World's Most Environmentally Friendly Building Inaugurated

July 14, 2004

NEW DELHI - Today in Hyderabad President Kalam inaugurated the CII-Godrej Green Business Centre, which has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council as the most environmentally advanced building in the world. The centre will assist businesses and government in finding business solutions to India 's pressing environmental problems. Such solutions often involve the adoption of more environment friendly and profitable technologies and business processes.

Plans for the centre were conceived during the winter of 2000 when experts from CII and Andhra Pradesh toured leading energy and environmental centers across the U.S. with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Amongst the group was Karan Grover of KGA Associates who prepared the design concept for the building of the Green Business Centre.

Recognizing that green business would not only be good for the environment but also represented a growth industry, the Andhra Pradesh government then donated five acres of for the GBC building and another 1,000 acres for a Green Industrial Park. With this level of commitment from the state government, CII approached its members and received a large donation from the Godrej family sufficient to design and build a state-of-the-art "green" building for the center.

In response to this broad-based public and private initiative, in March 2003 USAID announced a $1.2 million, 3-year matching grant award under its Global Development Alliance. The grant will assist the centre as it develops detailed plans for each major area, including green buildings, green business incubation, and water and energy conservation.