The first review meeting of the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation funded ‘Status review of efficiency in the urban built environment’ project was held on 19-20 February 2014 and was attended by representatives from ICLEI South Asia, Shakti Foundation and external advisors from Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss and evaluate the project activities undertaken so far and prepare a roadmap for next steps in the project. 

The 2-day meeting and discussions streamlined the scope of the project. With duration of 9 months, the project is titled as “reviewing efficiency of the urban built environment at various levels – national, state and local – from policy, governance and stakeholders’ perspectives, mapping existing gaps and identifying potential opportunities for integration and harmonisation”. The project aims to identify existing gaps and possible opportunities for synergy within the multitude of ongoing policies and current governance structures applicable to the built environment across various levels, to redefine the scope of efficiency in the built environment for addressing the larger urban efficiency goal. Energy, water, transport, land and waste are the five main sectors of the built environment which form an integral part of this review. 

The next progress meeting is scheduled in the last week of March 2014 and will focus on reviewing the policy and process framework prepared by the ICLEI South Asia project team.