When it comes down to what we can do, we need to become more aware of how we can participate in making our cities smart enough to support the plethora of people moving into urban areas. We have 4041 cities in India, and they are full because rural areas haven’t been taken care of as they should have.

There are always going to be gaps and holes that need to be filled when it comes to planning a city. We can start to add layers to the city, whether old or new, but maybe the right way of city planning is not to expand outwards, but to consolidate. Rather than consolidate, densify current cities.

We as architects and developers need to accept that technology will be the drivers of our projects. A combination of active and passive features will make green and sustainable buildings more possible than ever.

At Saint-Gobain, sustainability is not just the core of our strategy. It is a philosophy that is visible in various facets of our working. Sustainability for us means being in balance with the community and is at the heart of our CSR agenda. We see ourselves as part of a larger social ecosystem and ensure we support community development in various forms. Today, sustainability is one of the biggest challenges that the world faces, and we take pride in our contribution to sustainability and will continue our efforts.

At a time when the global leaders are congregating in Paris to discuss how to mitigate the effect of climate change on humanity, I’m sure that all of us can make a huge difference to India combining its economic development with sustainability. Much of the Western world, and even China, has been built, but not a lot of it in necessarily a sustainable way. India is now embarking on a journey of growth & development and our thought leaders and influencers such as government, regulators and consultants can together make India’s growth story much more sustainable and much less harmful in the ecological sense. That’s what the Saint-Gobain and Economic Times Smart Green Summit is all about.

There are questions being raised with regards to environment-friendly development around the globe, because sustainable development concerns us all. The discussions we are having today will bear fruit tomorrow. We need to work towards making a positive change, and the Smart Green Summit & Awards is an important step in this direction.

There can be buildings that are rated green, but not the whole township. We have to work from outwards to inwards, i.e., from development to construction. We need to understand how we can do development without changing the whole ecosystem. Only then can we ensure that it is not only buildings, but also the built environment that is also green.

If we are not able to save enough resources through green building practices and resource-efficient practices, down the line the poorer people will not be able to get access, so it is very critical for us to save resources today.

I think here in India we have the potential to see everything automatically re-used and re-interpreted for new products without going through an industrial process. I think this has a lot of value and should be explored more.

Amaravati has been planned for 2.5 million people and this land pooling exercise is the largest one India has seen, with 33,000 acres of land pooled. We have planned this as the people’s city for inclusive development.

These are the first few steps of an industry looking to meet the demand of a nation through architectural solutions. I am confident that once we push forward we will find remarkable progress and that the challenge is very inspiring.