GIRD would organize a SYMPOSIUM on ‘ENGAGING URBAN POOR IN ENHANCING CITY ENVIRONMENT STANDARDS’ on 20 January 2010 in Delhi
GIRD organized a very important National Seminar on the subject of“Vehicular Pollution in Delhi after the Court’s Directions: An Assessment’ on February 26, 2008 at Exposition Hall, Delhi College of Engineering, Bawana Road, Delhi.
GIRD organized a very important National Seminar on the subject of“Vehicular Pollution in Delhi after the Court’s Directions: An Assessment’ on February 26, 2008 at Exposition Hall, Delhi College of Engineering, Bawana Road, Delhi.
The Seminar was organized in coloration with the Delhi College of Engineering and was supported by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the Punjab National Bank. About 200 delegates from all over India participated in the Seminar. The Seminar was held in three sessions, one inaugural session and two technical sessions. The papers presented in the Seminar by scholars in different fields relating to the subject matter put forward many important points regarding the process and effects of environmental pollution and the measures required to be taken to control and prevent vehicular pollution.
SEMINARS
Releasing of the Souvenir on the
occasion of Seminar
occasion of Seminar
V. K. Jain Dean, School of Environmental Science (JNU) inaugurating the Seminar by lightening traditional Lamp
Details regarding Seminars organized by GIRD
Name of Seminar Date Follow up Action
- On 5 June: 2005, World Environment Day conducted a National Seminar on ‘Environmental Issues: Itinerary of Times’, in collaboration with JNU New Delhi. Shri I. K. Gujral, former Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Seminar. The Seminar attended by experts from all over India. A souvenir was released on the occasion.
- 24th Jan; 2007, organized a National Seminar on “Social and Cultural Impact on Environment of India in the Present Context” in collaboration with, Jawaharlal Nehru University at JNU. The Ministry of Culture, Government of India and The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi sponsored the Seminar. And ONGC Ministry of Petroleum The Seminar is inaugurated by Shri Oscar Fernandes, Hon’ble Minister for Labour and Employment. A souvenir is released on the occasion.
- 26th Feb; 2008, conducted a National Seminar on “Status of Vehicular Pollution in Delhi after Court’s Direction – An assessment”. The Ministry of Environment, The Department of Science and Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi and Delhi Pollution Control Committee, NCT of Delhi sponsored the Seminar. Prof. V.K.Jain Dean, School of Environmental Studies JNU innuguted the Seminar. A souvenir is released on the occasion.
National Seminars / Conferences under GIRD
- Green Delhi Drive
- Coordination with municipalities for waste disposal / recycling plants etc.
- Seminars on Coastal Pollution,
- Discussion on WTO and Patenting Laws
- Deliberations with international groups including Japanese and German groups on ways to effect environment protection systems in India.
Campaigns Devised and Implemented
BACKGROUND PAPER
Building Sector is the fastest growing sector of the Indian economy, more so in urban India. Obviously it consumes vast quantities of natural resources and energy reserves. Evolution of building ideas and concepts to an unrealistic level of ‘power statement’ and “luxury” has only exacerbated the rate of depletion of natural wealth for wasteful uses. The resultant growth of concrete structures in the urban housing, industrial and commercial sectors also leads to accelerated additional demand of several billion units of electricity and also other energy sources for the purposes of heating, cooling and lighting.
All over the world, in the 21st century, conservation of natural wealth and energy sources has emerged as the key concern of developmental economists and policy makers. These concerns have become more alarming in the wake of the very recent fuel and food crises. Green building ideas and affiliated scientific and technological concepts have vital importance and relevance to the themes of protection and conservation of energy sources.
The scientific and technological importance of the Green Building concept is in the optimum utilization of required materials and avoidance of wasteful use of energy. The concept is all the important for a country like India where the universal objectives of provision of shelter for all, health and education has not yet been materialized for a vast majority of people. The importance of this building idea lies not only in “conservation”, but also in the management of the national and family economies as well as in the long-term benefit of securing the life of future generations by precluding destructive elements involved in unscientific and thoughtless application of building ideas. The fact that the modern building ideas involving huge taxing of energy resources is in a way the product of unscrupulous vanity and arrogance of the human species also mean that the concept has relevance in ethical and humanistic philosophical spheres.
Green Building concept is based on the idea that all buildings can incorporate natural energy or solar design. The concept calls for adopting building principles, which involve working with local resources and materials as part of a regenerative process to the maximum extent possible and, more importantly, as part of the ongoing global concerns of stalling the destructive course of exploitation of nature by the human.
Towards meeting the goal of energy sustainability, of recently there have been governmental efforts to regulate building ideas and practices. The Government of India has introduced an “Energy Conservation Building Code” in May, 2007, with the objective to reduce the baseline energy use in buildings by setting minimum efficiency standards for external wall, roof, glass structure, lighting, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. As of now, the codes are to be made applicable to “commercial buildings” and “building complexes” which shall have a “connected load of 50 KW or more” or a “contract demand of 60 KVA or more” and “all buildings with conditioned floor areas of 1000 meter square (10,000 sq. ft.) or more. The State Governments will have the flexibility to amend these codes to suit local or regional needs and notify them accordingly. At present, the code does not provide for implementation, monitoring, verification mechanism and penalties for non-compliance. The implementation of the code is to be made mandatory under the Under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. It is said that the ECBC is expected to result in up to 40% reduction in energy consumption and yield an annual saving of 1.7 billion units in the first year itself.
The focus of the National Seminar on “SUSTAINABLE HOME ECOLOGIES – ASSESSING STRENGTHS AND CATALYSING MAINSTREAMING OF GREEN BUILDINGS” is to take the goals of sustainability and energy conservation to home ecologies of Indian people. The objective of the GIRD in organizing this Seminar is to encourage people’s engagement and commitment to the idea of building sustainable homes. The Seminar shall deliberate upon strategies for orienting all stakeholders, specifically environmental and social activists and opinion-builders in general society, to the aim of mainstreaming the concept of green building in respect of building living spaces. The message to be driven home through generation of awareness on green building is that: Environment is the source of our sustenance and we are a part of the life-cycle of the environment.
Some of the basic ideas involved in the concept of “sustainable homes” are
- Natural energy or solar design and building methods generate most of the needs of heating and cooling and that the orientation of the house and windows can optimize the sun for winter heating and minimizing the heat absorption during summer.
- Using Green Materials: Wise use of natural materials such as choosing products with a high level of renewability, such as bamboo for flooring and cabinets or cork for flooring, rather than cutting down rain forests for our building products. Rapidly renewable products are less of a burden on our environment.
- Choosing materials that are durable, coming from recycled products or have recycled content and products that have a longer warranty period. By the adoption of this strategy, we can reduce the amount of new materials needed to make, for example, the roofing, in a set period of time.
- Choosing materials that require low levels of energy for production, including for the extraction of raw materials required, processing and transport and also products that will have lesser environmental impact in extracting and in processing. As an example, the use of fly-ash based Aerated Autocaved Concrete Blocks for building-walls instead of Bull’s Trench Kilns-baked bricks or bricks baked in rural country clamps save lots of energy used in baking bricks. This can also considerably reduce the ever increasing use of fossil fuels in the processing of building materials which lead to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Insulating the exterior walls saves both energy and money by eliminating heat loss in winter and heat gain in the summer.
- Use of materials that do not include toxic substances are good choice for the environment and indoor air quality.
- Adoption of environment friendly techniques and procedures. For instance, sealing off the area of work from the rest of the house to maintain air quality in the occupied areas of the house.
- Agricultural waste products such as wheatgrass stalks, sunflower seed husks and straws can be utilized to make durable panel products for use in cabinetry and furniture production.
- Deconstruction of materials of old buildings needs to be encouraged for their salvage and re-use.
- The size of the house is important. In our current culture, building the biggest home that we can afford tends to be the goal of many homebuilders. But to be eco-friendly you should strive to build a house that has as small of footprint as possible but still meets your current and future needs. In remodeling, by removing walls or moving the kitchen to another part of the house, we can create more user-friendly spaces and reduce our consumption of natural materials.
The Seminar shall discuss the following aspects relating to the idea of promotion of green buildings
- Assess environmental costs of existing building concepts and practices;
- Examining health hazards of haphazard building practices
- Evaluate the strengths of “Green Buildings”
- Evolve effective mechanisms of social and political intervention for mainstreaming ‘Green Building’ practices
- Harmonization of home ecology and natural environment – Need for a cultural dialogue
- Global trends in Green Building concepts vs. specificities of Indian context.
- Green Building’s leverage on national and family economies.
This important National Seminar will be a major step in voluntary efforts in galvanizing a practical as well as cultural retrospection on why we need to stop the mindless and illogical wastage of energy in building homes and instead should ponder over adoption of green buildings to sustain national and families economies as well as sustain our natural resources for the future life of all living organisms on the planet earth, including the mankind.
The School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University has agreed to collaborate with GIRD in organizing this Seminar on 10th October, 2008. The venue of the Seminar is Arts and Aesthetic Auditorium, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi – 110067.
National Seminar on
SUSTAINABLE HOME ECOLOGIES – ASSESSING STRENGTHS AND CATALYSING MAINSTREAMING OF GREEN BUILINDINGS
5 June 2005 At Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium, JNU
Action programmes/campaigns have been organized by GIRD with the help of inputs from the Seminar.
Social and Cultural Impacts on the Environment of India
24 January 2007
The Seminar had impact on different social groups living in Delhi as reflected in the programmes undertaken by various social and cultural organizations of people of different States living in Delhi for minimizing environmental degradation caused by specific social and cultural practices as enumerated during the Seminar.
Status of Vehicular Pollution in Delhi after Court’s Directions – An Assessment
Dept. of Environment, Govt. of NCT of Delhi is processing the recommendations/resolution of the Seminar for chalking out appropriate action.
GIRD is chalking out campaign programmes based on the inputs from the Seminar.
The forthcoming Commonwealth Games will be used as an opportunity for pressurizing governmental agencies in further improving the ambient air of Delhi though various measures suggested in the Seminar.
Local voluntary groups are being organized in advance to take up action programmes and campaigns anticipating the commonwealth games.
February 26, 2008
Environmental Issues
Itinerary of Time
