A first-of-its-kind rating system for green logistics parks and warehouses promises to assess these areas on the basis of a variety of green concepts that the CII-Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) has specified. The system, which consumer affairs secretary Leena Nandan launched digitally during the recent inaugural session of CII Institute of Logistics Conference on Building Warehousing Competitiveness 2020, is what IGBC chairman V. Suresh describes as “a unique and exclusively developed way” to address logistics parks, warehouses, cold storages and other such facilities in India. It will also rate the design of docking bays and dock levellers, electric vehicles for indoor the material handling, greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement and mitigation, the mix of transport modes, vehicular routing, parking for service vehicles, green packaging and basic amenities for staff and drivers. According to Suresh, who is also the former chairman and managing director of the public-sector Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), the current demand in the logistics sector indicates that it will contribute 1 billion sq ft of registered green footprint by 2022. IGBC’s aspiration is to multiply this tenfold, to 10 billion sq ft, he says. The objective of the rating system, explains A.M. Visvanathan, chair, IGBC Green Logistics Parks & Warehouses, is “to drive and facilitate a holistic approach for developing world-class green logistics facilities in the country”. The logistics sector in India, he points out, is seeing a rapid rise in demand for freight-forwarding, warehousing and supply chain. “Therefore, it is imperative for the sector to adopt green principles to optimise the use of natural resources and aid growth in a sustainable manner,” he adds.
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Logistics systems are set to get more friendly to the environment and people
