Productivity growth in competitive labor markets can improve worker welfare over time through higher wages or better conditions, but it is unclear if productivity gains benefit workers in coercive labor markets (where force or threats shape employment). We examine this issue in the Bangladesh brick sector using a randomized trial that introduced a more efficient production method. Despite large productivity improvements, we find no reduction in (high) rates of labor trafficking or child labor. These findings suggest that in the short-term, productivity growth alone may be insufficient to improve work conditions in coercive settings.

We present results from a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh that introduced operational practices to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions in 276 "zigzag" brick kilns. Of all intervention kilns, 65% adopted the improved practices. Treatment assignment reduced energy use by 10.5% (P-value <0.001) and decreased CO2 and PM2.5 emissions by 171 and 0.45 metric tons, respectively, per kiln per year. Valuing the CO2 reductions using a social cost of carbon of 185 USD per metric ton, we find that the social benefits outweigh costs by a factor of 65 to 1. The intervention, which required no new capital investment, also decreased fuel costs and increased brick quality. Our results demonstrate the potential for privately profitable, as well as publicly beneficial, improvements to address environmental problems in informal industries.

The brick manufacturing industry in Bangladesh is characterized by informal inefficient coal-burning kilns that emit substantial greenhouse gases and air pollution. Despite decades of regulatory measures and the promotion of advanced kiln technologies, informal kilns persist. We employed a multiphase, interdisciplinary, mixed- methods approach to identify solutions. In this paper, we first summarize past approaches and discuss the key barriers we identified to improving the industry, then we present the design, and results of a randomized pilot energy efficiency intervention designed to overcome barriers to improved kiln operation. Our approach emphasized collaborating with informal zigzag kiln owners, who constitute the majority of brick producers, and carefully considering their incentives for changing a profitable business model. The intervention achieved high (60 %), including from non-study kilns, highlighting its appeal. Our findings provide insights into key elements for a successful intervention strategy that can be applied in larger-scale studies, not only for brick manufacturing but also for addressing broader environmental and health challenges.

The urban residential building footprint is expected to increase four-fold during 2020-2050 in the Indo-Gangetic Plains region of India. The business-as-usual construction technology of RCC frame with solid burnt clay brick as the walling material use large quantities of steel, concrete and solid brick and is highly resource and carbon intensive. The region produces 110-140 billion solid burnt clay bricks per year. Brick production is associated with large energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, air pollution and degradation of agricultural land. The study presents an innovative new burnt clay product – vertically cored interlocking burnt clay block that is being manufactured by a brick manufacturer in the region. The study presents the results of the life cycle analysis (as per EN 15804) and quantifies reductions in carbon and resource consumption for the product and the building element (wall). The analysis is based on the data collected from the industry. The cradle to gate analysis shows a reduction of 31% in the CO2 emissions (kgCO2/m3 of burnt product) and 58% in soil consumption (m3 of soil/m3 of burnt product) for the vertically cored hollow block. A 150 mm thick wall made of vertically cored hollow block results in 55% reduction in the CO2 emissions (kgCO2/m2 of wall) when compared to a 230 mm thick wall of solid brick. In addition, the cement consumption in mortar reduces by 66% and sand consumption by 62% per m2 of wall area. The study further indicates a significant reduction in concrete and steel consumption by extending the analysis to the building level.

Energy conservation in brick production is crucial to achieving net-zero carbon emissions from the building sector, especially in countries with major expansions in the built environment. However, widely disparate energy consumption estimates impede benchmarking its importance relative to the steel and cement industries. Here we modelled Indian brick production and its regional energy consumption by combining a nationwide questionnaire survey on feedstock, process variables and practices with remote sensing data on kiln enumeration. We found a large underreporting in current official estimates of energy consumption, with actual energy consumption comparable to that in the steel and cement industries in the country. With a total estimated production of 233 ± 15 billion bricks per year, the brick industry consumes 990 ± 125 PJ yr −1 of energy, 35 ± 6 Mt yr −1 coal and 25 ± 6 Mt yr −1 biomass. The main drivers of energy consumption for brick production are the kiln technology, the production capacity and the fuel mix used. The results suggest that improving operating practices would be a first step in making brick production more energy efficient.

In India, there was no code for building envelope of residential buildings until the recently (14 December 2018) launched code, "Eco-Niwas Samhita 2018". Among different code provisions, a maximum RETV value is defined for cooling dominated climates, calculated by a simple (RETV) formula. It gives a quantitative measure of heat gains through the building envelope (excluding roof). Energy simulation were done with various combinations (floor plan, climate and building envelope) of inputs to calculate the RETV. RETV formula included key envelope parameters and multiple linear regression analysis was done to minimize the error between the simulated RETV and calculated RETV. The results show that the Average coefficient of determination (R-squared) between RETVsimulated and RETVformula as 0.95. While complying with RETV provision helps in reducing cooling energy and improving thermal comfort; the RETV formula can also be used as a design tool, to quickly evaluate and compare various design alternatives and material options, for their thermal performance.

This contribution presents the approach and methodology followed by the Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) [1] to contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency and climate change resilience for multi-story residential buildings in the rapidly growing urban construction in India. As a consequence, the urban resilience will be improved at two levels: 1) the improved thermal comfort in non-air-conditioned apartments will reduce the health-related heat wave impact, 2) the cooling energy demand in air-conditioned apartment will be reduced by 20-40%. The impact of the Energy Conservation Building Code for Residential (ECO Niwas Samhita) was launched in December 2018 by the Indian Government. It has been estimated to reach a cumulative 100 Million tons of CO2 emission reduction by 2030. The Code was developed with the main objective to reduce heat gains between 20 to 40% through the building envelope by passive measures at no or marginal additional costs of construction.

CASE STUDY OF AN ENERGY EFFICIENT COMMERCIAL BUILDING: VALIDATING DESIGN INTENT & ENERGY SIMULATION RESULTS WITH MONITORED PERFORMANCE DATA Prashant Bhanware, Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP), India Pierre Jaboyedoff, BEEP, Switzerland Saswati Chetia, BEEP, India Sameer Maithel, BEEP, India Bharath Reddy, BEEP, India

State Public Works Departments (PWDs) and other similar government departments responsible for the construction of public buildings in the states have an important role in making the public building energy efficient and thermally comfortable as well as in the implementation of the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC). Well-designed, energy-efficient public buildings have a large demonstration effect. Many countries have adopted the strategy of show-casing energy-efficient design, technologies and design practices by first adopting them for the public buildings. The Schedule of Rates (SoR) and other technical documents of PWDs are also referred by the private sector builders, thus influencing the construction industry practices of the private sector as well. The paper is based on the experience of working with the PWDs and other state departments responsible for construction of public buildings in three states: Karnataka, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. A threestep approach was adopted for engaging with the state agencies: a) conducting seminars to create awareness, b) providing technical support for integration of energy efficiency strategies in the design of specific public building projects, and c) development of statespecific guidelines for design of energy efficient and thermally comfortable public buildings. The paper presents the approach and learnings. It also present ideas for better and effective engagement with the state PWDs to help in mainstreaming energy efficient building design practices in state PWDs.

India is witnessing a rapid increase in the residential building floor space. A survey of electricity use in middle class multi-family housing shows that electricity use for cooling and ventilation accounts for 30-60% of the annual electricity consumption. Thus, the new residential building stock should be designed to maximize thermal comfort, and to minimize energy requirement for cooling and ventilation. This paper is based on research on energy use in dwellings and energy modelling of typical spaces in dwellings. The paper presents key strategies for designing energy efficient multi-storey residential buildings: 1. Strategies to reduce solar heat gains through the building envelope by proper sizing and shading of windows (external fixed and/or movable), insulation of roof and walls. 2. Strategies to improve ventilation, when desired, inside flats through window design and assisted ventilation. The paper presents the results of integrating energyefficient envelope and ventilation strategies in sample bedrooms of 3 multi-storey residential projects located at Indore (composite climate), Chennai (warm and humid climate) and Rajkot (composite climate). The experience from these 3 projects shows that a reduction in peak operative temperatures in a range of 4 7°C is possible by implementing these strategies.

Results of monitoring of electricity consumption in typical multi-storey residential flats in the composite climate region of India, have shown that 30-60% of the annual electricity consumption is used for space conditioning, mainly cooling of bedrooms and living room. Most of the cooling load in the residential buildings originates from solar heat gains and heat transmission through the envelope (through windows, walls, and roof). Thus, special attention is needed to reduce solar heat gains and heat transmission through improved building envelope. Until recently, the passive heat gains were overlooked. This study aims as demonstrating the importance of passive features on reducint the gross thermal cooling energy demand. This paper discusses the results of the thermal performance (performed using TRNSYS 17 software) and daylighting analysis (performed using ReluxPro Professional software) of typical bedroom and living room cases. The paper discusses the impact of various building envelope features on the gross thermal cooling energy through parametric simulation analysis. The analysis includes parametric analysis of window to wall ratio, external wall to floor-area ratio, wall insulation, external finish of the wall, window design, and shading systems, on the thermal performance and daylighting of the building, and provides recommendations from an energy-efficiency perspective. The potential of gross thermal cooling energy reduction is of 23-56% depending of the package of measures. The tool used was the Parametric Generator developed under VBA in the Excel environment. This work was carried out under the Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) and resulted in the development of guidelines for the design of energy efficient residential buildings for composite climatic regions of India (BEE, 2014).

Thirteen South Asian brick kilns were tested to quantify aerosol and gaseous pollutant emissions. Particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), and optical scattering and absorption measurements in the exhaust of six kiln technologies demonstrate differences in overall emission profiles and relative climate warming resulting from kiln design and fuel choice. Emission factors differed between kiln types, in some cases by an order of magnitude. The kilns currently dominating the sector had the highest emission factors of PM2.5 and light absorbing carbon, while improved Vertical Shaft and Tunnel kilns were lower emitters. An improved version of the most common technology in the region, the zig-zag kiln, was among the lowest emitting kilns in PM2.5, CO, and light absorbing carbon. Emission factors measured here are lower than those currently used in emission inventories as inputs to global climate models; 85% lower (PM2.5) and 35% lower for elemental carbon (EC) for the most common kiln in the region, yet the ratio of EC to total carbon was higher than previously estimated (0.96 compared to 0.47). Total annual estimated emissions from the brick industry are 120 Tg CO2, 2.5 Tg CO, 0.19 Tg PM2.5, and 0.12 Tg EC.

India has more than 100,000 brick kilns producing around 250 billion bricks annually. Indian brick industry is often a small scale industry and third largest consumer of coal in the country. With the growing demand for building materials and characterised by lack of pollution control measures the brick industry has a potential to cause adverse effects on the environment. This paper presents assessment of five brick making technologies based on the measurements carried out at seventeen individual brick kilns. Emissions of PM, SO2, CO and CO2 were measured and these emissions were used to estimate the emission factors for comparing the emissions across different fuel or operating conditions. Estimated emission from brick kilns in South Asia are about 0.94 million tonnes of PM; 3.9 million tonnes of CO and 127 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Among various technologies that are widely used in India, Zig zag and vertical shaft brick kilns showed better performance in terms of emissions over the traditional fixed chimney Bull's trench kilns. This suggests that the replacement of traditional technologies with Zig zag, vertical shaft brick kilns or other cleaner kiln technologies will contribute towards improvements in the environmental performance of brick kiln industry in the country. Zig zag kilns appear to be the logical replacement because of low capital investment, easy integration with the existing production process, and the possibility of retrofitting fixed chimney Bull's trench kilns into Zig zag firing. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Building construction in India is estimated to grow at a rate of 6.6% per year between 2005 and 2030 resulting in a continuous increase in demand for building materials. Fired clay bricks are the most widely-used walling materials in the country. However, over the past few decades, the development of other materials such as concrete blocks, fly ash bricks, stabilized mud blocks, etc., has created viable alternatives to bricks. There is limited understanding of the broader environmental consequences of these building materials addressing natural resource depletion, energy, environment and socio-economic impacts.The main objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive assessment of materials used for wall construction by comparing one square meter of constructed wall for each of the materials. A composite Environmental Index was developed by weighting and aggregating normalized numerical scores of several parameters making use of a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) framework. The Environmental Index was then ranked to determine walling systems that are best suited in the context of India.Our analysis shows that wall assemblies that use non-fired products as masonry units are ranked higher compared to fired masonry unit wall assemblies. Clay fired masonry wall assemblies exhibit poorer environmental performance compared to non-fired masonry wall assemblies. When a more efficient form of construction such as the Rat-trap bond wall construction is considered, the environmental performance of clay fired brick walls is significantly improved. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

During the last 15 years, the sustained economic growth in India has generated considerable increases in energy demand. Moreover, while the building sector already accounts for 33 % of the country’s electricitydemand, and while the building stock is expected to increase twofold at least by 2030, the issue of energy efficiency in buildings becomes a matter of primary concern for the nation’s continued social and economic development. In an attempt to respond to this challenge and to contribute to reducing energy consumption in new buildings, an agreement was signed between the Swiss and Indian governments to launch a bilateral cooperation program entitled the Indo–Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Programme (BEEP). One of the main components of this program consists in performing and promoting the practice of Integrated Design Charrettes for large commercial building projects. Integrated Design Charrettes appear to be an adapted mechanism to bring about change in building practices in India at a time when the Indian building sector is undergoing unprecedented growth, which presents considerable challenges for energy demand management and sustainable development. The objectives are twofold, first, to create best practices in India’s large commercial building projects and second to build the capacity of Indian practitioners to develop energy efficient and climate responsive building concepts.