Ecohousing Minutes 17 July 2007

Pune Citizens Environment Forum – Eco housing Theme Group

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Participants

1. Anangha Paranjape
2. Anchal Sondhi
3. Dinesh Girolla
4. Poorva Keskar
5. Pushkar Kanvinde
6. Sanjay Deshpande
7. Veena Dharmaraj

Discussion Points and Decisions

As the construction sector has a huge impact on environment, the use of natural resources and city infrastructure, the Eco-housing theme group will focus on how construction activity in the city can be more sustainable.

Since the Development Plan is being revised for 2007- 2027, an immediate activity the group will undertake is to provide inputs on measures that would contribute to eco-sensitive housing development in the city. A two-stage process will be followed - policy inputs in the Development Plan and how the policy can be incorporated into the D C Rules.

The introduction of carbon trading as a part of the D C Rules was proposed as implementation of Eco-housing measures would result in greenhouse gas emission reductions.

While Eco-housing looks at residential development, the group will also develop green building guidelines for PMC public buildings, schools, and market places.

As Eco-housing covers a wide range of areas the theme group identified a list of key issues to focus on. Issues and the impact will be evaluated at a macro (city) level and micro (individual project, ward level) level. Preliminary focus areas short listed by the group that will be integrated into the housing development policy and use include

• Inputs in the Development plan for implementation of Eco-housing in new, retrofit and redevelopment projects.
• Detailed study of the rainwater flow pattern in the city to develop a surface water management plan. Micro level studies will be taken up in some wards which will be useful to plan new development.
• As the RWH strategy (storage, recharge,) depends on the hydrology a study to identify the kind of measures that will be useful in different parts of the city can be incorporated in the RWH policy.
• Use sustainability indicators to identify carrying capacity of an area/ward. This will give an idea of the wards where Eco-housing will provide the maximum benefit. The F. S. I. for different wards can be fixed depending on the infrastructure and natural resource availability in that area.
• Examine the impact of Eco-housing on reducing the ecological footprint of a family/building/area.

Data required for analysis will be requested from PMC and other organizations working in the field.

The Eco-housing theme group will meet fortnightly to start with. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 2 August 2007.

Action Items

The following will be circulated to the group prior to the next meeting

1. List of D C Rules related to storm water management, RWH, wastewater treatment - Sanjay
2. List of proposed sustainability indicators – Anagha
3. Calculate the ecological footprint of a family- Veena