By V. Suresh Chairman, Indian Green Building Council
M. Anand Principal Counsellor, CII – Indian Green Business Council (IGBC)

Introduction
Playing a catalytic role in accelerating the green building movement in India is CII-IGBC’s annual flagship event – Green Building Congress. Green Building
Congress 2018 – the 16th edition of the event – that was organised on October 31- November 1 at Hyderabad, evoked excellent response from stakeholders and delegates. The Conference and Exhibition focused on the theme ‘Green Built Environment for People and the Planet’.
Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Aff airs, addressed the inaugural session.

Highlights
• Government of Telangana was the Partner State
• Participation of Shailendra Kumar Joshi, IAS – Chief Secretary, and other senior Government officials from Telangana
• Hall of Fame award posthumously presented to Dr. Prem C. Jain

• 2,750 national and international delegates
• 8,800 visitors to international exhibition
• 125 national and international speakers
• 158 projects awarded IGBC green building rating

Launch of Three IGBC Green Building Rating Systems
IGBC periodically launches green building rating systems that are holistic in nature, designed to address national priorities. A step towards this direction was
the launch of the following three green building rating systems:
• Net Zero Energy Buildings
• Green Hill Habitat
• Green Resorts

Till now, IGBC has launched 25 green building rating systems, and over 5,000 projects across India are adopting these standards. All the rating systems are
designed to address national priorities and encourages buildings that are a blend of ancient architectural practices and modern technological innovations.

Concurrent Sessions
IGBC dedicated the last day of the Congress to green and smart cities, green hospitals, green landscapes and biodiversity, green homes and affordable housing, green products, materials and technologies.

Net Zero Carbon Buildings Project
Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. has partnered with WorldGBC Asia Pacific Regional Network as a Corporate Activity Partner to advance the dialogue on accelerating the uptake of net zero carbon buildings in the Asia Pacific region. In this regard, an MoU was inked by Lisa Bate, Chair, WorldGBC and George Menezes, COO Godrej & Boyce’s Electricals & Electronics.

Coffee Table Publication on Green Buildings
Green Building Congress 2018 served as an apt platform for releasing the 3rd volume of ‘Green Buildings of India’, a publication that vividly captures the green features of over 100 IGBC rated green building projects, covering various building types.

IGBC Green League
IGBC, in its efforts to disseminate information on methods of optimizing built environment performance, had instituted the IGBC Green League (IGL) in 2016. IGL involves a series of awareness sessions followed by a quiz competition. The 3rd edition of IGL in 9 cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and Mumbai. Over 130 teams with 270 participants took part in IGL 2018.
The following were the winners:
• 1st Prize – trip to Hong Kong (team from Ahmedabad): Chandani Shah and Bhushit Vasa.
• 2nd Prize –trip to Singapore (team from Delhi): Ritu Sharma and Samim Seikh.
• 3rd Prize – trip to Thailand (Team from Chennai): Gautam Bharadwaj and S. Anand Kumar.
• 4th Prize – trip to Sri Lanka (Team from Mumbai): Punit Gandhi and Jiyan Pattharwala.

Screening of Eco-films
A new feature of Green Building Congress 2018 was the screening of thought-provoking, inspiring films on environment and sustainability. Some of
the fi lms screened were The Inconvenient Truth, SOS Save our Sholas, Song of Niyamgiri, Slow Poisoning of India, and Urbanized.

Inspiring Young Minds
IGBC has institutionalized the annual ‘Green your School Contest’ for school children, and ‘IGBC Green Design Contest’ for architectural students.

Over 400 entries were received for Green your School Contest from schools across the country. The following schools were awarded:
1. Ankalva Primary School, Gujarat
2. Gondalvihir Primary School, Gujarat
3. Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sector -12, Dwarka, Delhi

These schools will receive cash awards of Rs 4 lakh towards implementation. The theme for the 13th IGBC Green Design Contest was ‘Design your Festival’.
Over 190 students from all over India come up with brilliant designs.

The following students from VIT’s PVP College of Architecture, Pune were adjudged winners of the design competition:
1. Kaushal Tatiya
2. Aniket Sanjay Raskar and Harshada Nitin Pawar
3. Harshvardhan Ratnaparkhi and Yogesh Shivkumar

For the first time, all 3 winners are from the same college.

Award of IGBC certification
Over 155 projects, covering various building types, were awarded IGBC green building rating for incorporating some of the finest, latest, emerging and futuristic green building concepts and technologies. The types of projects awarded included homes, police stations, office buildings, railway stations, villages, and factory buildings.

Green Building Products on Display
The three-day international exhibition attracted over 8,000 visitors. Some of the products on display were compressors and incinerators, bio cleaners, architectural boards and panels, gypsum plaster and boards, solid waste liquid separator, and plant air purifier.

IGBC Inducts Dr. Prem C. Jain into Hall of Fame
On November 1, Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) posthumously inducted its late Chairman Dr. Prem C. Jain into its Hall of Fame. Payal Jain, daughter of Dr. Jain, received the Hall of Fame award from Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, during the Green Building Congress 2018 at Hyderabad.

Dr. Jain had been closely associated with ISHRAE. He was the Founder and President Emeritus of ISHRAE.He was honoured both by ISHRAE and ASHRAE with Life Time Achievement Award. Under his guidance andleadership, ISHRAE and IGBC had inked MoUs to facilitate sharing of best practices, developing green building standards, and networking. Over the years, the partnership between ISHRAE and IGBC has been growing from strength to strength. Fondly called ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ by the Indian green building fraternity, Dr. Jain was, in many ways, acknowledged as the architect of the 21st century green building movement. Under his visionary leadership, the green building footprint went soaring from 13 million sq.ft. in 2007 to over 6 billion sq.ft. in 2018. In 11 years, he elevated India to the highest pedestal in the global scene.

Dr. Jain was personally involved in the IGBC membership drive in the country, and the launch of 23 IGBC local chapters and 25 green building rating systems. He had the unique ability to attract stakeholders – young and old, converts and nonconverts, believers and non-believers. This made him the hero of the Indian green building movement. He was a visiting faculty at School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi University for more than 40 years, and was given Best
Faculty Award in 1998. He was indeed an inspiration to young minds.

Dr. Jain was instrumental in launching over 150 IGBC student chapters in various architectural and engineering colleges. ‘Green your School Contest’ and ‘Green Design Competition for Architectural Students’ were his brainchildren, and he was passionate about them till his very end. Dr. Jain’s alma mater, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), conferred upon him the ‘IIT BHU Alumni Excellence Award’ in 2008, and University of Minnesota conferred upon him its highest award ‘Distinguished Leadership for Internationals’, in 2011.

Dr. Jain, the architect of modern green building movement, brought about a paradigm shift in the way buildings are conceived and designed. He was responsible for India’s tall stature in the global green building arena. He aspired for Bharat to emerge as the jagatguru in Sustainable Built Environment. The green building fraternity will feel his absence for a long time to come.