Workshop on ‘Green Sense: Educational Campus Inventory’

Venue: Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI)
Date: 5th March, 2019

The Sustainable Buildings and Habitat team conducted a day long workshop organized at the 4th Knowledge Conclave at AAETI on the initiative titled ‘Green Sense: Educational Campus Inventory’. 52 educators of various colleges and universities from 12 different states convened at the workshop.

The workshop commenced with the introduction of CSEs green campus initiative called ‘Green Sense: Educational Campus Inventory’ where the educators were trained to benchmark the green performance of their university/college campuses in the 5 sectors of intervention: Air, Water, Land, Energy and Waste. This was followed by a demonstration of case study of 5 campuses spread across 3 different climatic zones in India which have been working with the team. These campuses include National CPWD academy, Guru Nanak Dev University, Gargi college, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary, Xavier’s Bhubaneshwar and Woodstock School. A methodology to understand the current institutional arrangements, dedicating available resources and building a road-map to develop a green campus were communicated.

To provide a first-hand experience, participants were also taken to the Tijara fort, a 250-year-old monument, situated in Alwar, Rajasthan. Based on their classroom learnings, participants were asked to walk in and around the Tijara fort and identify the various green features of the fort and compare them with the features of AAETI, which is a model green campus. AAETI has been selected by Global Environmental Facility, Bureau of Energy Efficiency and UNDP India as one of the 24 Model Energy efficient buildings of the country.

The participants identified and documented several green features which led to an interactive session where the commonalities/unique features were discussed. For instance, buildings in both the campuses have low windows to wall ratio (WWR) to reduce heat gains and utilize a courtyard typology for shading and a cooler ingress of air into the building. Both the campuses also utilize nature based decentralized waste water treatment systems, a sustainable way to treat waste water.

The workshop concluded with the educators feeling more enabled to conduct audits in their respective campuses with an enhanced understanding of what ‘green’ meant. The participants also appreciated the team for the content and method of delivery of the workshop.