From the Ground Up

The report argues that India's buildings sector must adopt an integrative whole-system approach to address both embodied and operational emissions. It highlights that building operations account for about a third of India's energy use, and without intervention, energy consumption could triple by 2050. The proposed framework prioritises reducing energy needs through passive design, serving those needs with super-efficient equipment, and transitioning to clean energy procurement and demand flexibility. Key recommendations include government mandates for net-zero public buildings, the adoption of carbon accounting for corporations, and the implementation of building performance standards to ensure actual operational efficiency.

• Building operations in India account for approximately one-third of the country's total energy use, while the production of building materials and construction of new buildings consume another 10%.
• Without significant energy-efficiency improvements and policy measures, the buildings sector's energy consumption is projected to be over three times higher by 2050 than current levels, with carbon emissions nearly quadrupling.
• India's total building floor area is projected to more than double by 2040, creating a critical window to avoid energy and carbon lock-in by building efficiently from the start.
• Embodied carbon emissions from construction are roughly equal in magnitude to operational carbon emissions, and these indirect emissions almost tripled between 2000 and 2017.
• The use of super-efficient room air conditioners (RACs), such as those demonstrated by the Global Cooling Prize, could reduce India's peak electricity demand by 400 GW by 2050.
• Scaling high-efficiency ceiling fans could result in a cumulative reduction of 300 million tonnes of CO2e in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, reducing annual energy consumption by 40 TWh/y.
• Demand flexibility in buildings can reduce carbon emissions by 10% to 11% in high-renewable grid scenarios dominated by wind and solar.
• The report identifies several systemic barriers to implementation, including the 'invisibility of benefits' where high-performance buildings are not valued by the market, and a 'first-cost bias' that prioritises initial expenditure over life-cycle costs.
• The report recommends that the Government of India mandate all new public buildings to be net-zero in operational energy and implement low-embodied-carbon requirements.
• To ensure actual operational efficiency, the report suggests implementing building performance standards, which include energy benchmarking ordinances and statutory maximum energy consumption limits.

APA

RMI (2022). From the Ground Up. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2022/11/decarbonising_from_the_ground_up.pdf

Chicago

RMI. From the Ground Up. 2022. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2022/11/decarbonising_from_the_ground_up.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=From the Ground Up |date=November 2022 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2022/11/decarbonising_from_the_ground_up.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2022from, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{From the Ground Up}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2022/11/decarbonising_from_the_ground_up.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }