Stressing the need for environmental governance in the building construction sector, Rajneesh Sareen, Pramme Director, Sustainable Buildings and Habitat Programme of CSE on Tuesday said that it was time the State governments started preparing stringent codes for buildings, water management, sustainable materials and waste management to achieve energy efficiency.
Speaking at a regional training programme for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) on ‘Effective implementation of environmental conditions in Andhra Pradesh Building Rules 2017,’ here, he said decentralised service systems were the effective ways to ensure reduction in environmental impact of buildings.
“States should push for the effective implementation by making environmental compliance strict and mandatory in building codes,” he suggested.
The training was organised by the CSE and A.P. Pollution Control Board (APPCB) in which 75 regulators took part.
Waste segregation
Joint Chief Environmental Engineer from APPCB head office, Maka Siva Reddy highlighted the need to check environmental impact of buildings and new constructions. Visakhapatnam Joint Chief Environmental Engineer N.V. Bhaskara Rao spoke on the eco-friendly norms.
GVMC Chief Medical Officer (Health) A. Hemanth spoke about the initiatives undertaken pertaining to segregation of solid waste, maximising use of plastic in road construction, on-site treatment of 70% of organic waste, automatic waste compactor systems, development of waste-to-energy plant to process non-recyclable waste and reclamation of the existing dump yard.
Senior researchers from CSE, Sugeet Grover and Mitashi Singh deliberated on integrated green design, energy efficiency, water and waste management in buildings. APPCB Environmental Engineer R. Lakshminarayana was present.
