EDGE in India: A platform we have been waiting for

pThe city of Pune prides itself on being one of the top two performers in India at the recently concluded Smart City challenge. As the front-running city, integration of resource optimization in design and construction of the built environment has been at the core of city development and planning. Last week, prominent building professionals continued their commitment to building a sustainable future for Punemdash;and Indiamdash;by attending a two-day workshop on EDGE. The workshop was hosted at the Suzlon One Earth campus, one of the first LEED Platinum projects in the city./p
pa href="http://edgebuildings.com"An innovation of International Finance Corporation (IFC)/a, EDGE is a green building certification system for new residential and commercial buildings. EDGE requires that a green building achieve a projected minimum reduction of 20 percent in energy and water usage, as well as embodied energy in materials as benchmarked against a standard local building. a href="http://www.edge.gbci.org/" target="_blank"GBCI is the exclusive certification provider for all EDGE buildings in India/a./p
pThe first day of the EDGE workshop explored technical aspects of EDGE in great detail by covering the basics, the certification process, how to use the EDGE software and tips and resources to bring EDGE to developers and owners across India. The second day dealt with specific EDGE Auditor responsibilities. In addition, the workshop featurednbsp;a href="https://www.edgebuildings.com/case-studies/" target="_blank"region-specific case studies/anbsp;and information on developer and builder experiences. It also included sessions designed to empower professionals to quickly evaluate and compare estimated costs for design strategies and to bring EDGE to the market./p
pPoorva Keskar, Director and Partner at VKe, a prominent environmental consultancy of the region, commented, ldquo;This tool will help by way of its simplicity and by providing information on payback periods for alternative green measures that a project can choose to implement at an early stage.rdquo;/p
pldquo;In Pune, EDGE has potential to be the disruptive platform that the developers, designers, consultants and citizens have been waiting for," said Kshitij Amodekar, Head of Sustainability, McD Berl and Arca Verde. "The user-friendliness and simplicity of the EDGE software and certification process will encourage mass market transformation. Focus on resource efficiency will immediately address the energy and water crisis at hand.rdquo;nbsp;/p
pSince 70 percent of the buildings that will be needed in India by 2030 havenrsquo;t been built yet, EDGE holds incredible promise. The Indian government has made an international commitment to reduce emission intensity 33ndash;35 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, and is also committed to providing housing for all and developing smart cities across India./p
pEDGE would serve as a market transformation tool for the large volume of construction envisaged in India and allow the country to scale up green building across the nation in a simple, fast and affordable way. Join the movement and try out the EDGE software for yourself atnbsp;a href="http://edgebuildings.com"edgebuildings.com/a.nbsp;/p
pa href="http://www.usgbc.org/articles/participate-workshop-edge-bangalore-india-..." target="_blank" class="button"Register for our next EDGE workshop on March 31 in Bangalore/a/p
pemA very special thanks to Suzlon, whose support made this workshop possible./em/p!-- BEGIN KAPOST ANALYTICS CODE --
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