In Accordance with global trend to protect the environment, India is expected to increase the number of green building projects from current 164 to over 2,000 by 2012.

CII Green Business Centre Head S Raghupathy said,India is leading in the way of promoting green bulidings close behind close behind the US, Australia and Canada.

Green buildings use environment friendly designs and materials to ensured pollution free environment and reduction in energy bills through application of smart energy management, application of solar photovoltaic system, high performance windows, heat resistant paints, among others.

A blend of the modern and the traditional methods while constructing new buildings is adopted to promoting green buildings,inspite of mere western methods and technology

Several ambitious plans around the world envision to build emission-free and carbon-neutral cities , known as green cities.

Here is the BusinessWeek list of The World’s Green Cities around the world

• H2PIA - Denmark -by HiRC How2Live Hydrogen Architecture
• BedZED - Wallington, England- by Bill Dunster Architects
• Dockside Green - Victoria, British Columbia- by Windmill West
• Green Mountain - Libya- by Foster & Partners
• Northstowe - Cambridge, England - by Gallagher Estates
• Masdar - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - by Foster & Partners
• Guangtang Chuangye Park - Liuzhou, China - by William McDonough & Partners
• Dongtan - Chongming Island, China- by Arup

[Via - Business week]

Village of 1,300 families in Bantwal taluk of Mangalore, India has been inspired by a revolutionary self-help movement called Apna Desh to take on leadership role and to keep it free of plastic waste.

In Ira village of Bantwal taluk, polythene is a strict no-no. “If a person does not accept anything in a poly pack, the shopkeepers, in other villagers too, will know that the person is from Ira,” says gram panchayat secretary Chandrashekhar.

Ira’s panchayat volunteers were educated about the negative effects of plastic. They have build a “plastic hill” from the village waste, which will later be taken to a Bangalore recycling company that uses it to build roads.

Recently, a team of 20 representatives from UNICEF, representing countries like Indonesia, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe, visited the village and studied various aspects of the place comprising its sanitation, developmental projects, cleanliness, and the like. Continue reading…

The 11 warmest years in this set have all occurred within the last 13 years. For the northern hemisphere alone, 2007 was the second warmest recorded, according to scientists.

THE 10 WARMEST YEARS
1998: 0.52C (above the 1961-1990 average)
2005: 0.48C
2003: 0.46C
2002: 0.46C
2004: 0.43C
2006: 0.42C
2007 (provisional): 0.41C
2001: 0.40C
1997: 0.36C
1995: 0.28C

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