About Us

Building rating systems are becoming a prominent tool to bring momentum in achieving energy efficiency and sustainability in buildings. In order to popularize this initiative, TERI (The Energy & Resources Institute) has conceived - GRIHA, the National Rating System of India and has jointly developed it with MNRE (Ministry of New & Renewable Energy). It pertains particularly to the Indian context and is suitable for all kinds of buildings in different climatic zones of the country.

TERI is deeply committed to every aspect of sustainable development. While striving to achieve its vision of working towards global sustainable development and creating innovative solutions for a better tomorrow, TERI has conceived and developed GRIHA (with the MNRE) as an extension of its work on environment management. For more information, visit http://teriin.org/

Team GRIHA is a group of engineers and architects working for GRIHA secretariat. Team GRIHA is dedicated to rating resource efficient buildings that meet the requirements specified in the GRIHA document. The team is backed by the Centre for Research on Sustainable Building Science or CRSBS, a complimentary division dedicated to all aspects of energy and resource efficiency in buildings. Together, the two teams drive GRIHA forward.

Sustainable Building Science: Overview

One of the prime areas of activity within the Energy Environment Technology division is adoption of efficient and environment-friendly technologies in new and existing buildings. The activities of this area focus primarily on energy and resource use optimization in existing buildings and design of energy efficient sustainable habitats. The Centre for Research on Sustainable Building Science (CRSBS) comprising architects , planners, engineers , environmental specialists , specialised in urban and rural planning, low energy architecture and electro-mechanical systems, water and waste management and renewable energy systems has been offering environmental design solutions for habitat and buildings of various complexities and functions for nearly two decades.

Specialised environmental design consultancy and building performance analysis are conducted. A wide range of computations and simulation tools including DOE2, TRNSYS, ECOTECT, RADIANCE, FLOVENT, AGI32, LUMEN DESIGNER, BLAST, Phoenics, RETScreen are used to assess the environmental and cost impact of the design decisions.

The team has experience in technically facilitating GRIHA.The group can provide complete consultancy required for enabling GRIHA rating.

Energy conservation studies for a large number of buildings are conducted. There exists a vast experience in conducting energy audits and evaluating a whole range of building upgrade options including envelope retrofit and system retrofit or changes in operational patterns. In addition to establishing operating efficiency of electrical, HVAC, lighting and thermal systems, recommendations to improve upon the same by suitable retrofit measures or by refinement of operational practices are also offered. The group also has expertise in development of energy management programs for service industries like hotels and the corporate sector.

Capacity building for architects, building developers and service engineers on issues such as energy efficiency in building envelopes and systems has been undertaken. Over 1000 architects, developers and engineers in the area of green buildings, energy efficiency and sustainability aspects of built environment have been trained through training programmes, refresher courses, seminars and workshops.

Several policy initiatives at central and state governments' level towards mainstreaming high performance buildings in India have been successfully completed. Senior members of the group are members of the Committee of experts for development of the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) of India (2007). The manual for environmental clearance of large construction for the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India has also been developed at CRSBS.

Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a major global challenge. The group has provided inputs to the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat (a part of the recently released India's National Action Plan on Climate Change). Project Design Documents (PDD) are prepared in order to facilitate trading in carbon through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).