The accelerator aims to generate market-driven scalable solutions to propel India’s built environment towards zero-carbon and aid India’s goal of reaching net-zero by 2070
Mumbai: Lodha has launched ‘Lodha Net Zero Urban Accelerator’. It has technical support from RMI. The objective of the initiative 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.
Lodha, a leading real estate developer is committed to being a net-zero carbon emission company by 2035 and by acting in the larger interest of the environment and society; the company is committed to ‘building a better life in more ways than one.
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.
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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 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.
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Commenting on the launch, Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Lodha said, “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.”
“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 the 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 the proliferation of net-zero commitments and initiatives across the industry and policy ecosystem.
Amory Lovins, co-founder 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, “Lodha’s leadership can be a lighthouse for India and the world.”
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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.
