Faiza Solanki, IFC, World Bank Member, at the Sustainability Summit The Hindu 2026 in Chennai on September 23, 2026.
| Photo Credit: M. Srinath
Faiza Solanki, regional technical and business development specialist, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group Member on Wednesday said several banks offered rebate on interest rates for those building green homes. This applied for those constructing individual houses and building homes commercially.
During a panel discussion moderated by N. Ravikumar of The Hindu on ‘Real Estate and Sustainability: Building growth without building environmental debt’, at the CPCL-The Hindu Sustainability Summit 2026 held in the city, she said banks had a list of eight points to be covered for individuals.
Ms. Solanki said more and more commercial buildings and residential buildings were going for green certification. “From 2013, main stream green certification has been growing. It is still growing. Even affordable buildings such as the Tamil Nadu government’s Thozhi Hostels are green verified,” she added.
She said the major barrier in people going in for green certification was the lack of understanding about the benefits. “For most commercial spaces in Tamil Nadu, monsoon is a tricky business. When buyers see how much resilient a structure is, how much man hours have been saved, they will be interested. Similarly, when buyers invest in new houses they are going through a capital finance. If there is home loan reduction they will go for it.”
Vishwajit Kumar, Managing Director, Navin’s Housing, said many commercial buildings were going net zero carbon and tenants too were willing to pay for the facilities created in terms of renewables. “Though it does not cost significantly more than a regular building, unlike commercial sector, residential buyers do not ask for it.”
Bharath Kumar Venkatesan, managing partner, Urbando, said that from their perception, many customers view sustainable building as a tag of luxury. Customers look for comfort and convenience rather than go for aspects that could give a good life and increase their life span. People were spoilt they want to splurge.
All the panelists called for the need for the State government incentivising green buildings. “An additional free FSI would be great. If such a programme is run for say a decade, it would easily become the standard,” they said.
The panellists also elaborated on how traditional homes in villages still used sustainable materials and incorporated features such as mitham (open courtyards) in their designs.
The summit is supported by Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) as the Presenting Partner, with NLC India Limited, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Navin’s, WABAG, Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, Indian Bank, Urbando and State Bank of India as Associate Partners.
The summit’s sustainability-focused partnerships include Thermax as the Sustainable Cooling Partner, Treeni as the Sustainability Intelligence Partner, Chennai Port Authority as the Blue Economy Partner and Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company as the Climate Action Partner.
Mangaldeep is the Fragrance Partner, Puthiya Thalaimurai the TV Partner, The Federal the Digital TV Partner and Communitree the NGO Partner.
Published – September 23, 2026 11:15 pm IST
