Nagpur city in Maharashtra had successfully implemented energy-efficient improvements in the design of its upcoming affordable housing buildings, and energy benchmarking and audits of different building typologies, and had prepared  guidelines to promote the adoption of climate-responsive homes under the Building Energy Accelerator (BEA) project (2018-2020).

The city continues to advance its goals and actions on decarbonisation of buildings under the ‘Zero Carbon Buildings Accelerator’ (ZCBA) project, which builds on the ambitions and outcomes of the BEA programme.  A roadmap is being prepared with the vision to make all buildings in the city ‘Net Zero Buildings’ by 2050. The roadmap includes strategies and actions to help reduce GHG emissions in the context of choice of building materials, and how buildings are designed, built, managed and deconstructed.

As part of the ZCBA programme, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL), World Resources Institute (WRI), and ICLEI South Asia organised a Stakeholder Consultation Meeting in the city on the 5th of December 2022, to discuss strategies and actions identified under Nagpur’s Roadmap to help the larger uptake of highly efficient and zero-carbon buildings. The consultation helped to involve key stakeholders who could assist the city in realising its vision. NMC Commissioner Radhakrishnan B.,  NSSCDCL CEO Chinmay Gotmare, city officials and domain experts from academia, green building certification agencies and NGOs, as well as builders and developers attended the meeting. NMC and NSSCDCL had earlier published city-specific guidelines for climate-responsive and energy-efficient homes for its citizens and building sector practitioners under the BEA project.

Mr Radhakrishnan emphasised the need to implement pilot projects, starting with public buildings and covering aspects such as eco-friendly building materials and construction techniques, building envelope design, and end-of-life policy measures. He indicated the corporation’s readiness to take policy actions and explore financial options directed towards citizens and the private sector, while stressing the need to set up robust building performance monitoring procedures. In his remarks, Mr Gotmare that an unambiguous guideline would be prepared for ZCBs, taking into consideration  local climatic conditions and traditional practices.

Representatives from ICLEI South Asia, WRI and Ela Green Buildings and Infrastructure Consultants Pvt. Ltd. presented various strategies that have been prepared for the ZCB roadmap and relevant best practices with case studies to showcase the applicability on-ground and their linkages with national-level goals. The stakeholders deliberated on various aspects of building environmental performance throughout its lifecycle and provided valuable inputs to help prioritise actions for decarbonising Nagpur’s building sector.

The ZCBA project was launched by WRI in 2021, and is supported by the Global Environment Facility and United Nations Environment Programme. ICLEI South Asia is a regional partner of ZCBA and has been working closely with the NSSCDCL and NMC for developing a Zero Carbon Buildings Action Plan for Nagpur.