ET Edge - Saint-Gobain Smart Green Summit 2015 Calls For Smart Sustainable Development

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Marketing | December 7, 2015 | News

ET Edge Taj Palace Hotel

ET Edge in association with Saint Gobain organised the Smart Green Summit & Awards 2015 at the Taj Palace, New Delhi on Dec 2, 2015. Eminent speakers and thought leaders came together for a series of strategic discussions to converse about the various aspects of creating a Sustainable Habitat. Anant Geete (Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises), Babul Supriyo (Minister of State for Urban Development), Anand Mahajan (General Delegate for India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh, Saint-Gobain) and international speakers like J. Mayer H, Dr. Nigel Oseland, James Edwards and Simon Griffins spoke at the one-day summit.

The Summit was held at the onset of the 350th anniversary of Saint-Gobain and its success story. “Saint-Gobain believes that it can play an important role in shaping the future by designing, manufacturing and distributing building and high-performance materials, which provide innovative solutions to meet the challenges of growth, energy efficiency and environmental protection. On our 350th anniversary, we aim to strengthen this commitment even further by becoming the reference for sustainable habitat in India and doubling our business in the country in the next few years.”, says Anand Mahajan, General Delegate for India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh, Saint-Gobain.

The second half of the Summit closed with Y.C. Deveshwar (Chairman, ITC) receiving the Jury Smart Green Leader Award (Lifetime Achievement) where he shared, “Team ITC has been hard at work to realize the vision we set out for ourselves almost 2 decades ago. These 2 decades have seen us become a global exemplar in sustainability, which is much more than just being green. If India continues with the way we are, we consume more than what the planet can bear, we are on a track that is not sustainable. We must create a business model that sees us create riches for business and for the environment."

The event was a platform to discuss a more "disruptive" form of innovation needed to bring about significant and systemic change. Speaking at the Summit, Anant Geete said, “The world today is alert about environmental factors and sustainable development. Just like Shri. Narendra Modi enlightened at the Climate Change Summit, I would reiterate that we need to understand our responsibility towards environmental changes today and work towards development keeping sustainability in mind. This will help us transform into a developed and Green nation.”

Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Urban Development adds, "When it comes down to what we can do, we need to become more aware of how we can participate in making our cities smart enough to support the plethora of people moving into urban areas. We have 4041 cities in India, and they are full because rural areas haven't been taken care of as they should have. With a lot of our cities being ancient, history doesn't favour you in present times. It actually hurts you more."

Delivering comfort in a sustainable way through design is an essential element today. Simon Griffiths (Executive Principal, Aedas) elaborated, “There are always going to be gaps and holes that need to be filled when it comes to planning a city. To develop a city sustainably will take time. We can start to add layers to the city, whether old or new, but maybe the right way of city planning is not to expand outwards, but to consolidate. Rather than consolidate, densify current cities.”

Speaking about the event, Deepak Lamba (President, Times Conferences Limited) said, "Smart 
Green 2015 is a platform that addresses the most pertinent need of the hour. Sustainability and 
innovation is an initiative to be taken with utmost priority and what's imperative is for it to be taken up in a novel manner. With changing patterns of behaviour, we spend more time indoors than outdoors. Consequently, it is important to create a design which is conducive to our senses and takes heed of our surroundings."