It is time to consider making green buildings mandatory: Vice-Prez
TNN Bureau. Updated: 10/29/2020 2:19:31 PM
National
New Delhi, Oct 29: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that it is time to consider making all new buildings to mandatorily go green and environment friendly.
Inaugurating the CII’s Green Building Congress 2020 through virtual mode, the Vice-President suggested to the governments, Finance Commissions and local bodies to encourage green buildings by way of tax incentives and other measures.
He emphasised that not only new buildings, but the existing buildings too should be retrofitted to make them environment-friendly by adopting green practices that promote energy efficiency and water conservation.
Mr Naidu termed the sustainable buildings an important component in building resilient communities and called for extensive use and promotion of low carbon technologies.
“We not only need a stronger India but also a greener India”, he added.
Drawing attention to the increasing number of extreme climate events such as droughts, floods, wildfires, Mr Naidu said that climate change is as real as daylight and countries all over the world must adopt drastic and revolutionary measures to mitigate the problem of global warming.
Calling for the sustainable approach to development, the Vice-President said that the challenge before us is how do you marry both development and environment.
“If we take care of nature, the nature in turn will take care of the mankind”, he said.
Buildings and construction, he said, account for 39 per cent of energy related CO2 emissions in the world and wanted the process of total de-carbonization of the built environment to be accelerated.
Describing the concept of green building, Mr Naidu said that apart from energy efficiency, it seeks to ensure water efficiency, use of renewable energy, promote waste reduction and encourage the use of environment-friendly local materials.
The construction material used today should be sustainable and environment-friendly —it should not in any way jeopardize the ability of future generations to meet their needs.