Page 58 - Shelter-April 2024

CASE STUDIES

received awards on
environment man-
agement at both
National and Inter-
national level.

A brighter future
ahead
WBPDCL has been
adapting to the
changing times
and futuristic
WBPDCL has launched a technologies. It’s
project name “Marching to- also increasing its presence
wards Excellence” in 2021 for in the renewable energy commitment to power West
the beautification of its plants sector with a re-energized Bengal’s progress.
and townships. WBPDCL has

2000-Watt Smart Cities: Fair Path to Net-Zero

Urban centers function as intricate systems, posing significant challenges in management. Worldwide,
these urban spaces play a pivotal role in accelerating detrimental climate alterations. Individual buildings
have low contextual impact on the overall contribution to climate change, hence there is a need to look at
the larger developments to deploy mitigation and adaptation strategies.
The 2000-Watt Society is an environmental vision introduced in 1998 by the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. This concept is about reducing the overall average primary
energy usage rate to no more than 2000 Watts per person and the greenhouse gas emissions to net zero
by 2050, while also improving the quality of life at the same time. The vision of the 2000-Watt Smart City
(WSC) is where raw materials are used in a sustainable and fair manner. It focuses on increasing energy
efficiency, increasing use of renewable energies and harmonizing consumer and user behaviors.
With the 2000 WSC certificate, large development areas can be assessed in terms of density, mixed usage,
and building-induced mobility. Key salient features of 2000 WSC are:
• A whole site rather than an individual building: The quality of density and mixed usage is considered.
With smart energy networks, a variety of energy sources and storage systems are included.
• Overall energy balance instead of reduction to operational energy: Embodied energy of the
construction of buildings and energy requirements for everyday mobility is part of the assessment.
• A whole large development life cycle: The certificate is focused not only on the construction phase
but also on the operation phase. This offers huge potential, which can only be used in collaboration
with all users.
2000 WSC had signed a MoU with the Government of Maharashtra’s Department of Environment and
Climate Change to consolidate the state’s efforts towards expediting climate mitigation by implementing
the successfully implemented 2000-Watts philosophy and toolkit. The “Centre for Climate Change and
Cities (C4)” was established to streamline the efforts and achieve resource efficiency leading to urban
resilience.

56 HUDCO-HSMI Publication