GRIHA NEWSLETTER


June 2022

Message from the CEO

Mr. Sanjay Seth, CEO GRIHA Council

World Environment Day, commemorated annually on 5th June was initiated by the United Nations to encourage global awareness and action to protect our environment. With the world on course to breach the 1.5 °C global warming threshold in the next 5 years, this day holds the utmost importance as it highlights and reiterates to all, the urgent commitment and care needed by our planet to sustain.

With the intention to educate and activate participants about environmental issues, I am pleased to inform you that GRIHA Council is co-organiser at “GREENOVATION 2022 - INTERNATIONAL GREEN BUILDING TECHNOLOGY EXPO”. GREENOVATION 2022 which is being held from 4th to 6th June 2022 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi is a platform to promote technology and build an environment-friendly & resource saving society whilst showcasing sustainable ideas, technology, equipment and designs to a multitude of stakeholders. GRIHA Council will be chairing a session on “Engaging Women in Sustainability” which shall deliberate on the need for intentional and inclusive solutions, focussed on transformational collaboration as a means for solving the climate crisis. It aims to awaken the world to the economic, social and environmental benefits of gender equity.

I also take this opportunity to announce that the theme for the annual GRIHA Summit scheduled on 15th-16th December 2022, is ‘Towards Net Positive Habitats'. We look forward to your enthusiastic participation.

Addendum GRIHA V 2015

In GRIHA V 2015 certain alterations have been made in the “Criterion 28: Smart Metering and Monitoring”.

Click here for more details: https://www.grihaindia.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Manuals/Addendum_for_GRIHA_V_2015.pdf

Complimentary Handholding Training Programme on GRIHA V. 2019

A complimentary 8-Day training programme is being conducted by GRIHA Council on the GRIHA Version 2019. This training will be held for an hour every Friday, for a period spanning 8 weeks, starting 10th June 2022. All interested participants can register and attend the whole training programme or selected sessions as per interest. This is an effort by GRIHA Council to provide handholding guidance to the professionals in the green building industry to get acquainted with the latest GRIHA rating – the GRIHA V.2019.

Click here for registration: https://forms.gle/HRSRzvg8EWVYa1ea9
Click here for more details: https://www.grihaindia.org/complimentary

Session on GRIHA at SUNREF India Programme – Regional Promotional Event

SUNREF (Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance) Housing India programme held its regional promotional event in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on 26th May, 2022, to highlight the importance of green affordable housing and present its key features to the key stakeholders present at the event. Aimed at scaling up green affordable housing projects in India, SUNREF Housing India programme was launched by the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD) in partnership with the National Housing Bank (NHB) and with financial participation from the European Union (EU) in July 2017. More specifically, it consists in an innovative credit line of €100 million from AFD which enables banks, housing finance companies (HFCs) to fund green and affordable housing projects and allied investments. This financing is reinforced by a €9 million investment grant and €3 million technical assistance grant, both provided by the EU, to soften the interest rates offered to HFCs and implement promotional and capacity building activities – making of this project an ambitious and first-of-a-kind programme.

Mr. Gagan D Kechira, Manager, Southern Region, GRIHA Council had delivered a session on ‘Eligible GRIHA rating systems and their certification process, green building incentive and best practices’, which was well received by the participants. There was also a panel discussion round at the end where challenges and issues were discussed. The event in Chennai was attended by representatives of banks, housing finance companies (HFCs), real estate developers, government agencies, green-building experts, architects and green material producers from the Southern States.

Online Training on “GRIHA Product Catalogue”

GRIHA Council conducted an online training on "GRIHA PRODUCT CATALOGUE" on 3rd June, 2022 as 10 years of GRIHA Product Catalogue were completed. GRIHA Council in association with TERI has launched the GRIHA Product Catalogue in the year 2012 to provide information about products which meet GRIHA parameters to the architects, engineers, builders, consultants, industries and other building professionals for use in their GRIHA rated projects. The training acted as a platform to disseminate information to the manufacturers for the enlistment of green products through the newly launched dashboard and assessment criterion in GRIHA Product Catalogue. The dashboard has been developed to ease the process of enlistment of products by predefining the typologies or applications in which they can get enrolled. This helped the clients to identify the green products available in the market. As part of the event, GRIHA Council also recognized the effort of various manufacturers for continuous enlistment in GRIHA Product Catalogue for the past decade.

Click here for more details: https://www.grihaindia.org/training-griha-product-0

Half-day Awareness Programme at Ranganathan Architecture College, Coimbatore

Ranganathan Architecture College, Coimbatore is registered with GRIHA as a Gold member under the GRIHA CATALYST membership. Under the ambit of this membership, an online half day awareness programme was conducted on 16th May, 2022. The programme was designed to facilitate the students to develop an understanding on GRIHA and create awareness on general concepts and processes under GRIHA and its variants. The programme commenced with a presentation on the major environmental challenges faced due to today’s building sector and the need to create green buildings. This was followed by an overview of GRIHA rating system and its variants, highlighting the intent of the sections and their criteria. Case studies under the GRIHA, SVAGRIHA and GRIHA EB variant were also presented by the representatives of the project team, to give the participants an insight on how projects have been benefitted by adopting GRIHA as a rating tool. The programme received an overwhelming response and was attended by more than 140 students.

New Products have been enlisted in the GRIHA Product Catalogue

Company name: Prism Johnson Limited
Product name: Cool Roof Tiles
Product typology: Cool Roof Coatings

Company name: Prism Johnson Limited
Product name: Endura Flooring Tiles
Product typology: Flooring

One-Day Student Training Programme at Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore

Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore is registered with GRIHA as a Gold member under the GRIHA CATALYST membership. Under the ambit of this membership, a 1-day online student training programme was conducted on 31st May, 2022. The programme was designed to facilitate the students to develop an understanding on GRIHA and create awareness on general concepts and processes under GRIHA and its variants. The programme commenced with a presentation on the major environmental challenges faced due to today’s building sector and the need to create green buildings. This was followed by an overview of GRIHA rating system and its variants, highlighting the intent of the sections and their criteria. Criteria related to the engineering background of the students were detailed out and explained. Exercises on water management and construction management were also carried out as a part of the training programme. The programme received an overwhelming response and was attended by 22 students.

Click here for more details: https://www.grihaindia.org/1-day-student-training

Greenovation 2022- International Green Building Technology Expo

GRIHA Council co-organized the World Environment Expo Greenovation which was held from 4th - 6th June 2022. The expo showcased a variety of Technology, Products, Services, Initiatives, and Schemes. A panel discussion was also organized on the theme “Engaging Women in Sustainability” wherein Ms. Shabnam Bassi, Deputy CEO & Treasurer, GRIHA Council elaborated on the importance to comprehend the linkages between gender inequality and environmental degradation to get a head start in promoting sustainable development outcomes. She also reiterated that the inclusion of women in the employment sector not only provides economic and environmental benefits but also brings social changes in the form of upliftment of their status in their respective communities. Citing the example of the GRIHA Council, Ms. Bassi, mentioned the holistic approach that the GRIHA Council has adopted to achieve sustainability and the gender balance at the workplace that helped in creating a healthy work environment which further provides a sense of comfortability and safety amongst the employees. The moderator of the event was Ar. Gaurav Shorey. The esteemed panellists included, Mrs. Delphine Brissonneau, Dr. Divya Datt, Ms. Vaishnavi Shankar, and Archana Khanna. The event was very well received and witnessed great enthusiasm by all.

Click here to register: http://www.greenovation-expo.com/

GRIHA Certified Professional Examination on V.2019 in the upcoming months

Month	Date
June	17.06.2022
July	15.07.2022

More details such eligibility, examination format; validity and calendar for the year 2021-22 can be referred on https://www.grihaindia.org/griha-community.

Editor’s Choice

India's Net-Zero Goal Struggles For Lack Of Qualified Climate Change Experts The imminent threat of climate change and the race towards net-zero targets have accelerated the demand for trained hands in the sustainability sector but where are they?

This year, Delhi recorded its second hottest April since 1951 with the monthly average temperature lingering around 40.2 degrees Celsius. Over the last couple of weeks, the national capital has also seen temperatures soar up to 49 degrees Celsius as the heat wave clutched several parts of the country under its tight grip. Around the same time, flash floods submerged parts of northeast India, killing at least 25 people in Assam and displacing thousands so far.

The devastating impact of these and other climatic phenomena across the country has made it clear that India has a long battle to fight with climate change. A recent report by the Deloitte Economics Institute stated that unchecked climate change will put 80 per cent of India’s GDP at risk with sectors like services, manufacturing, retail, tourism, construction and transport set to incur the greatest climate-related losses over the next 50 years.

Being particularly vulnerable to climate change, India has a greater need for research and education in the field but the country reportedly only has a few thousand people who are formally trained to deal with it even as the government as well as corporates are willing to take action to mitigate the risks of climate change.

Why artificial intelligence is vital in the race to meet the SDGs

The pandemic showed AI's potential for accelerating progress towards the SDG
It has potential application in health, climate change, agriculture and transport.
But we must ensure artificial intelligence is employed in ways that are trusted, transparent and inclusive.

Seven years have passed since world leaders met in New York and agreed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to resolve major challenges including poverty, hunger, inequality, climate change and health. The pandemic undoubtedly diverted attention from some of these issues in the past couple of years. But even before COVID-19, the UN was warning that progress to meet the SDGs was not advancing at the speed or on the scale needed. Meeting them by 2030 will be tough.

Stockholm syndrome: What should ‘+50’ be about The 50th anniversary celebration of the Stockholm conference should be about our common future, not the divisions of the past

The Stockholm conference on the human environment marked the initiation of global consciousness on sustainability. It brought the world together to discuss the big issues of growth and environmental management.

This was the time when Rachel Carson, through her seminal book Silent Spring, had told the story of poisoning of nature. It was also the time when the industrialised West was battling against pollution and toxification.

Our colleague Anil Agarwal, who was at the conference in 1972, often recalled how Stockholm’s lakes were so contaminated with chemicals that you could develop a film negative in the water.

This conference was about the fallout of industrialisation and how to cope and mitigate its harmful impacts.

This is why, when the world meets in Stockholm of 2022 it must not repeat the mistakes of the past five decades. It must remember the words of India’s former prime minister and take it to be the agenda of the future. Stockholm+50 has to be about our common future — not about the divisions of the past.

GRIHA Summit 2022

GRIHA Learning Centre

Our own team of professionals is hosting the course on GRIHA v.2019 and is sharing their first-hand experiences while disseminating the knowledge on complex concepts of sustainability. The course will be elaborating on criteria requirements of the GRIHA v.2019 through interactive sessions and thought-provoking quizzes.

Click here for more details: https://www.grihaindia.org/learning-centre

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