In honor of World Environment Day 2023, the Indian Green Building Council of the CII, CREDAI Bengal, and the Rotary Club of Calcutta Inner City organized a seminar on the green built environment at the Park Hotel in Kolkata to educate all the stakeholders in the building and construction industry as well as other professionals.

In his opening remarks, Sushil Mohta, Chairman, IGBC Kolkata, highlighted various achievements of IGBC over the previous two decades and how Kolkata has emerged as the top city in the nation in terms of the number of green construction projects that are being undertaken. In his speech, he noted that the IGBC’s efforts have helped India achieve 10.27 billion square feet of registered green space from more than 10,900 projects all around the country. This has helped India move up to the second-largest registered green building footprint in the world. Green buildings have a strong business justification, according to IGBC.   

Due to a last-minute change in the schedule, Aroop Biswas, Minister in Charge of Power, Housing, Youth Services & Sports, Government of West Bengal, was unable to attend but sent a message to the attendees that was read aloud at the event. In his statement, he expressed gratitude to the IGBC for organizing such timely awareness campaigns and gave advice to collaborate closely with his department by outlining short- and long-term goals for the state’s environmental sustainability.

Sukanya Dasgupta and Ravindra Sehgal, both members of Rotary Clubs, gave speeches to the group and underlined the value of living a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

The scientific talk on glasses for green buildings, water monitoring and savings, acoustics for large structures, and ESG in real estate was followed by more discussion in the seminar. 200 delegates from the building industry and many other sectors attended the session in large numbers.

Priyanka Dutta