IGBC's NEST: Eco-friendly Self-developed Tenements

The rapid rise in population and income over the past decades has resulted in an increase in demand for housing. The housing shortage is larger in rural areas and among low-income groups. Over 93 million people live in sub-standard or congested dwellings without adequate access to clean water, sanitation and basic amenities. The existing housing construction practices also adopt frugal measures by design because of the size of individual unit (which is limited), lack of proper framework, awareness and budget constraints. During construction, the projects utilise conventional products and materials which in turn leads to increased carbon emissions on account of higher embodied carbon. This also affects the quality of living of the occupants and leads to further increase in resource consumption during occupancy. Against this background, CII-IGBC has developed an approach and methodology to address the element of sustainability in self developed individual housing sector.

The objective of IGBC's NEST-Eco-friendly Self-developed Tenements rating is to drive and facilitate an integrated approach for greening self-developed & affordable residential projects in the country.

This would bring awareness and drive the individual owners to build a sustainable home with no or meagre additional cost. The approach is to encourage the owners to adopt green measures that are simple and have profound impacts in addressing resource efficiency and occupant's health and wellbeing. The framework throws light on building envelope, water & energy efficiency and harnessing solar energy. . Also, the GreenPro Ecolabel launched by CII facilitates in selection of appropriate green products and materials for construction. This framework would support as a ready reckoner in providing sustainable solutions for Eco-friendly Self-developed Tenements.