Nagpur launches ‘Zero Carbon Buildings Action Plan’, first in Maharashtra

Nagpur, March 4 (IANS) The state’s second capital Nagpur has launched the state’s first ‘Zero Carbon Buildings Action Plan’ to boost decarbonisation in the realty sector by 2050, and help contribute to India’s ‘Net Zero’ target by 2070, officials said here on Monday.

All types of buildings – residential, commercial, and institutional – account for 58 per cent of Nagpur’s total energy consumption and 56 per cent of the city’s Green House Gas emissions in 2017-18, according to Nagpur’s Climate Resilient City Action Plan.

NCRCAP is developed by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL) with technical assistance from ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, South Asia and the UN-Habitat.

The proposed ZCBAP includes a holistic roadmap covering all public buildings, government-led affordable housing, commercial buildings as well as homes, and an implementation strategy to achieve net-zero buildings city-wide by 2050.

The plans comprise actions to help GHG emissions in the context of choice of building materials, and how buildings are designed, built, managed and de-constructed.

“The ZCBAP is a significant milestone in Nagpur’s low emission development, aligning with national-international goals for sustainable development and climate action,” said one of the global partners ICLEI South Asia’s Executive Director Emani Kumar, working along with UNEP, GEF and WRI.

The plan aims to transform Nagpur as a city where all buildings, existing or new, to achieve ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions by 2050, and is interwoven with India’s Nationally Determined Contributions focusing on slashing GHG emissions intensity of its GDP by 45 per cent (from 2005 levels) in the next 25 years, for the long-term strategy till 2070.

NSSCDCL CEO Prithviraj B. P. said that ‘Net Zero’ refers to reducing GHG emissions to the lowest possible amount, plus balancing out any remaining emissions by using natural processes that absorb gases through green cover and oceans.

“The ‘Net Zero’ buildings aim to minimise GHG emissions from construction materials, building use, and end-of-life demolition by employing reduction strategies across their entire lifecycle,” said Prithviraj, on the plan that is in tune with other strategies.

The ZCBAP will have short, medium and long term interventions of a building’s life starting 2023, new buildings to be Net Zero by 2030, all buildings to be carbon-neutral by 2050, with different strategies involving all stakeholders.

NMC Municipal Commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari said that the Orange City is already making major strides towards sustainability in its architecture with buildings like the Metro Bhavan, the Forest Department Corporation of Maharashtra Bhavan, both having green building certifications.

The Metro project here has the longest multi-layer viaduct in Asia and key buildings across sectors are embracing green best practices to improve the quality of life of the Nagpur residents, he said.

Kumar said that new (pre-construction) buildings shall be planned to include a cooling design with low carbon materials and technology along with facility to tap solar energy; during construction using sustainable building materials like sun-dried bricks, using concrete mixes with industrial and agricultural byproducts for structural-non structural parts wherever feasible; and at the occupancy stage stress on improving energy performance with audits, BEE rated equipment and other measures of energy options.

At the end of the building’s life, deconstruction instead of demolition is recommended prior to redevelopment projects and training the demolition contractors.

The plan will stress on the use of recycled construction and demolition waste materials to promote circularity, along with demonstration of pilot projects in public and affordable housing projects, to begin with.

The buildings shall be asked to adopt appropriate urban design planning to encourage wind-induced air flow and inclusion of nature-based solutions to reduce urban heat island effect at the neighbourhood-scale; encouraging use of materials from manufacturers that publish Environmental Product Declarations (EPD); creation of a skilled local workforce that is able to design and construct zero-carbon buildings; and financial measures and models to boost net-zero building adoption among different stakeholders.

–IANS

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