A Mumbai based, leading Housing finance company Shriram Housing Finance recently came into a collaborative partnership with International Finance Corporation, a wing of World Bank to launch an affordable green housing lending product for self-constructed homes. Through this project, the housing finance company will be able to get the certification of IFC’s Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiency (EDGE) tool for the affordable self-construction segment, customers & impact monitoring tool (CAFI) for reporting of green affordable housing.
Shriram Housing Finance has more than 130 branches and having 2500 employees and nearly 65000 customers pan India, and they are planning to train its wide workforce to advise the prospective customers regarding the advantages of green housing and increase the number of certified greenhouses in their portfolio.
Through this partnership IFC will be training and mentoring capacity building programs for utilizing and operating the EDGE software, the standards and certification system. The training will assist SHFL in promoting the construction of Green Buildings among their potential customers and they will also assess the percentage or number of green components in the constructed buildings to achieve green certification.
In this wake of global warming and uprising pollution level, green, sustainable and environment friendly constructions are most wanted to survive in this world. SHFL is committed to this sustainable housing initiative, and by holding the hand of IFC’s EDGE certification, it can identify buildings where they should work to reduce the carbon footprint and increase the green coverage. He promised that they will identify buildings and reduce at least 20 percent of their energy, water and material consumption. They will aware home owners and buyers to opt for sustainable, energy efficient, cost-effective homes using eco-friendly products.
On asking about the partnership, the Managing Director & CEO, Ravi Subramanian, of SHFL exhibited his gratitude to IFC for the partnership and said, “Who better than to partner with for our affordable green homes financing initiative than the best, IFC.” and further added, “At Shriram Housing Finance, we are committed to the construction of affordable green homes. We believe that with the rising cost of living,energy-efficient homes are the way forward. Through the partnership with IFC, we intend to build the foundation for an eventual self-sustaining housing finance ecosystem for climate-smart, affordable homes.”
The whole program is being conducted and sponsored by the European Union (EU) under the program, Accelerating Climate-Smart and Inclusive Infrastructure in South Asia (ACSIIS) which supports climate-smart, sustainable infrastructure investments in India. India Country Head at IFC, Wendy Werner was very delighted with this agreement and stated, “Together with a leading housing finance player, we will drive the accelerated adoption of green building designs that cut utility costs, raise living standards, and fulfill India’s commitments to the Paris Agreement.” He further added, “This initiative aims to offer vital training and create a conducive business environment for scaling affordable green housing nationwide that, by our estimate, has a $1.4 trillion financing opportunity by 2030.”
Chargé d’Affairesa.i., Delegation of the European Union to India, Seppo Nurmi highlighted saying that according to the estimation of UN, 70 percent of the global population will be living in urban areas by 2050 urban infrastructures are needed to be developed. Looking at India’s population explosion, he commented that India should adopt circular economy principles in affordable green housing to tackle the housing shortage and it will surely give a boost to other developers toventure in this direction.
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