Page 13 - Shelter-April 2024
P. 13
THEME PAPER
DECARBONISING BUILT ENVIRONMENT -
ISSUES AND OPTIONS
JIT KUMAR GUPTA Buildings have been globally environment and bio-diversity.
valued for promoting This calls for not only looking
industrialisation, generating for options for decarbonising
employment, adding wealth buildings but also making them
to communities and making sustainable and least consumers
human living more qualitative of energy and resources. For
and sustainable. Buildings are achieving the goal of carbon
also known for its negativities, neutrality and sustainability,
dualities and contradictions traditional approach to
for the reasons that buildings designing, construction and
remain large consumers of operation of buildings have to
conventional energy and non- be relooked, reviewed, revised
renewable resources besides and redefined. In search for
generators of enormous waste. appropriate solutions to make
Consuming half of the global built environment carbon
energy, using majority of neutral, qualitative, liveable and
resources and generating 45% more productive, the paper looks
carbon emissions, buildings at the options of; rationalising
are not only embedded with approach to planning and
large carbon footprints but are designing of buildings;
considered responsible for climate understanding relevance of site
change, global warming, rising and climate; leveraging options
temperature and ozone depletion. for making buildings energy and
Sustainable Development water efficient; using sustainable
Goal 11, enunciated by UNO, building materials and state of
has mandated critical role of the art construction technologies
buildings in managing global besides making indoor air quality
Key Words: Built environment;
Decarbonising; Climate, Energy, warming and promoting global more qualitative to achieve the
Materials sustainability by making them objectives.
carbon neutral. Despite having
Author: Jit Kumar Gupta critical role and relevance in Introduction
Founder Director, College of promoting carbon neutrality, Preservation, conservation
Architecture, IET Bhaddal majority of buildings are still and making value addition
#344, Sector 40-A, being planned, designed, to environment, ecology
Chandigarh-160036 constructed and managed and bio-diversity, has been
Email: jit.kumar1944@gmail.com, without any concern for energy, considered most critical and
Mob: 090410-26414 carbon footprints, resources, valuable ingredients for
April, 2024, Volume 25. No.1 - SHELTER 11
