On July 23, 2024, WRI’s flagship Accelerating Clean Energy (ACE) in India event concluded with a research roundtable on decarbonizing India’s building sector that included the synopsis of research goals for the future. The session deliberated on key gaps in current research related to reducing carbon across the whole building life cycle in India.
Sumedha Malaviya from WRI India set the context of the roundtable with a presentation on embodied carbon and the end-of-life carbon cycle of the buildings sector. The session further delved into the topic of operational carbon in the buildings sector.
The session was facilitated by Roxana Slavcheva from WRI, Deepak Tewari, Dhilon Subramanian and Shyny Sam from WRI India and Fairuz Loutfi from WRI México.
Key discussants present were:
- Sukhdeo Karade, Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, Uttarakhand
- Saswati Chetia, Greentech Knowledge Solutions (P) Ltd.
- Akhil Singhal, RMI Foundation
- Rajneesh Sareen, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
- Mohak Gupta, Development Alternatives
- Soumya Garnaik, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
- Pratima Washan, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE)
- Ashu Dehadani, Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI)
- Shiv Kumar Batra, Carrier
- Ankita Gangotra, PhD, World Resources Institute
- Abhishek Chauhan, Smart Joules
Many important insights emerged from the session:
- Innovative research is ongoing, both nationally and internationally, to reduce embodied carbon in buildings. This includes using agroforestry waste in construction, reusing construction and demolition waste, improving brick manufacturing, prefabrication and benchmarking carbon footprints.
- Industrial decarbonization is crucial, as 65-85% of embodied carbon comes from the production of materials like cement, steel and aluminum. Addressing emissions from production processes and promoting alternative materials is essential.
- Energy efficiency is key to reducing operational carbon. Despite challenges – such as convincing clients about energy performance parameters, the technical specifications, market availability and quality assurance – innovative models can make these appliances more affordable.
- To adopt low-carbon construction materials and construction and demolition waste, raising awareness, building trust and capacity building are vital. Policies and pilot projects are needed to prove the robustness of these technologies.
- The government can play a crucial role by developing sustainable procurement policies, public guidelines for low-carbon materials and codes for alternative materials and construction and demolition waste.
- AI and machine learning can enhance energy performance of air conditioning systems and the efficiency of entire buildings by considering seasonal and weather factors.
ACE is part of WRI’s ongoing All in for a Net Zero Built Environment project, which is working toward a more integrated, intentional and locally tailored approach to incorporating net-zero carbon building solutions into the built environment value chain.