~First housing project in by a corporate house that aims to achieve the LEED Certification~

Tata Steel’s commitment to society as an eco-conscious citizen was reaffirmed today with the ground breaking ceremony of Phase-II of its Employee Housing Project at Kadma. This is for the first time that a company’s housing complex is designed with an environment focus and aimed to achieve ‘National Excellence’ status of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification. The complex has been built keeping in mind Tata Steel’s increasing task force at Jamshedpur owing to its Brownfield expansion. This initiative adds to Tata Steel list of several pioneering ventures towards environment conservation and employee welfare.

The housing complex is being built on the guidelines of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Green Homes. It is the first rating programme developed in India, exclusively for the residential sector and is based on accepted energy and environmental principles which strikes a balance between known established practices and emerging concepts. The system is designed to be comprehensive in scope, yet simple in operation.

The ground breaking ceremony was performed by Mr H M Nerurkar, Managing Director, Tata Steel and Shri Raghunath Pandey, President, Tata Workers’ Union, in presence of Mr Sanjiv Paul, Vice President (Corporate Services), Tata Steel; Mr Manish Sharma, Managing Director, JUSCO and other officials of Tata Steel and JUSCO and IVRCL.

Tata Steel has always been a responsible corporate citizen in its approach to the management of the environment having continuously adopted environment friendly technologies in its operations as well as town management. While increasing its steel making capacity from 6.8 to 10 mtpa over 2005-12, the need to balance the load on environment as well as comfortably accommodate its increasing taskforce has been one of its prime concerns. Consecutively, the Brownfield expansion also called for an increase of employee housing. The housing project comprises construction of 350 flats in Kadma, adjacent to Green Enclave on land created by demolishing old quarters. An additional set of 24 units of apartment for Senior Executives at K. S. Link road, Kadma will also be a part of this comprehensive plan.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Nerurkar said, “Tata Steel’s expansion plans include a significant increase in its employee strength which as well as a need to balance environment from all aspects. The complex is the first one which has been planned not only to architectural perfections but also to the best of environment safety standards. This is our first step towards building green homes for our employees”. Shri Raghunath Pandey, on the occasion, said, “I extend my heartfelt thanks to the management of Tata Steel for approval of such a grand and eco-friendly housing project for its employees.”

Mr Sanjiv Paul, in his opening remarks, said, “This is for the first time that a housing complex is being constructed on lines of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Green Homes in this part of the country. The project aims to accomplish 14 out of the several parameters under this Certification. Moving on this line, therefore, Tata Steel can aim at 50 points which will make this project eligible for Gold certification and a building of ‘National Excellence”.

Tata Steel's proactive initiatives as part of its Vision 2012 have ensured that the standards it sets for itself to improve environmental performance are well beyond norms and statutory duties. Tata Steel is looking at deriving following benefits from this project:

• 15-20% savings in water
• 10-15% savings in electricity
• Health and well being of residents

Tata Steel has engaged the services of M/s. IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects Ltd for this project at a calculated cost of Rs 104 crs. It has also engaged the services of the premier green initiative consultant – EN3 (Engineering, Environment and Energy) – which integrates engineering concepts with architectural visions to produce projects that are seamless, that are in harmony with nature and those that are frugal on fading energy resources.