On the eve of inauguration of ACREX India 2016, a Curtain Raiser was held at ITC Maratha on February 24 in the presence of a large number of distinguished professionals from the industry. The theme was ‘Sustainabiz: Sustainability Makes Business Sense’. Carrier Toshiba was the event partner. ACREX 2016 Chair Pankaj Dharkar welcomed the delegates and thanked the partners for their support. He acknowledged the international guests present. ISHRAE President K. Ramachandran welcomed the participants. Chirag Baijal, Director, Commercial Sales, Climate Controls & Security, India, UTC made a presentation on the green building scenario.
Awards were presented for contributions to ISHRAE activities. Sudhir Sinha, Chair, Honours & Awards Committee of ISHRAE, along with K. Ramachandran and
Sachin Maheshwari, President-Elect, ISHRAE presented the awards. H. M. Jhangiani Journal Paper Awards were presented for the two best articles that appeared in the Journal during 2014. Ketan Soni of Blue Star and Melissa Smith of Banduksmith Studio were the recipients. Puneet Desai, Regional Manager, Infrastructure and
Green Initiatives, Infosys presented a case study titled ‘That’s Environmental Sustainability Making Business Sense @Infosys’. He expressed the resolve of Infosys to
become carbon neutral by 2018. Rahul Garg of United Technologies spoke on ‘Sustainability & Business Impact’, with a case study on plant room retrofit at Taj Palace,
Delhi. The high point of the evening was a panel discussion on ‘Green and Sustainable Buildings’. Rahul Kadri, Principal Architect and Partner, I. M. Kadri Architects
was the moderator. The panelists were Pankaj Dharkar, MD, Pankaj Dharkar Associates; Rajan Rawal, Executive Director, Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science & Energy (CARBSE); P. R. P. Ramakrishnan, Area Director of Engineering – South Asia, Marriott International; Arun Bhatia, MD, Climate Controls & Security, India, UTC; David Underwood, President, ASHRAE; and Anuj Agarwal, Head, Infrastructure Management Services Group, ICICI Bank.