Part A Implementation Plan

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Context and project justification

In urban India, there currently exists a wide gap between the demand and supply of housing (both in
terms of quantity and quality). According to estimates of the Technical Group-12 constituted by the
Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA), the urban housing shortage in the country
at the end of the 12thFive-Year Plan was estimated to be 18.78 million. It was estimated that more than
95% of this shortage pertains to houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Lower-Income
Groups (LIG). If the shortage in housing sector continues to increase (KPMG & NAREDCO 2014), it
would mean constructing then that nearly 110 million houses need to be constructed with an investment
of over USD 2 trillion by 2022.
Housing is primarily an energy and resource intensive sector (i.e. given the building materials required,
water consumption, energy consumption in construction and operation etc.). It contributes to about 24%
of total CO2 emissions in India (Parikh, 2009). Even though energy efficiency in buildings has been the
focus of attention in most of the countries, but it has been limited to commercial and high-end residential
buildings only. Use of efficient electrical appliances and lighting systems are the most commonly adopted
measures to achieve energy efficiency in the residential buildings. There is an imperative growing
demand to find sustainable housing solutions that will not lead to a disproportionate increase in carbon
emissions and resource use due to the production, transport, use and disposal of materials or products and
the operational energy of the building. There is a huge gap in terms of integration of various elements
pertaining to affordable or high end solutions supported by public or private sector which are driving
force for sustainability in all large scale housing projects. The emergent need identified above for social
housing and the anticipated urban housing boom is an opportunity to address energy and resource
efficiency and devise means to embrace a greener development trajectory. Some of the distinct
advantages that an approach could provide are: longer life of projects at reduced maintenance, enhanced
quality of life for the inhabitants, market opportunities through promotion of local products/materials
which are also often more climate-responsive, reduced environmental impact over the life-cycle, several
urban planning and social integration opportunities.
Given the fact that, living in a sustainable habitat is one of the basic premises for healthier living, it is
imperative that the sustainable construction practices are given immediate attention. This project attempts

to bring the much needed sustainability focus in the social housing sector and create a usable tool for
assessing and ensuring sustainability as integrated part of social housing projects. The project aims to rate
2 identified social housing projects against the co-created tool and to receive endorsement of the tool
from the identified stakeholders. The project would also seek to establish the necessary policy connect for
mainstreaming sustainable construction practices in social housing.
Link to relevant international, regional, national strategies and legal frameworks, relevant policies
and institutional arrangements
At the international level, the global community has adopted a new set of goals and targets aiming to
promote sustainable development. Sustainable Development Goal 11 aims at Making Cities and Human
Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable, to ensure access to adequate, safe and affordable
housing with basic services for all. Acknowledging the increasing demand-supply gap in the provision of
adequate shelter in a fast urbanizing context, the Government of India launched the Housing for All
programme with the objective of providing housing to all by 2022.
Several international organizations including UN-HABITAT and UNEP have been working towards the
realization of this aspiration at a global scale through operative and normative initiatives, and the building
of partnerships. The Global Network for Sustainable Housing (GNSH), established through the UNHabitat, is one such partnership that includes several international organizations that are promoting
adequate housing solutions in the context of slum upgrading, reconstruction, large scale affordable and
social housing, and sustainable urban development (http://www.gnshousing.org/). The United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) created the Sustainable Social Housing Initiative (SUSHI) in 2009, to
help key decision makers to make use of existing opportunities in the sector by providing a global
platform for dialogue and consensus-building, developing tools and strategies for sustainable building
practices; establishing baselines for measuring and reporting building performance and piloting
demonstrations at local, national and global level. The initiative also aimed to ensure that social housing
programmes incorporate sustainability criteria and practices.

Keeping this in mind, a consortium was formed among Development Alternatives (DA), The Energy and
Resource Institute (TERI), Oxford Brookes University and UN-Habitat to address the issue of sustainable
social housing in India. All the consortium partners come with rich experience in working on
sustainability and social housing. TERI and DA have been working in the field of construction, supply
chain, integration of sustainability principles in buildings, building rating systems, assistance to
governments and various organizations to integrate sustainability principles for more than two decades.
They have rich experience of actual implementation, building consensus among the stakeholders,

knowledge and capacity building. TERI has done several projects with private developers and public
entities engaged in the housing sector through its flagship program of Green Building rating system GRIHA. DA has developed building design and costing packages for affordable housing using ecofriendly technologies and has also been involved in developing the Urban Affordable Housing and Habitat
Policy for 5 states with Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation under the Support to National
Policies for Urban Poverty Reduction programme. Both TERI and DA are part of the ongoing program on
Fostering Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Management of Secondary Raw Materials and is being
implemented jointly by GIZ-India and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The
third consortium partner, UN-Habitat brings with it global experience in implementation and policy
development while taking into account social, economic and environmental considerations. It has
extensive experience normative work on green buildings through various publications, policy engagement
with countries especially on building code reform, and several implementation projects in Africa, LAC
and Asia promoting the use of alternative building technologies and socio-cultural responsiveness. This
consortium is further enriched by Low Carbon Building Group at the Oxford Brookes University, which
brings with it a portfolio of working on numerous building performance monitoring and evaluation
studies to assess the comfort, health and well-being of residents of sustainable social housing dwellings
built with various construction systems.
The proposed project is designed to carry forward the SUSHI (I and II) work and the priorities of the
National government with due recognition to integrating resource and energy efficiency while addressing
housing provision. Successful outputs have potential to be applied regionally in several parts of the world.

Relationship to 10YFP programme(s) (Explain how the project will substantially advance the
implementation of the Programme(s) and hence contribute to the shift to SCP patterns)

The 10YFP programme aims to foster an understanding of sustainable buildings and construction
practices among relevant stakeholders. It promotes and enables transformation to sustainability in the
built environment through evidence-based decision making, efficiency, innovation, capacity building
throughout the supply chain, collaboration among stakeholders, monitoring and the adoption of a life
cycle approach for continuous improvement.
The proposed project aims to target an area of deep concern: introducing sustainability in the housing
sector where the take-on is comparatively slow as compared to the commercial building sector. Given the
accelerated housing demand, there is a need to adopt a sustainable approach for housing construction and
operation. The proposal addresses these concerns and intends to create an evidence base for developing
toolkits and frameworks for decision making in the Indian affordable housing sector. The framework is
intended to be replicated in other developing countries of the world.
The proposed project essentially targets Objective 1 of promoting sustainable housing, including
affordable and social housing. However, it also attempts to enhance sustainability in the building supply
chain (Objective 2) by integrating resource efficiency in the construction of housing units. Tools will be
developed to support decision making focused towards resource and energy efficiency in social housing.
Sustainability and criticality of materials will be defined using the sustainability index. While defining the
index for select regions (depending on the location of pilots), factors like climate resilience will also be
considered apart from the other commonly-used parameters such as ?. This will help in reducing climate
impact and strengthen climate resilience of the building and construction sector (Objective 3). Promoting
knowledge sharing, extensive outreach and awareness raising is a cross cutting work theme covered under
the proposal through workshops, stakeholders consultation, and policy briefs have been proposed to be
developed throughout the project. Thus project fosters enabling frameworks to implement Sustainable
Building Construction (Objective 4).

OBJECTIVES OF THE SSFA

Project objective(s) and outcome

The project aims at mainstreaming sustainable construction practices in social housing 1 in urban
India. The primary focus of the project would be to enhance sustainability in the construction of social
housing through adoption of suitable construction as well as operations & management practices. The
primary objectives of the project are:
1. Facilitating the adoption of sustainable construction practices by the social housing providers
(providers like govt. bodies, private developer, and Public Private Partnership initiators).
2. Development of policy framework on sustainable construction practices with focus on operational
energy use, judicious use of material and natural resources in construction, financial practices
promoting sustainability and socio-economic considerations.
The project, during its course, seeks to establish systems for promotion and acceptance of sustainable
construction practices through awareness generation and knowledge dissemination through outreach
products, workshops, stakeholder dialogues and roundtable discussion. The outputs of the project will be:
1. Decision support toolkit for developers and homeowners. This toolkit would lay down the
fundamentals for planning, implementation and operation practices for which are necessary to be
adopted to achieve sustainability in housing projects/ developments. This toolkit would be based on
the baseline study; evidence generated during the course of the project through stakeholder
interactions, adaptation of the sustainability index to two projects in initial stages of development as
well as the sustainability index of materials and technologies.
2. Policy briefs for decision makers to mainstream sustainability concerns in affordable urban housing
at national and sub-national levels. These policy briefs would be aimed at highlighting materials that
may be used for sustainable housing provision, energy efficiencies during construction and operation
of housing, as well policies which would consider the social equity and affordability of social housing
projects.
3. Outreach material in form of toolkits for developers, financing institutions and policy makers would
be developed. Stakeholder consultations (consumers, developers, industry experts and government
representatives), along with workshops will be conducted to disseminate the project findings and

1 Social Housing may be used as a synonym of affordable housing in the Indian context.

facilitate engagement. The nature of the toolkit will be decided after the 1 st stakeholder workshop.
Usability, and interest and communication platforms/vehicles of the stakeholders will be assessed
first.
APPROACH & METHODOLOGY:
a. Evidence generation and establishment of baseline for current construction practices and
location decisions of social housing projects in India.
b. Development of sustainability index through the comparative analysis of parameters defined
on materials, building systems, socio-economic considerations based on case studies/ best
practices.
c. Adaptation of the index in select geographies for two selected pilot locations.
d. Development of decision support toolkit for developers and homeowners. This toolkit would
lay down the fundamentals for planning, implementation and operation practices that are
necessary to adopt for achieving sustainability in housing projects/ developments.
DETAILED PROJECT ACTIVITIES (A.1, A.2,)
Activity
A
A.1

A.2

A.3
B
B.1

Activity description
Background study
A.1.1 Determination of influencing
factors for sustainable social housing
A.1.2 Establishment of/developing the
overview of status quo of social housing
in India, and implications by recent and
upcoming policies and legislation
A.1.3 Documentation of case
studies/best practices
(International/national experiences)
A.2.1 Situation Analysis of identified
affordable housing project
Data collection & analysis of
current scenario of affordable
housing projects selected with
respect to the influencing factors
(Mahindra/Adhalaka)
Study of existing materials
&technologies prevalent in
geographical location of the project
Inception workshop among partners +
development of communication strategy
Development of sustainability index
Methodology for development of
sustainability index (weightage and

Outputs/deliverables

1. Progress report 1:
Social Housing in
India

2. Policy brief 1:
Systems and
programmes that
govern social
housing
3. Communications
startegy

1. Progress report 2:
Sustainability index
methodology

Due date

Dec, 2016

Feb, 2017

Apr, 2017

B.2

B.3
C
C.1
C.2

C.3
C.4
D
D.1
D.2
D.3
D.4

normalization of materials, systems and

socio-economic wellbeing)
Selection of parameters:
1. Criteria for selection of indicators
2. Matrix of measurement
3. Data information needed
Stakeholder workshop 1 on Draft
Sustainability Index and finalization of
structure for the decision support tool
Finalization of Sustainability Index
and tool
Finalization of parameters for
assessment of materials and
technologies, socio-economic wellbeing
Meetings with identified stakeholders:

FDG with consumers

FDG with Developers
Structured interviews with
financiers
Semi-structured interviews with
ULBs
Benchmarking and setting of baseline
against the indicators
Stakeholder workshop 2 for finalization
of sustainability index and tool
Testing and Validation of Index and
the tool
Comparative analysis of selected social
housing projects against the selected
parameters (rating)
Re-assessment of index and tool
Stakeholder workshop 3: Endorsement
of sustainability index and the tool
Possible Signing of MoUs for long-term
engagement /Project closure and release
of tool

1. Progress report 3:
Sustainability index

2. Draft policy brief 2:

Need for toolparameters, key
drivers for social
housing

Oct,2017

Dec,2017

March, 2018
1. Progress report 4:
Testing and
Validation
2. Draft Policy brief:
Requisite
institutional
mechanisms for
adopting the tool

June,2018

PROJECT FLOW DIAGRAM

Background
study

Finalization
of
Sustainabilit
y Index and
tool

Developmen
t of
sustainabilit
y index

PROJECT LOGFRAME:
1. Project Outcome2

Testing and
Validation of
Index and
the tool
Means of

Indicators

Verification

Influence 1-2 housing projects

(~300-500 housing units) to
integrate tool and index in the
project and process design

MoU with project promoter or the developer

to apply the co-created tool in their project.

Signing of MoU

Expected
Project milestones that show progress towards achieving the project outcome Milestone for each
Jan-June, Jul-Dec
reporting period
3

Milestone 1(M1) Project Inception

November16

M2:Workshop 1-defining of the parameters for the index

March,2017

M3:Workshop2-draft sustainability index, tool

Nov17

M4: Workshop 3-tool testing, rating and if possible signing of MoU

May18

2. Project Outputs4

Indicators

A) Draft Sustainability Index Review and comments by

Means of Verification

Report of the workshop

2Outcomes : The uptake, adoption or use of project outputs by the project beneficiaries . Observed as

change of Behavior,
Attitude/Action, Condition, Knowledge or Skill
3Milestones: Are benchmarks (not activities) that represent attainment of a project stage or project
achievement that show progress towards project outcomes and outputs. Milestone attainment should
be strictly answerable with a yes or No answer.Outcome milestone will often show progress on a
particular outcome indicator target, but can also be a major significance benchmark , believed to lead
to the outcome

4Outputs : are the products, capital goods and services delivered by the project. Outputs relate to the completion of activities
and managers have a high degree of control over them

i.

framework consisting of :
Criteria for selection of

ii.
iii.
iv.

indicators
Matrix of measurement
Data/information needed
Methodology

stakeholders

including the Index

framework

(weightage/normalizing
v.

etc.)
Structure of the toolkit
Expected

Project milestones that show progress towards achieving the project output

Milestone for each

Jan-June, Jul-Dec
reporting period

Milestone 1 : Inception Workshop

Description: This milestone would include literature review of social housing
indices from various contexts, specific methodologies to address different
material, energy and socio-economic components of the projects, listing of
existing developers and other stakeholder s, initial conversations and identification

November 2016

of key stakeholders that the project will engage with and inventorization of the
supply chain of selected materials and technologies with expert and industry
comments.
Milestone 2: Workshop 1 This milestone would seek validation of the
methodology adopted for the development of sustainability index as well as the
finalization of parameters for sustainability index the structure of the decision

March 2017

support tool.
B)Final sustainability index and
draft

decision

(targeted

at

support

local

toolkit Endorsement by the stakeholders at the

governance, workshop

Report of the
workshop

financial institutions, developers

and consumers) consisting of :

Baseline for the indicators in

the index,
Benchmark against each
indicators

Project output Milestones:

Expected
Milestone for each

Jan-June, Jul-Dec
reporting period
M1: Completion of Workshop 2

November 2017

This milestone would include results from various stakeholder consultations,

focused group discussions as well as interviews with identified government
representatives and other stakeholders. These interactions along with the
parameters finalized in SW 1 would form the base of sustainability index and
decision support tool. The workshop would seek endorsement of the index as well
as the tool.
C) Testing and validation of the

Endorsement/ review by :

sustainability index and the tool on

identified upcoming projects (2
projects)

1. Developers
2. Financiers
3. Governing body (Ministry of
Housing)
4. ULBs

Numbers of
stakeholders willing
to further utilize this
tool.
(potential partners
for signing of
MoUs)

Project output Milestones:

Expected
Milestone for each
Jan-June, Jul-Dec
reporting period

Milestone 1: Completion of Sustainability Rating of the 2 identified projects

Apr,2018

This would include rating the projects as per the defined, material, energy and
socio-economic parameters. The projects would serve to demonstrate usability of
the index and the tool in terms of resource efficiency, energy efficiency and socioeconomic considerations
Milestone 2: Completion of Workshop 3
The findings of this study would be presented to the stakeholder audience for
endorsement
D) Policy briefs for

3 policy briefs:

Peer review of these

mainstreaming sustainable

PB1: systems and programmes that govern

social housing
PB2: Need for tool-parameters, indicators,
key drivers
PB3: Requisite institutional mechanism for
adopting the tool

policy briefs by

urban housing

experts and industry

M1:Completion of Draft policy Brief 1

Feb,2017

M2:Completionof Draft policy Brief 2

Dec, 2017

M3:Completion of Draft policy brief 3

Jun,2018

Detailed baseline and target indicators for the index would be presented to the Secretariat at the
beginning of each reporting period.

IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS
Acti
vity

Activity description

Responsible
partner
DA

TERI

OBU

UN-H
HQ

Output/
deliverable

Primary
responsibility

1. Progress
report 1:
Status of
Social
Housing

1. TERI

UN-H
India

Background study

2. Policy
brief 1:
systems
and
programme
s that
govern
social
housing
A.1

A.1.1 Determination of
influencing factors for
sustainable social housing

2. DAPeer review:
OBU

A.2

A.1.2 Establishment
of/developing the overview
of status quo of social
housing in India, and
implications by recent and
upcoming policies and
legislation
A.1.3 Documentation of
case studies/best practices
(International/national
experiences)
A.2.1 Situation Analysis of
identified affordable
housing project
Data collection &
analysis of current
scenario of affordable
housing projects
selected with respect to
the influencing factors
(Mahindra/Adhalaka)

A.3
A.4
B.

Study of existing
materials
&technologies
prevalent in
geographical location
of the project

Alternative Conventional
materials
materials
and
and
technologi
technologies
es

Analysis of
PMAY,
SMART
Cities and
other
relevant
central/stat
e policies
from
sustainabili
ty
perspective
Webinar or
telecommunic
ation

Inception workshop among

partners + development of
communication strategy
Formulation of policy brief
1:
Development of sustainability index

Analysis of
GRIHA,
LEED/ any
other rating
system
relevant in
Indian
context

Workshop
agenda and
documentation
Peer review

1. Progress
report 2:

B.1

B.2

B.3

Methodology for
Materials
Building
development of
Systems
sustainability index
(weightage and
normalization of materials,
systems and socioeconomic wellbeing)
Selection of parameters:
4. Criteria for selection of
indicators
5. Matrix of measurement
6. Data information
needed
Stakeholder workshop 1 on Documentatio Supporting
Draft Sustainability Index
n
partner
and finalization of structure
for the decision support
tool
Finalization of Sustainability Index and tool

1. DA

Socioeconomi
c
wellbein
g

Workshop
organizatio
n
and
agenda
setting
1. Progress
report 3:
Sustainabili
ty Index
and tool

1. DA

2. Draft
policy brief
2: Need for
toolparameters,
key drivers
for social
housing
C.1

Finalization of parameters
for assessment of materials
and technologies, socioeconomic wellbeing

C.2

Meetings with identified

stakeholders:
FGD with
consumers
FGD with
Developers
Structured
interviews with
financiers
Semi-structured
interviews with
ULBs
Benchmarking and setting
of baseline against the
indicators

C.3

Final
framew
ork
assessm
ent

Based on case
studies
materials

Based on case
studies of
building
systems

Review of
benchmark
s and
baseline

Based
on case
studies
for
socioeconomi
c well

2. TERI- Peer
review: OBU

being
C.4
C.4
D
D.1

D.2
D.3

D.4
D.5

Stakeholder workshop 2 for

finalization of sustainability
index and tool
Formulation of policy brief
2:
Testing and Validation of
Index and the tool
Comparative analysis of
selected social housing
projects against the selected
parameters (rating)
Re-assessment of index and
tool
Stakeholder workshop 3:
Endorsement of
sustainability index and the
tool
Formulation of policy brief
3
Signing of MoUs/Project
closure meeting and
release of tool

Peer review

Workshop
support

Workshop
support

Organisatio
n of
workshop
Peer review

Organisation
of project
closure

Signing of
MoUs

Release of
policy
briefs

Release
of tools

1. Progress
report 4:
Testing and
Validation

OBU

2. Draft
Policy
brief:
Requisite
institutional
mechanism
s for
adopting
the tool

2. UNHabitatPeer reviewOBU

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT RESPONSIBILITY AND MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS

The project would be managed through a project management unit (PMU) comprising of representatives
from DA. The PMU would advise the project implementation team comprising of representatives from
DA&TERI in India with advisory support from UN-Habitat and OBU. The team would be led by senior
representatives from DA and TERI. The team leaders would be supported by senior representatives from
UN-Habitat and Low Carbon Building Group at OBU. Under the team leaders, the team would comprise
of Project Manager (Technical) and Project Manager (Communications& Knowledge Dissemination).
The project managers would be supported by project executives, field staff and other support staff. The
project team would rely on the support of Knowledge partners like Mahindra Lifespaces, who would offer
flagship affordable housing projects for pilot testing. Other project partners would be selected during the
course of the project. In addition to this a dedicated communications team would be working on the
consensus building among the identified stakeholders for the project. The entire team will also be
supported by an administrative staff.
The project team would be advised by an advisory committee comprising of policy makers, industry
experts and practitioners in the field of residential real estate construction. This advisory committee
would also be responsible for monitoring the project progress. The Committee will be formed at the very
start of the project.
Risks and mitigation:
The main risks lie in the possible delays that may happen when implementing pilots as per the
sustainability framework envisaged. Public projects often get delayed due to the processes involved. To
overcome the barriers, pilot selection will be very critical. Factors such as approval of project by state
and/or central government, projects with available site plans etc. will be considered. Institutions which are
open and flexible to basic design changes as per the sustainability framework will also be an important
consideration.
Sustainability:
The initiative aims to develop toolkits with the perspectives of different stakeholders (users, developers,
policy makers, financial institutions). As mentioned, these toolkits will highlight the benefits of adopting
such practices. With the help of these toolkits, changes in the design and construction of buildings,
technology choices can be made by the stakeholders. Their capacities will be built through the toolkits
empowering them to understand the sustainability quotient of the project and recommend changes to the

authorities. This will ensure sustainability of the project. Through the stakeholder workshops and
consultative processes the project aims to gain endorsement for future applicability of the index.
In addition, the assessment of identified projects against the sustainability index will function as tangible
good practice examples and thus have the ability to raise interest in other housing developers and
agencies to apply the index. Since demonstration alone is not a guarantee for replication, the technical and
institutional capacity developed will ensure that interested parties will have a first point of contact both in
the project partners (TERI/DA/UN-Habitat/Oxford Brookes) but also in the selected implementing
agencies.
Replicability:
It is essential to mainstream sustainable construction practices in buildings. Social housing sector and
reconstruction efforts, in small and medium cities particularly, represent a tremendous and untapped
potential for the mainstreaming of such practices in India. Currently, this initiative aims to pilot
sustainable construction practices in 2-3 geographies. However, the potential to be replicated in other
geographies is huge. Based on the lessons from implementation, the decision support sustainability
framework toolkit can be further revised and scaled-up in other Indian states as well. This toolkit which
will highlight the process also has the potential to be replicated in other developing countries.
Outreach and awareness raising:
The project team would explore the following options for the outreach and dissemination of the project
findings:

Dedicated project website and six-monthly newsletters

Presentations at international conferences such as UNEP-SBCIs annual symposium on

sustainable building and construction

Seminars at schools of architecture (since architects tend to specify the building materials for

their designs) such as SPA, IIT-Roorkee

Workshops with policy-makers (Central Government), building control personnel (city

authorities) and architects (through Indian Institute of Architects)

Conference papers at relevant international conferences on energy efficiency and housing.

The final outreach and awareness plan would be shared with the secretariat after the partners
inception meeting.