Promoting Green Construction in India through Industry-Academia Collaboration

Developing economies have seen a big jump in construction activities recently. In India, the shortage of 41 million housing units to accommodate the existing population has resulted in a flurry of construction activities (Tiwari 2001). Going green in every sector, including construction, is being emphasized both by the top management of corporations and consumers (Arif et al. 2009b). With the advent of the “green consumer” (Moisander and Pesonen 2002) there has been considerably more pressure on producers of buildings to look for ways to make their product greener. The green consumer phenomenon is global, and is here to stay. To promote green construction in India, it is important that we look at the drivers and barriers of green construction in India. Arif et al. (2009a,b) presented findings from a workshop conducted in 2008. Among several findings of this workshop were the lack and/or adequacy of industry-academia collaboration both in taught programs and research in the area of green construction in India. The new graduates are still not prepared to think and practice “green” in their professions in part because the academic institutions have not made adequate changes to their curriculum and research agendas to impart that knowledge.