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Our students celebrated the World Green Building Week from 26 Sept to 2 Oct, with multiple awareness activities and competitions. The week-long event witnessed some eminent personalities and industry veterans visiting the School. A good mix of guest lectures, competitions and workshops, echoing the worldwide flagship campaign organized by the World Green Building Council (World GBC), were also planned for students. The theme for this year was ‘Change Your Perspective’, an evolution of Better Build Green. The event was organized in collaboration with the student chapter of Indian Green Building Council.
As the guest of honour, Dr. PC Jain FRICS Chairman, AECOM & IGBC, said whilst addressing the students, “Starting my teaching career in the year 1959, cherishing every moment of teaching young minds in the 60 years of pursuing the teaching profession, I firmly believe if you don’t change your perspective now, you may be there or not, this earth will not sustain life. One million species are extinct since industrial development began 100 years ago. After you grow old, you may not be able to see birds, flowers or even fresh water. Do you want such a world for your children? Now is the time to act! Make it more habitable & greener.”
He further said, “You students are in the art of making buildings. In India we have heritage structures standing for thousands of years; they are all green buildings, inspiration is here and we don’t need to ape west. Stating the example of the Punchabhoothas, he said if one can control the five elements, he/she can have a healthy life. The same is true for buildings; if the elements in a building, which we call the rating system, are controlled, the building would be healthy”.
The activities spread over five days highlighted the fact that every individual act of environmental conservation matters and can make a positive difference to the world we live in. Activities organized included a flash mob, street plays, guitar sessions and contests such as 60-seconds to fame, 3D-design competition, business planning/zero to infinity challenge, debate, face painting, T-shirt painting, infographics, photography and Twitter competitions. Dignitaries from numerous national and international organizations were invited to judge and award the winners of these competitions.
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School of Construction students reached out to more than 50 high-schools in the Delhi NCR and worked with them to increase awareness about sustainability.
Workshops on solar technologies and on-green campus planning were conducted by Ms. Smit Malhi, Senior Urban Designer, ARCOP India and Mr. Vaibhav, Senior Architect, ARCOP India, which made the students aware about the various aspects of energy & water conservation as well as detailed planning to achieve Green Certification for any project.
The spectrum of competitions conducted was also decided based on student input in response to the six Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and the 10 year Framework Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns during classroom discussions.
The WGBW celebration concluded with a site visit that was organized by the IGBC Student Chapter of RICS SBE on 28 Sept 2016 to TERI Retreat Centre, Gurgaon.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is a research institute that conducts research work in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development. The scope of the organization's activities includes climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy, biotechnology, and social transformation.
The event was a huge success and was widely appreciated by all participants, including students, faculty, partnering organizations and dignitaries. Here’s what the eminent personalities had to say.
Prof. KT Ravindran FRICS, Dean Emeritus, RICS SBE
“Buildings in the built environment contribute negatively to climate change. We must understand that it’s through our hands that the pollution is passing onto the future generations. We need to take measures to make sure that the future is actually green in its essence.”
Anil Sawhney FRICS, Associate Dean & Director, School of Construction
“It was an exemplar event that showed the deep understanding our students have developed towards sustainable built environment.”
Will Myles, Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific, RICS
“The major challenges that will be faced by the world by 2030 are mass urbanization, globalization driven risks in professional services and businesses, increasing pressure on resources, growing inequality and instability, rapid rise of middle class in emerging economies. We need to act now to be tackle these future challenges.”
Sheetal Rakheja, Chairperson, IGBC Delhi Chapter
Making green building is not enough, living sustainably is also important. We should start from the grass-root level. Every building, every house, every place that we make or design or live in has be self-sustaining as much as possible
Salil Kumar, Director, ASSOTECH
To make a ‘Green Building’, we require optimization of design process, use of sustainable raw materials, recycling of water for waste and use of energy and potable water to the minimum level.