ISB Mohali inducted as India’s most energy efficient building

ISB Mohali, Punjab has been recognised as the newest inductee to the ACREX Hall of Fame 2020 for their commitment to energy efficient and sustainable infrastructure. ACREX Hall of Fame is an extremely prestigious and sought-after recognition, jointly instituted by ISHRAE and Danfoss India in 2015 as an effort to recognise best practices and to encourage innovation in technology, design and systems to promote the highest standards of energy efficient HVAC systems in Commercial Buildings. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the ACREX Expo that is taking place at IEML, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR.

This year, the aim of this initiative was to encourage and promote sustainable technologies across all commercial buildings, ranging from universities to large corporate offices. The goal is to give impetus to all commercial buildings to push the envelope in innovative technologies to incorporate energy efficiency and sustainability through the length and breadth of their operations. The other top finalists for ACREX Hall of Fame 2020 were Adobe Systems, Noida; ITC Kohenur, Hyderabad and Vestas Wind Technology, Ahmedabad.

ISB Mohali, an IGBC Platinum-rated campus is spread across 70-acres, of which 14.6 acres has green cover. They have instituted several sustainability and energy efficient practices across their campus which includes a one-of-a-kind Geothermal HVAC System with zero water discharge. All the buildings in their campus sport white rooftops which reduce heat island effect, with insulation above and under deck for the entire campus, decreasing load on the air conditioning systems. The university converts all its organic waste on campus to be used for horticulture and also has a highly efficient Cross-wave Modular Rainwater Harvesting System. In the past, ISB Mohali has been the recipient of several awards such as the Smartest Educational Building in India, Most Energy Efficient Educational Building in Punjab, and the Best Green Campus Award.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Sanjay Bajpai, Head, Department of Science and Technology, GoI, said “Over the last five years, the government has been doubling its efforts to address the issue of climate change. There is however, greater need to accelerate the cycle of innovation and the approaches to achieve this may be manifold. Public-private-partnerships are at the core of this. The industry should be on the driver’s seat, with the unflinching support of the government, to lead the way forward. It gives me great joy to be here today, in an event such as this will usher in a new era of collaboration. The government will certainly consider bringing in more initiatives such as this to incentivise the culture of energy efficiency in India.”

Speaking on the initiative, Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss India said, “Our cities are the main drivers of the world’s economic output, but they are also massive consumers and account for 60-80 percent of energy consumption and 75 percent of carbon emissions. Over the next 33 years, all urban areas of the world will need to provide space for another 2.2 billion people, and this will take a big toll on cities and its resources. This being the reality in which we live, the most effective way to turn the challenges of our cities into opportunities is urban efficiency. Cities need to set ambitious targets for energy efficiency to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. Buildings today account for 40 percent of the global energy use and half of a city’s emissions, and instituting energy efficiency and sustainability in buildings can cut energy consumption by nearly 30-45 percent. It is time that more buildings across all cities proactively invest in smart and energy efficient technologies to enable their transformation into a sustainable building. The ACREX Hall of Fame was instituted in this very spirit and it is my pleasure to congratulate our winner today, ISB Mohali for their exemplary efforts in this direction”.

Presidential Member of ISHRAE and Chair, ACREX India 2020, Sushil K Choudhary said “The ACREX Hall of Fame, an initiative brought about in collaboration with Danfoss India, is part of our larger initiative to sharpen the focus on building efficient HVAC systems for commercial buildings in India. Over the years, it has been heartening to see that the number of participants for Hall of Fame has been increasing exponentially. More and more commercial buildings in India have been nominating themselves. This year, it gives me great pleasure to present this honour to ISB, Mohali for their exceptional work. Indeed, this should act as a benchmark for other academic institutions in India to aspire to”.

The ACREX Hall of Fame nominations are invited from all states across India every year. There are a number of criteria on which the nominees are rated, such as Energy Performance Index, IAQ Initiatives (Indoor Air Quality), Energy Saving Initiatives including Renewable Energy, Building Management System including Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC&R) and one-year operational data wherein the nominated buildings should not be more than 4 years old at the time of induction.

The previous inductees into the ACREX Hall of Fame include Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Terminal 2, Mumbai (2016), Infosys EC-53 Building, Bengaluru (2017), the Reliance Corporate IT Park, Navi Mumbai (2018), and ITC Grand Chola, Chennai (2019).