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Impacts of sustainable consumption and production initiatives in energy and waste management sectors: examples from India

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Abstract

Energy and waste management sectors are considered important for the country’s progress towards adopting sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. However, the rapid pace of urbanization, energy-intensive growth approaches, and generation of large quantities of waste have led to severe environmental degradation of cities in India. While the government has taken several initiatives for increasing resource efficiency, limited research has been done in an Indian context to explore the policy and institutional factors. The paper focuses on challenges relating to policy enablers within the energy management in buildings and construction and demolition waste sectors; 28 semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders associated with both these sectors. The findings indicate that though India has been integrating climate change measures into its national policies and enhancing the domestic market’s readiness for a circular economy, successful implementation of policy framework(s) urgently requires lifestyle and behavioural changes in the society. The study further identified the role of key stakeholders including government, businesses, and consumers, for transition to a low-carbon economy for both these sectors. This paper presents a bottom-up approach to understand the changes required in the enabling environment for the uptake of SCP practices that can be adapted by other emerging economies in the Asia Pacific region for building resource efficiency. The importance of soft factors relating to institutional capacities and governance structure is raised by the analysis in this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is based on the report titled Development of case studies for Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2020, funded by UNESCAP. The sectoral case studies in this paper have been enriched based on responses from several experts and practitioners from Bureau of Energy Efficiency, project implementation agency (EESL), power distribution companies (BSES &Tata Power), research institutions (CEEW, EDS and TERI), ESCO companies (Smart Joule and ZENATIX), residential and commercial property developers, architects and consultants, equipment suppliers, recycling plant managers (ILFS), and knowledge and research partners involved in C&DW management.

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  1. TERI School of Advanced Studies, Plot No. 10, Institutional area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 110070, India

    Shaleen Singhal, Sapan Thapar & Meenakshi Kumar

  2. Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, 1255 Western Rd, London, ON, N6G 0N1, Canada

    Sourabh Jain

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1

1.1 Semi-structured Questionnaire for Energy management in buildings and C&D waste management sectors

A. Questions for experts and professions such as architects, lighting designers, HVAC consultants:

  • In your opinion, how has the implementation of building energy codes contributed to energy efficiency in buildings?

  • In practice, how do the residential and commercial sector comply with the requirements for energy efficiency?

  • What are the major barriers to the uptake of the green building program?

  • What are the opportunities that the green building programs offer the stakeholders?

  • What are the technological advancements that can support design for energy efficiency?

  • Which green building rating program do clients prefer and why?

B. Questions for developers in the residential, commercial sector and equipment suppliers:

  • In your opinion, how has the implementation of mandatory building energy codes such as ECBC contributed to energy efficiency in buildings?

  • What is the kind of incentive being given to developers to encourage the uptake of building energy codes?

  • In your opinion, what strategies and interventions can promote energy efficiency in the residential sector?

  • How much more investment is required for the green branding of commercial and residential buildings?

  • What are the major barriers that you face for implementing green building programs?

  • Which green building rating program do you prefer and why?

C. Questions for construction and demolition waste C&DW recyclers:

  • What is the most common C&DW management practices in India?

  • Are the technologies available in India for C&DW recycling suitable for recycling C&DW in an Indian context?

  • In your opinion, what are the challenges in recycling C&DW in India?

  • What are the most common quality concerns associated with the products manufactured from the recycled C&DW?

  • What is the kind of incentives being given to encourage the recycling of C&DW? In your opinion, has implementing mandatory recycled C&DW materials in government contracts helped increase its acceptability?

  • In your opinion, what strategies and interventions can further promote C&DW recycling in India?

D. Questions for energy appliance retailers, policy regulators, civil society representatives, power companies, and services providers (ESCOs):

  • What is the market composition of energy-efficient products and the challenges to increase their penetration?

  • What business models can be adopted for streamlining the sales of energy efficient products?

  • How effective are the existing government programmes in influencing consumers’ behaviour towards use of energy?

  • How can synergies be developed between government schemes to achieve energy targets?

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Singhal, S., Thapar, S., Kumar, M. et al. Impacts of sustainable consumption and production initiatives in energy and waste management sectors: examples from India. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 14184–14209 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-02026-3

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