‘Decarbonisation of building and construction sector imperative to achieve India’s net zero target’

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Tell us more about the Decarbonisation Business Charter

Our country has committed towards the goal of achieving net zero by 2070. The building and construction sector has a significant role in greenhouse gas emissions. We will not be able to achieve the net zero goal unless we decarbonise the building sector. It requires a total transformation in terms of how we design a building, how we construct the building, how we operate it, how we demolish and get rid of the building material, how we recycle and reuse the building material, and so on. The entire value chain of this involves probably tens of thousands of different companies and small firms, designers, material manufacturers, and other service providers. That makes any transformation of the sector extremely challenging.

So, how should the industry approach it?

There are four pillars to it.

One is the policy pillar or the kind of policies the government sets. For instance, there are sustainable energy building codes, net zero energy codes, performance-related ratings, and so on. That’s one piece of the puzzle.

The second piece is technology. Technology can do wonders. For instance, one of the things we strongly suggest while designing a building is to focus on the building envelope. That means paying attention to factors such as the kinds of construction materials and glazing used, would the glazing receive daylight but prevent heat, and so on. 

Take the case of Infosys buildings – they have been designed in such a way that the buildings get indirect sunlight. This helps to get daylight and reduce internal lighting usage while simultaneously reducing the heat that comes with the sunlight. Thus, the cooling load is reduced.    

Many people think green buildings or net zero buildings are going to be more expensive, but when you design the building in a manner that minimises heat gain and maximises the daylight, you can downsize the air conditioning system, electrical transformers, switch gears, and so on. So, what you are investing on one side, you are recovering on the other side. This process is called integrative building design. It is a very powerful tool.  

The third is financing. You have to attract financing and investment into the sector.   We are working on a State Bank of India programme where loans would be available at lower interest rates for designs that would help towards decarbonisation. We have been suggesting the signatories of the charter to use such incentives. 

The fourth pillar is behaviour. Depending on where you were born and raised your threshold for thermal discomfort changes. Being born and brought up in India, we can withstand a little warmer weather. So, we can set our air conditioning temperature at 27 or 25 degrees instead of 20 or 22 degrees and we will be perfectly comfortable. That five-degree Celsius delta can save 15 to 20 per cent of your AC load.  

All these require concerted effort, and we are working towards that. For example, through the Solar Decathlon India programme with the Indian Institute of Human Settlements in Bengaluru, we are trying to train and skill the next generation architects and engineers who will use these design principles to design bulildings in a sustainable manner. 

Where should the push for decarbonisation initiatives come from?

We call it a triple sector leadership model. Neither government nor private sector nor civil society organisations can do it alone. They all come with their own strengths, but also with their blind spots. All three segments need to come together and attack different aspects of the decarbonisation beast. 

Performance benchmarks should be the metric and not just rating system, because sometimes we feel there is a lot of greenwashing happening.

What is the attitude of builders and developers towards adopting such changes?

Builders have some real challenges. They say India is developing at a very fast pace and they cannot just pause and design a perfect building as other competitors will go ahead and sell meanwhile. Developers need solutions that can be deployed cost effectively and at scale and speed. There is a lot of commercial pressure on them. 

When LED came into the market it was expensive, but it was a reliable technology, so they started deploying it. So, there is willingness, but they need exposure to solutions. There is also some skepticism around solutions being able to deliver the results and savings they claim to give. So, we as a third party come in, test and validate these products.   

The end consumer also has a role to play. Instead of asking the developer for aspirational products like say Italian marble for flooring, the consumer should ask questions like what the heat transmittance of my wall is. If the end consumer starts asking such questions, then the developer will be forced to provide those kinds of products.  

The needs of the people at the bottom of the pyramid should also be addressed. For example, India has 600 million fans. The latest super-efficient fan technology can cut energy consumption in half but will cost twice the amount of a normal fan. If such fans can be deployed along with affordable housing, the consumer will also benefit from reduced electricity bills.  

We are seeing if we can aggregate the demand which would then give the purchaser bargaining power. There are such business models we are working on for some of these energy efficient products. There are lots of such things that can be done, but we have limitations in terms of what we alone can do. This is where this charter comes in. Our goal is to have 100 signatories, not just big companies like Infosys and Mahindra Life Space, but also SMEs and other smaller firms. They will be the change agents.