On April 25, Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) hosted a half-day event, "A Sustainable EDGE," at the ITC Windsor in Bengaluru to address the need for resource-efficient affordable housing in India and discuss how EDGE can bring about a sustainable transformation of India’s housing market.
An innovation of IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, EDGE is a green building certification system focused on making buildings more resource-efficient. EDGE is a fast, simple and affordable way to scale up resource-efficient buildings. GBCI administers EDGE certification in over 120 countries around the world and is the exclusive certification provider for all EDGE buildings in India. GBCI and IFC have partnered together to ensure that tomorrow’s buildings are more resource-efficient and future-proof.
EDGE empowers developers and builders to quickly identify the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy use, water use and embodied energy in materials. By using the EDGE software application available at edgebuildings.com, a design team or project owner can quickly predict savings in energy, water and embodied energy of materials and estimate utility savings, capital costs and the payback period.
Within minutes, a building designer can determine the optimum combination of design strategies for the best return on investment. To meet the EDGE standard and achieve certification, a design team or project owner uses the free EDGE software application to demonstrate their building achieves a predicted savings of 20 percent in each of three areas: energy use, water use and embodied energy in materials.
"A Sustainable EDGE" was supported by CREDAI Bengaluru as an "Industry Partner" and by IIA Karnataka as a "Knowledge Partner." The event was attended by more than 130 green building industry stakeholders, including architects, builders and developers, consultants, contractors, government entities and policymakers, material manufacturers and building industry associations.
Read more about the event and the change makers in the industry who were honored for designing and construction EDGE-certified green buildings in the Economic Times.