Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) Council, is an autonomous, not for profit society jointly set up by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India to promote and administer the development of sustainable buildings and habitats in India through GRIHA. GRIHA is the indigenous rating system developed by TERI which was adopted as the ‘National Rating System’ of India by MNRE. GRIHA is a tool to evaluate reductions in emission intensity through habitats and has been announced as a part of mitigation strategy for combating climate change in India's ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ submitted to UNFCCC by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change.

Over the years, GRIHA Council has been hosting its annual summits to deliberate on issues which are of national discourse in association with entities of national and international repute such as Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, UNSW Sydney, Royal Danish Embassy, GIZ, Bureau of Energy Efficiency. The past summits had been designed on the themes such as “Approach to Integrated Sustainability”, “Fostering Partnerships for Sustainable Habitats”, “Transforming Habitats”, “Sustainable is Affordable”, “Transforming Habitats”, “Rejuvenating Resilient Habitats”, and “Restoring Green Economy”.

The 14th GRIHA Summit scheduled on December 15th -16th, 2022 shall be conducted at India Habitat Center, New Delhi on the theme ‘Towards Net Positive Habitats’.

Nature’s way of mitigating the distress caused by anthropogenic activities, and reverting to the original state has made us witness erratic weather patterns. Climate change is more than evident with frequent and intense storms and heat waves. Therefore, it has become vital to take strong actions to mitigate climate change for the survival of the current generation and to safeguard the interests of future generations.

The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has committed at the COP 26 that India will achieve the target of ‘Net Zero’ emissions by 2070 in its fight against climate change. It becomes the responsibility of every industry to partake with the government in achieving this ambitious target. Building operations and construction industry has a significant role to play as it is one of the largest CO2 emitters in the world.

Habitats or buildings consume resources for which it depends on various industries such as plumbing, electric power, HVAC, waste management and construction materials. The technological advancements and innovative solutions emerging in these industries provide great opportunities to the building industry towards reducing the energy and GHG emissions. In context of the above, cross sectoral partnerships shall prove to be of great significance as we move on the path to achieve carbon reduction.

However, as we aim to reverse the effects of human activities on the environment by reducing emissions, we must also focus on the biodiversity affected on the journey of economic development. Net positive habitat is a concept that aims to prioritize the society and nurture the environment by giving back more than what’s been taken without compromising on the financial aspects.

This year’s summit is a step taken towards achieving the COP 26 commitments of India. It aims to bring in experts from different industries on one platform to deliberate on reducing carbon emissions, increasing carbon sequestration and taking the net positive habitat movement to the general masses.