12th GRIHA Summit

• 16 Dec 2020

Why in News

Recently, the inaugural session of the 12^th Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) Summit was organised virtually.

Key Points

• 12^th GRIHA Summit:
  
  • Theme: Rejuvenating Resilient Habitats.
  • Purpose: To serve as a platform to deliberate on innovative technologies and solutions which shall help in creating robust mechanisms for developing sustainable and resilient solutions for the benefit of the entire community.
  • Launch Event: The Vice President of India launched the SHASHWAT magazine and the book '30 Stories Beyond Buildings' during the event.
• Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA):
  
  • It is the national rating system of India for any completed building construction.
    
    • GRIHA is recognised as India’s own green building rating system in India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 
  • Created By: It was conceived by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and developed jointly with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The Energy and Resources Institute

• The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is a non-profit research institute which conducts research work in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development for India and the global south.
• It was established in 1974 as Tata Energy Research Institute and renamed to The Energy Resources Institute in 2003.

• Objective: To help design green buildings and, in turn, help evaluate the 'greenness' of the buildings.
• Mechanism:
  • The system has been developed to help 'design and evaluate' new buildings (buildings that are still at the inception stages). A building is assessed based on its predicted performance over its entire life cycle.
  • Parameters used:
    1. Site selection and planning
    2. Conservation and efficient utilization of resources
    3. Building operation and maintenance
    4. Innovation points
• Benefits:
  • This system, along with the activities and processes that lead up to it, benefits the community with the improvement in the environment by reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, reducing energy consumption and the stress on natural resources.
• Other Related Initiatives:
  • Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC)
    
    • Organised by: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
    • Launched: January 2019
    • Aim: To identify and mainstream best available and proven construction technologies that are sustainable, green and disaster-resilient to enable a paradigm shift in housing construction.
  • Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators (ASHA)
    
    • Under this initiative five Incubation Centers have been set up for identifying innovative materials, processes and technology for resource-efficient, resilient and sustainable construction.
  • Smart Cities Mission
    
    • It is an innovative initiative under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.
    • It is working towards integrated and comprehensive development of cities

Source: PIB