Speaking to Education Times, Buddha Chandrashekhar, Chief Coordinating Officer, AICTE, Ministry of Education, says, “Architecture and civil engineering students will contribute in maintaining environmental balance through green skills to be developed in no time. For example, while developing smart cities, civil and architectural engineering students will need to work on all the factors that add to the green culture in developing new cities such as buildings with less concrete walls, use of more glass What it creates and uses water harvesting helps to consume less water, become more energy efficient, generate less waste and provide healthier spaces. These are the advantages of green buildings as compared to traditional buildings. Therefore, students need to know these emerging aspects while planning the design of such buildings.
“For example, recently Delhi airport has become the first airport in the country to run entirely on renewable energy. The same changes should be implemented while developing hospitals as our existing hospitals are not eco-friendly. We are working closely with IGBC to develop the curriculum curriculum that students will be taught as part of this green skill and we will also explore their expertise to create content for green building concepts,” informed Chandrashekhar. Sanjay Chitnis, Dean, School of Computer Science and Engineering, RV University, Bengaluru, says, “India is lagging behind in circular economy (maximizing use of resources) and technologies to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. We have integrated aspects of sustainability and circular economy into each relevant curriculum to ensure that students learn to design products in harmony with nature.”
Amit Hajela, Director, Amity School of Architecture and Planning, says, “It is imperative that we address the issue of sustainable development comprehensively, with education at the primary and higher levels playing a key role in achieving the goals of the SDGs. SDG 4 Directly linked to the education sector. Adoption of green skills in higher education will help sensitize communities to their responsibility towards their respective countries and the planet as a whole. Pre-requisite for achieving the SDGs To create an enabling mechanism which is holistic in terms of teaching-learning processes, application and innovation. Similar initiatives of CII-IGBC have been adopted through the collaborative efforts of the School of Architecture in which IGBC student chapters have been established.”