Safeguarding the future: Balancing circularity and efficiency in built environment

India has committed to a net zero carbon emission target by 2070. The role of the built environment in achieving this target cannot be ignored, as it accounts for around 39 per cent of global energy-related carbon emissions. At present, the built environment is characterised by low efficiency, high emissions and a non-circular resource-intensive consumption pattern. According to the Circularity Gap Report 2023, only 7.2 per cent of the world economy is circular, indicating that more than 90 per cent of materials are either wasted, lost or remain unavailable for reuse. Amidst all this, challenges posed by climate change exacerbate the difficulties and present newer ones.

India -- the world’s fifth largest economy -- is rapidly urbanising; emissions are expected to increase seven times in future. To address these challenges, it is essential to implement techniques and innovative approaches such as greening the construction sector, promoting material circularity, adopting climate-resilient designs, and climate-proofing for the built environment, among others. Future built environment will need to ensure that it consumes minimal resources while maintaining circularity in material flow. A resilient, energy-efficient and resource-efficient built sector could be a key contributor in achieving India’s national goals of reducing the emission intensity of India’s GDP by 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and achieving net zero.

CSE’s Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI) is offering a residential course to provide the participants with holistic knowledge for designing climate-resilient and resource-efficient built environments. The course will be conducted at AAETI, a sustainable, state-of-the-art campus which acts as a learning tool for building design practices and understanding of sustainable building concepts.

• Cities and climate change: Policy levers and opportunities
• Understanding the drivers of heat gains, reductions, sources and sinks in an urban form
• Resource prudent designing for circularity
• Upcoming construction technologies and their effect on efficiency and circularity
• Technology and techniques for onsite and offsite waste reduction/recycling
• Impact assessment and self-declaration responsibilities for the construction sector
• Effective construction management at sites for mitigation of dust/air pollution and waste management
• Good practices from Indian cities working on C&D waste and dust control--