ICICI RSETI inaugurates India’s first IGBC rated ‘Net Zero Energy- Platinum’ building

ICICI Rural Self Employment Training Institute (ICICI RSETI), which provides free of cost vocational training to less-privileged youth, today inaugurated a new building in the city. The building has been awarded a ‘Net Zero Energy- Platinum’ rating by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), making it the first new building in the country to get the coveted certificate. The award is a recognition of the gamut of features that enable a sustainable environment at the building as it consumes less water, optimizes energy, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for its occupants, as compared to a conventional building. Mrs. Alka Upadhyay, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India inaugurated the facility and Mr. Girish Chandra Chaturvedi, Chairman, ICICI Bank presided over the event. Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Girish Chandra Chaturvedi, Chairman ICICI Bank said, “ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, the CSR arm of the ICICI Group, has been running two ICICI RSETIs—one each in Udaipur and Jodhpur—since 2011. The primary focus of the ICICI RESTIs is to provide vocational training on disciplines which have local demand so that the trainees, on completion of their training, can start their own enterprise and become financially independent. ICICI RSETIs also set up satellite centers in various blocks to provide training at doorsteps of the rural youth. I am very pleased to say that ICICI RSETIs have trained over 88,000 people, more than half of them are women. The training is helping them to earn sustainable livelihood in their villages. We feel that including sustainable practices within a suitable learning environment will make the trainees more environmentally responsible. Keeping this in mind, we constructed this green building which includes state-of-the-art facilities and industry benchmarked training equipment. It consumes 50% electricity and water, as compared to a conventional building.” The Government of Rajasthan provided land and the Government of India provided a grant of Rs.1 crore towards the development of this facility. The foundation of the building was laid by Mr. Ashok Gehlot, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Government of Rajasthan.

Some Illustrative features of this building:

• Use of local sandstone from Jodhpur called ‘Chittar Patthar’ which is least affected by air, sunshine and extreme weather conditions
• The building has thick walls, stone grills and open corridors for cooling effect

• Environment friendly installations like rooftop solar system and a fully natural phytoremediation sewage treatment plant, which has a variety of shrubs and plants whose roots clean the dirty water. The recycled water is used for flushing and irrigation of the landscape in the premises.

• Setting up LED based lighting and standalone solar street lights for lighting the outer premises

• Usage of cool roof tiles to maintain temperature inside the building

• Deployment of star rated appliances, energy efficient DC fans and an energy monitoring system to ensure optimal utilisation of energy

• Utilising natural daylight abundantly which is available in more than 80% functional areas of the building owing to its special design

• Undertaking rain water harvesting for water conservation and drought tolerant variety of landscaping with drip irrigation facility

• Fully accessible building design with ramps and toilet for specially abled