India poised to focus on ‘Energy-efficient and high-performance buildings of the future’

Today, the Building Innovation Guide (BIG) a premier guidebook authored by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, was launched in India. This is a result of successful historic partnerships and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between U.S. and India, which focused on buildings energy efficiency in both. The guide was introduced at the workshop on Clean Energy: Data Centres and Green Building organised by the US Trade and Development Agency as part of the US- India Standards and Conformance Cooperation Project (SCCP) Phase II. This guide is a result of historic partnerships and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between U.S. and India, which focused on developing energy efficiency in both nations. India is poised to become the world's fifth largest economy, with the buildings sector representing over 30% of the nation's energy consumption. Energy conservation is an important part of India's overall energy plan, and can contribute significantly to the nation's ability to sustain its growth. Reshma Singh is the lead author of the Building Innovation Guide. She has studied architecture in India and from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.  Singh said, “India is at an inflection point. Because of the extraordinary pace of new construction, the buildings sector is recognized as a crucial area to create energy-efficiency and enhance sustainability. The Building Innovation Guide draws on years of U.S. buildings R&D, computer simulations, and on-the-ground research in India to present best practice strategies that combine innovative technologies with traditional wisdom.  These best practices can drive triple-bottom-line benefit for people, profit, and planet.” Insights from the BIG are being shared across the nation in summer 2019, through a series of “BIGathon” events in in five host cities Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Trivandrum, and Bengaluru. BIGathon events are being held in collaboration with Facilio, a unified SaaS facilities management firm, JLL, US Trade and Development Agency, American National Standards Institute, Confederation of Indian Industry, U.S.-India Business Council, Mahindra, U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum, the Energy Management Centre, Nitte School of Architecture, and the World Resources Institute. The collaboration seeks to take the BIG research into the hands of five primary stakeholders in the built infrastructure arena—urban policy makers; developers and builders; building operators and occupants; architecture and engineering practitioners; and building products and materials industry. The aim is to align on a common sustainability framework in the areas of building materials and IoT, smart grid, energy technologies, renewables, and battery storage to enable aggressive energy targets. Integrated, these provide a tremendous opportunity for strategic, sustainable urbanization, and urban health. “India’s real estate industry is scaling tremendously. I believe that BIGathon is a change-maker that brings together stakeholders and policy makers from India and U.S. to create a combined perspective for energy-efficient and high-performance buildings of the future.” added Prabhu Ramachandran, CEO and Co-Founder, Facilio. The BIGathon is a unique opportunity to build innovation into the built infrastructure ecosystem- for U.S. and India thought leaders to network, collaborate, and create a movement. Global