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Eco-Housing represents eco-friendly, energy efficient buildings, sustainable construction practices, and a healthy and productive indoor environment with lowered use of natural resource. Eco-housing structures are designed, built, renovated and operated in an ecological and resource efficient manner.
The Eco-housing program was designed to scale up adoption of energy efficient technologies by the developer community and help create a market for eco-friendly products and services. Program interventions included the development of Eco-Housing performance assessment tool, integration of Eco-Housing policy and fiscal incentives, demonstration projects, capacity building and the development of a sustainable institutional mechanism to mainstream energy efficient housing practices.
Pune was chosen as the champion city to launch the Eco-housing program as it represents one of the most rapidly expanding cities in western India. The International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) under funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been working in partnership with stakeholders including Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Science and Technology Park (STP), The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), leading developers, architects, housing finance institutions and technology providers to scale-up the movement towards sustainable development.
After a rigorous analysis of technical aspects of Eco-housing opportunities in Pune, the partnership is pleased to announce the launch of the Eco-housing Assessment Criteria. The criteria will help evaluate the environmental performance of residential buildings and forms the basis of a voluntary certification and rating system for housing projects. The project team is pleased to share the possibility of adaptation of similar technical concepts in Mumbai and Thane. One must note that the adaptation to other cities is possible taking care of the regional and local climatic differences. The criteria however provide a good base for comparison.
Architects and developers are invited to join the Eco-housing movement and use the assessment criteria to help quantify the environmental achievement of ongoing and proposed projects. We welcome your comments and suggestions at "ecohousing@iiec.org". |
