The built environment, which accounts for a significant share of global emissions and resource consumption, plays an instrumental role in either exacerbating the climate crisis or mitigating impacts and enabling adaptation. Cities and built infrastructure areand will continue to be exposed to higher climate stresses and frequent climate shocks, thereby disrupting lives, damaging property and harming the natural environment. Therefore, it is imperative to build climate-resilient infrastructure and adaptive cities that continue to protect, provide, and thrive sustainably in harmony with nature.
Nations around the world are united by a shared goal of building a sustainable and climate-resilient future. While each country faces distinct challenges owing to its development stage and resource availability, collective action remains fundamental. In this global transition, India emerges as a catalyst driving scalable, inclusive solutions, advancing clean energy transitions, and shaping policies that strive to prioritize both environmental stewardship and equitable growth.
Now is the time to embark on transformative efforts and revolutionise our design processes, construction practices, and operation and management of built spaces. As the urgency for climate action intensifies, traditional approaches, while foundational, are not sufficient considering the pace and complexities of the challenges ahead. Innovation must be the driving force in shaping a resilient future across sectors and scales. It must steer the next phase of global, national and regional efforts, making climate action inclusive, resilient and sustainable. Innovation propels the development of novel technologies and approaches; however, it alone is not sufficient. It must be coupled with resilience- the ability to respond, adapt, recover, and thrive in the face of shocks. Together, innovation and resilience form the bedrock for building a sustainable future.
In our drive towards creating inclusive and climate-resilient infrastructure, GRIHA Council is hosting its annual 17th GRIHA Summit centred around the theme “Innovate to Act for a Climate Resilient World”, which is scheduled for 3rd – 4th November 2025 at the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India.
Advancing the idea to augment the development of sustainable habitats and resilient communities at the regional levels in the country, GRIHA Council will be hosting GRIHA Regional Conclaves in Bengaluru, Bhopal, Kochi and Ahmedabad in this fiscal year around the common theme “Innovate to Act for a Climate Resilient World”.
Both Summit and regional conclaves intend to serve as a platform to deliberate innovative and actionable strategies that can transform our climate ambitions into tangible outcomes. We invite all stakeholders- innovators, policymakers, industry leaders, architects, engineers, product manufacturers, researchers, and urban practitioners to convene for two days to ‘discuss, innovate, adapt’ and ‘collaborate & act’ on strategies that have the potential to build a climate-resilient world.
