NEW DELHI: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday appealed to finance commissions and local bodies to encourage encouragement green buildings through various measures including tax incentives.
He also wanted all states to set up online portals to share green buildings with a window.
The vice president practically opened the 12th GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment Summit) in Hyderabad, saying India has the potential to lead the global green building movement and stressing the need to promote the green building concept from both the private sector as well as sponsored by the government.
Realizing that people are not informed about the concept of green building, he also called for the start of a mass media campaign about the benefits of building green houses.
“The green building movement should become a people’s movement,” the vice president said, according to an official statement.
Quoting data from the World Green Building Council, Naidu said buildings and construction account for 39 percent of the world’s energy-related CO2 emissions. He called for the process of fully decarbonising the built environment to be accelerated.
The Vice President stated that the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan” intends to make India independent in all areas and stressed the need for sustainable development and wanted to raise awareness among the population.
Named buildings as a major greenhouse gas emitter, Naidu said that all stakeholders need to make a concerted and coordinated effort to ensure that buildings are environmentally friendly, energy and resource efficient.
“The building material we use today should be sustainable – it should in no way compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs,” he added.
He was delighted with several state and private institutions that are committed to making their future buildings more environmentally friendly.
The Vice President wanted every future building to be made mandatory green and said that this should apply to all types of buildings. Not only new buildings, but also existing buildings need to be upgraded to make them environmentally friendly.
When he discovered that ancient civilizational values teach us to live in harmony with nature, he called for a rethink of the traditional and nature-friendly house designs that were refined over millennia by ancestors.
“Unfortunately our modern structures are such that no sparrow can come and build a nest in our house. This is not our culture,” he emphasized.
Naidu warned that climate change is real and affects people, calling for a balance between economic development and environmental protection. Economy and ecology can coexist if you respect nature, he said.
He said the current year has been turbulent due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a number of natural disasters in the form of floods, droughts and other extreme weather events.
It is imperative, therefore, “to realign our approach to development, as the decisions we make today will have an impact well beyond our own lifetimes,” he warned.
Noting that at least half of the country’s population will be living in cities by 2050, the Vice President said this will put a lot of pressure on the housing sector and that green solutions will need to be developed to meet emerging needs.
Notice that Roof cooling According to Naidu in India, over 60 percent of roofs should be made of metal, asbestos and concrete. This traps heat in buildings and contributes to the heat island effect in urban areas.
Considering that cool roofs are a simple and inexpensive solution that can reduce indoor temperatures by 2-4 degrees Celsius compared to traditional roofs, the vice president said it is for households and low-income slums in urban areas can be very effective.
He noted that with the improvement in living standards and the rise in temperatures due to global warming, the need for air conditioning is expected to increase significantly. Cool roofs can reduce the heat load in homes and offices and reduce reliance on air conditioning.
Simple techniques like lime-based paints, reflective coatings, or membranes can reflect sunlight and reduce heat absorption, he suggested.
Stressing the need to use naturally available light and air, Naidu said the Covid-19 pandemic taught the importance of good air circulation in buildings to reduce the rate of infection.