New agreement recognizes the need to scale-up energy efficient and green buildings and its ability to reap significant dividends
New Delhi, India (21 January 2016) –Green Business Certification, Inc. (GBCI) and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Ministry of Power, Government of India have signed a landmark agreement with the goal of spurring energy efficiency progress in building sectors. The agreement was signed between Mr. Mahesh Ramanujam, COO, U.S. Green Building Council & President, GBCI and Mr. Sanjay Seth, Secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency in the presence of Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency at an event in New Delhi earlier this week. The agreement recognizes the many benefits of green building through improved energy intensity, environmental and economic performance.
As part of the agreement, both parties agree to jointly work in promoting and implementing building energy efficiency programmes and policies of the government through a range of activities which include training and capacity building, create a credible data base of building energy data, promote market transformation tools that advance and validate greater energy efficiency in buildings, educate the marketplace on green building practices and jointly promote market transformation tools such as ECBC, LEED, EDGE, PEER and others that advance greater energy efficiency in buildings in India.
“This agreement is very timely for India,” said Mahesh Ramanujam. “Energy Efficiency is a key focus for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has asked the leaders across the government to identify and implement transformative ideas on scale. Clearly Energy Efficiency in buildings is one of the transformative ideas that India can implement on scale and contribute to national development based on the work BEE has done in the past decade. This agreement will lead to a significant increase in green building activity for new and existing buildings.”
“The MOU with BEE allows GBCI to further its mission, expand the tools and capacity and affect the adoption of green building across India,” he added.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Ajay Mathur said, “Energy Efficiency in building is one of the key thrust areas of Government of India, especially in view of recently declared INDC, wherein India aims to reduce emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35% by 2030 from 2005 levels. The Government of India has laid great emphasis on promoting ee and ec in various sectors of the economy considering the vast potential of energy savings. As infrastructure sector is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy, Government of India has laid great emphasis on promoting energy efficiency and energy conservation in the building sector.”
Through this MOU, BEE and GBCI will work together towards achieving the national objective of promoting energy efficiency in the building sector.