GBCI, the Global Green Building and Business Standards Organization Establishes South East Asia Office in Gurgaon, India

--New GBCI office in India will serve to facilitate the global expansion of GBCI and its programs--
Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), the premier organization independently recognizing excellence in green business industry performance and practice globally, announced its incorporation in India. The new GBCI office, located in Gurgaon, will serve to facilitate the global growth of GBCI and its sustainability programs.

Established in 2008, GBCI exclusively administers project certifications and professional credentials and certificates within the framework of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating systems as well as the PEER standard for power systems, the WELL building standard, the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) program, the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), Parksmart for green parking garages and the GRESB benchmark, which is used by institutional investors to improve the sustainability performance of the global property sector.

“Through rigorous certification and credentialing standards, GBCI drives adoption of green business practices, which fosters global competitiveness and enhances environmental performance and human health benefits,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president, GBCI. “And by incorporating GBCI in India, we will be able to continue our efforts to green the built environment in India and across the globe, with new added support and on the ground capabilities.”

Mili Majumdar has been appointed as GBCI’s managing director. Ms. Majumdar brings strong technical and product development support locally while being closely integrated with the global team to help project teams implement the suite of GBCI rating systems.

Leveraging the work done by Gopalkrishnan, USGBC’s regional director for market development in India, GBCI India will act as the South East Asia office of GBCI.

Ms. Majumdar’s previous position was Senior Director, Sustainable Habitat Division, TERI (The Energy Resources Institute) where she led a group of professionals to steer several aspects of sustainable habitats ranging from policy analysis and development, providing technical assistance in designing and implementing green buildings, enabling energy efficiency retrofits in existing buildings, evaluating financial viability of green buildings, and providing technical inputs to various market players to understand and cater to the needs of Indian green building markets. She has led development of GRIHA, the indigenous rating system for green buildings in India. She also guided teams’ work on urban climate resilience in Indian cities and developed models and tools and techniques on climate resilient low cost housing for Nepal and Bangladesh.

“Ms. Majumdar brings extensive experience to GBCI,” added Ramanujam. “She is the perfect fit for complementing our work to drive market transformation in sustainability throughout India. She will be responsible for technical adaptation and customization of the portfolio of GBCI rating systems to the Asia Pacific region and will oversee customer coordination, education and training as well as develop market mechanisms for adoption of the tools and rating systems to the region.”