GRIHA NEWSLETTER


March 2022

Message from the CEO

Mr. Sanjay Seth, CEO GRIHA Council

The 22nd of this month is observed as the ‘World Water Day’ and draws attention to the essential and depleting resource – fresh water. Climate Change is disrupting weather patterns, leading to extreme weather events, unpredictable water availability, exacerbating water scarcity and contaminating water supplies. Overutilization of water resources and contamination of water supply like rivers, along with lack of water treatment facilities has aggravated the already existing water crisis in India. From being a 'ubiquitous resource' freshwater today is a 'precious' one, without any substitutes or alternatives.

There is a need to create awareness and advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. I am pleased to share that GRIHA Council has recently launched the ‘GRIHA Water Positive Certification’ that quantifies the impact of water efficient solutions adopted and implemented by the project to reduce water footprint. It has been developed to help projects meet the clean water targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6 and achieve water self-sufficiency. We hope that with this certification, we can implement integrated management of water resources at all levels.

As the financial year draws to a close, we would like to thank the GRIHA Community for your support. With every step, we take for sustainable development, it is your trust in GRIHA and what it stands for, which helps us grow. Let us enter the financial year 2022-23 with focus and inspiration, as we continue to pursue our vision for a greener future.

May the festival of colors brighten your life with happiness, health and success. Wishing you and your family a very Happy Holi 2022.

JAN GRIHA – A Certification cum Impact Assessment Tool

Considering the importance of climate change and the need for sustainable affordable standalone housing in India, GRIHA Council is launching a new certification called ‘Jan Awas Nirman GRIHA’ also known as ‘JAN GRIHA’. JAN GRIHA will cater to the smaller low cost residential buildings in India with built-up area ≤ 200 sq.m

Click here for further details- https://www.grihaindia.org/jan-griha

April 22, 2022, Fourth GRIHA Consultant Meet, Juniper Hall, IHC

Click here to register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfnbCuQCjsAtcKA6-8s8evSXF7D04rlOg90zWDdBwSn4pM0jw/viewform

Important Announcements

Empanelment of GRIHA Consulting Firms

GRIHA Council offers an opportunity to Green Building Consulting firms to associate through empanelment for being associated with GRIHA Council and promoting the GRIHA rating and its variants PAN India.

Empanelment of GRIHA consulting firm has been developed with an objective of creating a database of firms that are proficient of providing technical support to prospective projects that are registered under any variant of GRIHA.

Interested firms may submit their applications to GRIHA Council. The firms will be empanelled based on specific evaluation criteria. The empanelled consulting firm will be listed on the GRIHA website with their contact details and the link to their websites.

The latest consulting firm to get empanelled with us is Design2Occupancy.

Click here for further details- https://www.grihaindia.org/empanelment-griha

GRIHA Catalyst Members

Academic institutions play a vital role in shaping budding minds to build and sustain a better tomorrow. This is done by imbibing skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and so on. GRIHA Council comprehends that sustainability is not only a desirable skill set but also a mindset with which the present generation must grow. In line with these thoughts, the CATALYST membership is developed for academic institutions across the nation.

The latest institute to become a GRIHA GOLD catalyst member is Ranganathan Architecture College, Chennai

Click here for further details- https://www.grihaindia.org/catalyst-members

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

Month	Date
March	11.03.2022

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

New Products have been enlisted in the GRIHA Product Catalogue

Company name: Carbon Craft
Product name: Carbon Craft Tile
Product typology: High SRI external paints / tiles

Editor’s Choice

Impakter launches eco marketplace with 9000+ verified ecofriendly products

Leveraging its expertise in sustainability, Impakter has launched an eco marketplace for environmentally friendly products, vetted and verified using the same evaluation method behind Impakter’s Sustainability Index that has assessed over 500 of the world’s leading companies.

The index and methodology was developed over the last five years by a team of experts and tested at the Haas Innovation Lab in Berkeley. Since June 2021, it has served as a key component of United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) Global Sustainability Index, which aims to drive a more transparent ESG and SDGs compliant methodology.

The sustainable marketplace will offer over 9,000 products from 110 verified brands – rated A or B on the Impakter Sustainability Index – across a wide range of niches and needs for women, men, and kids, including fashion, beauty, homeware, pet products and more.

Green buildings: Kerala govt issues guidelines on incentives

The government has issued detailed guidelines announcing various incentives to the “green” rated buildings in the state as part of encouraging eco-friendly buildings. The buildings will be rated on multiple criteria from the choosing of the land for construction till the completion and measures put in force for demolition if required, to offer incentives including discounts in building tax, stamp duty and property tax. As per the order issued by the local self-government on February 25, the buildings will be broadly classified into four categories –– single family residential buildings below 200 square metre and above 200 square metre, apartment buildings, industrial buildings and other category buildings. A green rating chart depicting the rating criteria and the points assigned against each criterion, grading of buildings (into grade A and grade B) will be prepared on the basis of total points obtained. While ‘grade A’ buildings will get the maximum incentives, ‘grade B’ buildings will be entitled to 50% incentives.

Watch: How Kerala School Aims to be Carbon Neutral With Bamboo Gardens & Solar Lights

The year 2021 tied with 2018 as the sixth warmest year on a record that extends back to 1880, according to NASA’s annual analysis of global average temperatures. The year contributed to an unprecedented, but well-understood trend in which the last eight years have been the warmest ever recorded.

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City produce this record using data from instruments all over the world, which is validated by satellite data. Scientists update the record every year, maintaining one of the world’s most important datasets to study the extent, pace and causes of warming on our home planet.

Here, we answer six questions to help you understand the GISS global surface temperature analysis, what it shows about 2021 and how NASA makes sense of the data.

Feb 23, 2022, Orientation Workshop for PWD officials, Nanded

A half-day GRIHA orientation workshop was organized by GRIHA Council with support from the Public Works Department (PWD), Nanded Region, Government of Maharashtra on 23 February, 2022 at Conference Hall, PWD Rest House, Nanded.

The aim of the orientation workshop was to ensure that teams, of all the existing government projects in Nanded region which are registered under GRIHA EB rating system, are sensitized and familiarised with the rating. This workshop was conducted for PWD projects teams including architects, civil engineers and all other representatives from their construction fraternity. The workshop received a good response with around 50 PWD professionals participating in the same.

Feb 28, 2022, Session at SUNREF Regional Promotional Event

SUNREF (Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance) Housing India programme held its 3rd regional promotional event in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on 28th February, 2022, to highlight the importance of green affordable housing and present its key features to the 80-housing market key stakeholders present at the event.

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 Bengaluru 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.

Click here for further details- https://www.grihaindia.org/session-griha-sunref

Feb 15, 2022, CIDC Virtual Workshop

2nd Regional Virtual Workshop on “Good Management Practices for energy efficient buildings by introducing Passive Cooling designs, to reduce operational costs, improve health and comfort and promote use of non-HCFC and low-GWP alternatives” was held on 15th February 2022. This workshop was organized by Construction Industry Development Council in association with Ozone Cell, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India.

Mr. Akash Deep, Senior Programme Manager, GRIHA Council gave an overview of ECBC and its implementation in Building Design. The program was circulated among Architects, CIDC Vishwakarma Award Applicants, Construction companies, RERA, Engineers, Consultants, Engineering Council of India’s Members, Educationalists etc. etc. The workshop was very well received with over 539 participants.

Feb 24-26, 2022, Green Audit and Certification Course, UAS Dharwad

A certification course on “Green Audit and Certification” was organized by the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Dharwad for their students between 24th and 26th February 2022.

GRIHA Council officials conducted 5 out of the 8 sessions in the course. The students were taught about the importance of Construction Management which was followed by a group exercise. The exercise required the students to develop a PERT Chart and a construction management plan for a project. This was followed by a discussion. The session concluded with a game called "Power Wars". The sessions were attended by about 60 participants and were well received.

March 5, 2022, Women of Vision Awards

Building Materials Database and Tool

NABL accredited material testing facility at the Mahindra-TERI Centre of Excellence (MT CoE) located in TERI Gram campus, Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, aims to characterize the building materials and assemblies for different thermal properties using state-of-the-art techniques. The key thermal properties of building materials being tested in a controlled laboratory condition at the CoE facility are; Thermal conductivity, Thermal diffusivity, Specific heat capacity, thermal transmittance (U-value), thermal resistance (R-value), and thermal emittance.

The CoE has developed a database of materials tested in the laboratory for its thermal properties and enables the designer's appropriate selection of building materials. Further, the database has been enriched and augmented by incorporating the thermal properties data from some other trustworthy sources.

Click here for further details- https://www.iweblogix.com/demo/mahindratericoe/tool/index.php

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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