Lodha, India’s No. 1* real estate developer announces the launch of the ‘Lodha Net Zero Urban Accelerator’, with technical support from RMI. Commissioned by Lodha, the accelerator’s objective is to catalyze the adoption of sustainable practices in the Indian real estate sector and deliver on the Prime Minister’s vision of environmentally sustainable development.
In line with Lodha’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2035, the ‘Lodha Net Zero Urban Accelerator’ aims to bring together collaborations of rare reach, range, and expertise — creating unconventional partnerships and mobilising action to drive change on the massive scale needed to combat the climate crisis. The accelerator will craft and deliver innovative initiatives towards Lodha’s net zero commitment, using facilitated multi-stakeholder engagement, integrative design, and research and development. The engagement with industry stakeholders will be around technologies, business models, financing, and programs to accelerate net-zero implementation. This model can generate scalable solutions that will propel India’s burgeoning built environment towards zero carbon.
With the launch of the accelerator, Lodha envisions taking a leadership stance by offering an urban development template that can demonstrate — to India and to the world — that growth decoupled from emissions is possible, thus, advancing livability, and staying true to its promise of building a better life. Palava, Lodha’s flagship development and India’s first integrated Greenfield smart city, will be the model used in the initiative, which will gradually be replicated across other locations. Palava will serve as a city-scale living laboratory to solve challenges and pioneer innovations on the path to net-zero.
Commenting on the launch, Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Lodha said, “As a responsible developer, we recognise the crucial role that the real estate sector can play in minimising the risks posed by climate change to our planet. Combating global warming aggressively has become imperative, and the onus is on all organisations to promote the transition towards a low- carbon economy. Aiming to build a better life for everyone, we established a North Star goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2035, and the launch of the ‘Lodha Net Zero Urban Accelerator’ is a major step in this direction to drive collaborative, large- scale solutions for a greener future. In addition to our long-standing association, RMI is the perfect partner in this journey due to its decades of global expertise in fast-tracking the adoption of market-based solutions. The accelerator is formulated with an overarching goal to make net-zero carbon development the new normal, thereby, maximising the sector’s contribution towards India’s 2070 net-zero emissions target, while also increasing resilience, health, affordability, and energy services.”
The accelerator will entail targeted initiatives demonstrating and scaling net-zero solutions by taking a whole system net zero approach for urbanization, under focus areas including circularity and embodied carbon, passive designs, ultra-efficient equipment, clean energy, and zero-carbon mobility, further facilitated by development of cross cutting finance solutions to support goals in these technical focus areas. Considering that about 70% of buildings that will exist in India by 2030 have not been built yet, the accelerator will grasp the opportunity to create whole-system roadmaps and tactical playbooks that will ultimately drive a proliferation of net zero commitments and initiatives across the industry and policy ecosystem.
Amory Lovins, Cofounder and Chairman emeritus, RMI, states, “This unique Accelerator can demonstrate that through collaboration, integrative design, and efficiency as a first resource, growth and prosperity will increase greatly while carbon and emissions intensity decline toward zero.” He further added that, “Lodha’s leadership can be a lighthouse for India and the world.”
Last year, Lodha joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals and also brought its entire portfolio under the ambit of Green Ratings. For its conscious and consistent efforts in sustainability, Lodha also bagged exceptional scores in S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2021 and secured a position amongst the top 13% of companies assessed globally.
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