings can  have retro fitting to adopt green building certification. It is always beneficial for real estate companies to have IGBC green building certification as green buildings have 10% extra FAR . Besides commercial buildings and residential buildings , towns, important metro  corridors should adhered to greening standard. I felt proud to felicitate Sri Debashis sen for platinum rated certifications for Newtown and GM of Howrah railway station with green building certification.”

He also stated several accomplishments of IGBC over last two decades, how Kolkata has emerged as one of the leading cities in the country in terms of number of green building projects going green. In his address, he mentioned IGBC efforts have resulted in India achieving 11.203 billion sq. ft. of registered green footprints from more than 12,000 projects across India. Kolkata stands amongst the top five cities with a contribution of over 1000 projects going green under various building typologies.

 

The inaugural session witnessed the presence of Shri Debashis Sen, IAS (retd), former Chairman of NKDA and former MD of WBHIDCO, former additional chief secretary, Govt of West Bengal , Shri Sushil Mohta, Chairman, IGBC Kolkata Chapter Chairman, Merlin Group Shri AR Vivek Singh Rathore, Co Chairman, IGBC Kolkata Chapter &  Mr M Anand Dy. Executive Director, Indian Green Building Council.  Mr. Sanjay Bansal, IAS, MD, WBHIDCO & Secretary of Urban development & Municipal Affairs , Govt of West Bengal graced the occasion.

Sanjay Bansal, IAS who have recently taken over as the Managing Director, West Bengal HIDCO, also graced the occasion and addressed on the vision and aspiration of net zero carbon. In his addressed, he emphasised on various key areas of sustainable development, particularly on the larger perspectives of commercial developments and city infrastructure. Mr. Sanjay Bansal , also appreciated IGBC’s  initiative in greening the city. He said that Coal India is the first building to have green certification. He also stated  that  most buildings in new town would be carbon neutral or carbon negative as solar panels will be installed in next five to ten years .  

 

Shri Debashis Sen, IAS (Retd.), Former Managing Director, West Bengal HIDCO and former chairman of NKDA, addressed on the importance and significance for the corporates to go green.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Debashis Sen   said , “ The net zero compulsion for the corporate sector is the need of the hour as India is poised to reach net zero state by the year 2070. SEBI has mandated BRSR or Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting for the top 1000 listed companies last year. This means they have to reduce carbon emission. In the present context it is more important for companies specially IT sector who work with companies in Europe .  In the current year,  carbon emission needs to be documented in Europe and the green rating of corporates like IT sector in India will go down if they buy products from companies with low green rating . So carbon benchmarking is very crucial as the reputation of companies having low carbon emission will go up. I feel IGBC needs to have a separate chapter on purely corporate rating  of international standard. It is very fast involving see, we will be very happy rating like this. I got platinum award for newtown from Mr Mohta. Definitely we would like to move with IGBC".

 

M Anand, Deputy Executive Director, IGBC in his presentation shown comprehensive overview of the Indian Green Building Council's programmes and initiatives. He elaborated the impact created by 31 holistic IGBC rating programmes and showcased the future trends as how the city and state could go beyond buildings and venture into greening the built environment at campus level, city level, village level. He also emphasised on the need of more green building professionals for catering the growing demands and need in various emerging sectors such as logistics parks, warehouses, data centers etc.

Vivek Singh Rathore, Co Chairman, IGBC Kolkata conducted an impactful panel discussion with esteemed panel members from the industry who shared their key insights and expertise on accelerating green growth of Commercial Establishments in Kolkata.

The seminar further continued with the technical presentation on important aspects of green building concepts such as energy efficiency through glasses, efficient HVAC systems, cool roof technology, low carbon steels, emerging trends in renewable energy, water management and a case study on high performing buildings. Session was well attended by over 200 delegates from various walks of the building industry and officials from key government departments.