Mumbai, 23 August, 2022: Xynteo, a purpose-driven advisory firm, has launched the Build Ahead Coalition, a business-led alliance bringing together key industry majors –JLL, Godrej Construction, Lodha, JSW Cement, Stichting SED Fund and Shell India. An industry-first coalition, Build Ahead aims to bring together multiple stakeholders from the construction value chain in India including producers, consumers, financiers, and technology providers to accelerate the use of low carbon building materials, with the goal to support India achieving its net-zero targets by 2070.

Commenting on the announcement, Sandeep Sethi, Managing Director, Work Dynamics – West Asia, JLL said: “We are extremely proud to be a part of Build Ahead to help support the transition towards India achieving a low-carbon future. With the coalition, through collaboration with other partners, we will be able to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment and support the Prime Minister’s pledge of net-zero emissions for India by 2070.”

The coalition is formed to pursue three key goals:

1. Enhance the adoption of low-carbon building materials through increased awareness, defining application-based standards and developing common definitions of low-carbon materials
2. Improving access to new decarbonisation technologies and finance needed to enable manufacturers of building materials to reduce emissions from the production of these building materials
3. Advocating enabling policies to support increased procurement and production of low carbon building materials

Vipul Kumar, Managing Director, Xynteo said: “Today, the world faces an unprecedented climate crisis, necessitating urgent action to limit global warming as compared to pre-industrial levels. The cement and concrete sectors are critical parts of the construction value chain and contribute significantly to the carbon footprint of the built environment. We are proud to launch Build Ahead, bringing together key cement producers, construction companies, technology enablers and financiers. Our goal is to accelerate decarbonisation across the construction value chain towards net-zero emissions and encourage collaboration between industry players and the broader ecosystem to create measurable impact and support the country to meet its climate change goals.”

Over the recent years, the Indian cement sector has made significant progress in adopting ways and practices to reduce carbon emissions towards becoming one of the most energy-efficient sectors in the world. Yet, the mounting climate change crisis necessitates further efforts to reduce global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, including emissions from cement, concrete, steel, and other building materials, as well as emissions from the design, use and end-of-life phases of the construction and infrastructure sectors. To achieve net-zero emissions, the whole value chain needs to collectively commit to adopting low/zero carbon building materials.

To achieve this vision, forward-leaning business leaders in the Build Ahead Coalition will work together to support first movers and de-risk investments to scale innovative decarbonisation technologies and low-carbon building materials by facilitating better access to diverse sources of enabling finance. Through collective action and collaboration, Build Ahead endeavors to reduce embodied emissions through accelerating the demand for low carbon building materials.

Commenting on this launch, Nitin Prasad, Chairman Shell companies in India said: “The Build Ahead coalition aligns with Shell’s Powering Progress strategy. As one of the founding members of the coalition we hope to work with and assist partners in exploring potential low and zero carbon technologies. Our goal is to accelerate the construction value chain towards net zero emissions, by fostering collaboration and thought leadership.”

https://www.jll.co.in/en/newsroom/accelerate-india-decarbonisation-efforts?utm_source=Eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AP-IN-2022-ESG-Coalition%20Xynteo&utm_term=2464173