1. Residential Building Energy Demand Reduction in India – a collaborative venture with International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, Gachibowli, Hyderabad (IIITH).

a) Objectives of the Practice:

The International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) had discussed at length about the use of electricity in Indian homes and the ways of managing and reducing its use. Hence, a project was launched and Salesian College became a partner in it. The project is titled as “Residential Building Energy Demand Reduction in India” (RESIDE). The research programme is in collaboration with Salesian College Sonada (West Bengal), Malaviya National Institute of Technology (Jaipur), Oxford Brookes University and the University of the West of England (United Kingdom). The research is jointly funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), Economic and Social Research Council (UK), Newton Fund (UK) and the Department of Science &Technology (India)

Salesian College Sonada has been appointed as the study/survey partners of the field study in Darjeeling Hills. The field will be carried out under the supervision of Fr. (Prof) George Thadathil.

On 1st September 2018, the team leaders of all the institutions had a meeting organized by IIITH, Hyderabad and formally the project was given shape for its beginning with a formal contract signed. The duration of the project is five years (31st December, 2022).

The Context:

This (RESIDE) research project aims to understand energy use in India to improve house construction to reduce energy use. The results will be curated into a ‘data bank’. This also aims to understand in a better way as how electricity is used in Indian homes to identify ways of managing and reducing its use. This involvement will be kept confidential. The research data and findings will be anonymised. The flexibility part of the project is that any of the household, if in any case, feels that the researcher is intruding on his/ her privacy or is unhappy for any reason; they are free to withdraw from the project at any time without giving a reason. The research findings will be published in academic journals and conference papers, so they can be disseminated to a wider audience and scrutinized by other academics.

The Practice:

IIITH project on “Residential Building Energy Demand Reduction in India” (RESIDE) wishes to create a movement in the field of energy reducing in India in order to:

Empower Salesian College as an academic community with social actors concerned about managing the energy focusing on a variety of homes in different locations. Provide increased visibility for all the existing socially respectful practices in the region. Identify templates for the best practices which might constitute a source of inspiration in the society; Encourage member universities to improve their social policies and practices; Propose a credible alternative to traditional ways by introducing service learning on a national, regional and international scale.

Evidence of Success:

The various worldwide ranking systems for the colleges and the university have been created within a competitive context. These rankings have been based mainly on the performance of colleges/universities in terms of educations as well as the social policies and on the level of social responsibility.

This project is a process of reflection with the goal of implementing a reference framework based on the level of social responsibility of colleges. Salesian college has strengthened its social links with the neighbouring communities living in the margins. The college has setup separate office for the implementation of the project, and for the survey work the members have been selected from among the faculty of the college. The duration of the project is five years and is on the progress with enthusiasm aiming for a good result.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required:

It is to be noted that it is not convenient to reach out to the people of the region, as there is no transportation facilities in some of the targeted areas and also the cost of the transportation is high. Besides, most of the people in the Darjeeling hills preferred to spend their vacation in the plains especially in the winter, so it will be difficult to collect the exact data from the selected house. Apart from this it will also be difficult to convince the people to installs the device on their electricity metre box and collect the details of their electricity bills as required in the project, as most of the people show reluctant in this issue. The timing for common engagements and the sharing of knowledge gathered from each of the specific locations withothers is to be worked out on mutual agreement. The project leaders needing assistance on the ground to carry forward the projectis the prime human resource required for its continuity. The enthusiasm generated by the common study possibility of similar problems being faced by the survey team in different places and bringing the same learning to the class room as service learning is the brighter side of the project thus far.