Indian real estate: Taking strides towards sustainability

Delayed by a year due to Covid-19, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference abbreviated to COP26 was held at Glasgow, Scotland in the United Kingdom late last year. From an Indian perspective COP26 was both historical and monumental as it pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 as a country. This essentially means that India will deploy a framework to countervail its entire carbon emissions by appropriating a corresponding amount of GHGs from the environment. The COP26 also saw India committing to reduce its carbon intensity by 45% by 2030 as compared to 2005 levels. Furthermore, India also pledged to bring down the projected level of CO2 emissions for India by a billion tonnes by 2030. For a pledge described as historic and monumental yet perceived by many cynics as ambitious it is essential that the whole of India come together to enable this herculean climate commitments across all sectors.

For a sector which Niti Ayog estimates to reach US$1 trillion by 2030 thus constituting 18-20% of the Indian economy, the real estate sector in the country has an important role to play in achieving the COP26 commitments. The real estate sector being a mainstay and the driver of the economy is contributing 6-7% to Indian GDP, and by the virtue of its business also accounts for 22% of all the emissions in the country. According to the World Economic Forum, 40% of the global energy is used by the real estate industry along with 40% of all raw materials weighing a stupendous three billion tonnes annually. The buildings so constructed account for originating 20% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

As for the implementation of India’s commitments, 2070 may seem a long way off, but actions have to begin now. Major transformations will be needed in many spheres. The real estate sector will have to take diverse, and harmonised, actions to address carbon emission issues. Their constructed buildings need to be designed so as to enable them to be more energy efficient. Leading real estate companies, and their associated supply chains, must scale up the use of clean energy and become energy efficient and also reduce their emissions for transportation. Raw materials like steel and cement used must have provenance of sustainable practices with a more optimal use of natural resources from non-polluting sources.

Given the impact of the sector, several leading responsible real estate developers in the country have long since risen to the occasion; and pledged its commitment to contain the climate damage of its own volition even before the COP26 pledge came in to play. One of the key initiatives of the Indian real estate sector in their bid to minimize the issues of climate change is their wide adoption of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The IGBCs vision is – “to enable a sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment by 2025”. It also closely works with several State Governments, Central Government, World Green Building Council, bilateral & multilateral agencies in promoting green building concepts in the country. In line with India’s COP26 commitment to reach net zero carbon emission by 2070, IGBC has also set its target to net zero carbon buildings by 2050 recently.

Leading developers in India, like DLF, Godrej Properties, Lodha, Oberoi Realty to name a few have taken steps to reduce the environmental impact of their business. Recently, Lodha, which had earlier announced its intention of going carbon neutral by 2035 has announced that it has registered its residential projects amounting to over 25 million sq. ft., under suitable IGBC Green Residential Buildings Ratings. It aims to achieve this by focussing on decarbonizing their operations and products by having clear energy efficiency targets, wide scale transition to renewable energy and working on material efficiency and circularity. Apart from reducing carbon footprint, these developments will also lower operational costs for its residents.

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