Realty firm Macrotech Developers will invest USD 500 million (about Rs 3,950 crore) over the next 5-7 years on sustainability initiatives across all projects as it aims to be a net-zero carbon company by 2035, a top company official has said.
Macrotech Developers, which sells its properties under the Lodha brand, also announced the launch of the 'Lodha Net Zero Urban Accelerator' programme with technical support from RMI at its 4,500-acre flagship integrated township project Palava City near Navi Mumbai.
In an interview with PTI, Macrotech Developers Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abhishek Lodha said the Palava township will be a "live laboratory" for quickly experimenting with the modern sustainability ideas and solutions available across the world.
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The successful ideas and solutions will be published and shared with all the stakeholders -- including real estate developers, research bodies, educational institutes and policymakers -- from this year itself, he said.
Already, 1.5 lakh people live in Palava township, and it will be home to 20 lakh people over a period of time.
"The purpose of the accelerator is that India's journey to becoming a net-zero carbon country cannot be completed and be successful unless the housing and real estate industries also play a leadership role in this journey," Lodha noted.
Globally, he pointed out, almost 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are linked to real estate and ancillary industries.
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"So, you can imagine that if the real estate industry in our country takes a role, then the transition to net-zero for the entire country becomes a lot more achievable," he added.
For its net-zero urban accelerator programme, the company has tied up with RMI that transforms global energy systems to secure a clean, prosperous and zero-carbon future for all.
"RMI now is an institution of global repute. We want to work with them to see how in the Indian context can this really be done," he said.
Asked about the capital expenditure for introducing sustainability solutions, Lodha said: "Over the next five to seven years, we will be spending almost $500 million to ensure that our developments are moving to the net-zero carbon goal that we have".
"As you know, we are committed to becoming a net-zero carbon company by 2035," he said, outlining the overall vision.
With efforts made in the last 18 months, Lodha said, the company has been able to reduce its carbon emissions by 50 per cent.
"Therefore it looks likely that we will meet our goals well before 2035."
Just for the accelerator programme, the investment will be modest in terms of the fund but significant in terms of efforts and time, Lodha added.
On the initiative, Amory Lovins, Cofounder and Chairman emeritus, RMI, said: "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".
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The part of the job of our collaboration is to bring all the best thinking and experience in the world together in one place for the benefit of the Indian people, he added.
Lodha said the accelerator's objective is to catalyse the adoption of sustainable practices in the Indian real estate sector and deliver on the Prime Minister's vision of environmentally sustainable development.
"Combating global warming aggressively has become imperative, and the onus is on all organisations to promote the transition towards a low-carbon economy," he added.
The launch of this accelerator programme is a major step in this direction to drive collaborative, large-scale solutions for a greener future.
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Lodha highlighted that Palava is an integrated city where people live and work while availing all kinds of amenities like education, healthcare, retail, sports and logistics infrastructure.
"And therefore, it is a living laboratory of what urban India is or can be," he said, adding that the solutions will be tested in a real environment and tweaked if necessary.
"That is the objective of our accelerator that we have this live laboratory where we can implement these global ideas and global solutions which RMI is well exposed to in the learnings in the Indian context and then share it very broadly with all stakeholders in India, including other developers, the government and other policymakers in India...," Lodha said.
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Macrotech Developers is one of the leading real estate developers in the country. Its sales bookings stood at Rs 9,024 crore during the last fiscal, the second-highest among the listed realty firms.
Its sales bookings jumped nearly three-fold annually at Rs 2,814 crore in the April-June quarter of this fiscal on strong demand for its residential properties. The target for the current fiscal is to achieve Rs 11,500 crore in sales bookings.
Macrotech Developers has a major presence in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune market. The company has recently forayed into Bengaluru.
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