In 2024, India reported over 48,000 cases of heatstroke and 159 heat-related deaths — a stark sign of how rising temperatures are beginning to impact everyday life.

But alongside the heat, something else is gaining momentum: a wave of climate-conscious innovation. A group of young minds from across Indian institutes have come up with a range of clever, climate-responsive solutions — each designed to cool India’s buildings and move the country towards a resilient future.

Solar Decathlon India (SDI), an annual competition for undergraduate and postgraduate students, sees the coming together of young innovators who rejig avant-garde solutions with simple tweaks — think ceiling panels made from mycelium waste, terracotta cone-based coolers, and jali (lattice) shading devices, all in a bid to come up with net-zero solutions for India’s climate crisis.

Commending their sense of “agency and purpose”, Prasad Vaidya, director and spokesperson, Solar Decathlon India, applauds the eco-conscious literacy prevalent among these young minds. They are not deterred by the mercurial nature of climate-induced problems, instead, it only furthers their resolve.

Having observed the quiet confidence among these students over the years, as they give form to trailblazing innovations, Prasad says, “What counts is that they have understood the problem. They have a solution that may not be perfect, but one that is in the works; one that they are looking at turning into a business model.”

Driving energy-efficient cooling to shape a sustainable India

A 2024 survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) revealed that the Indian outlook towards the future is coloured with worry.

Where should the starting point for a mitigation plan begin?

As the adage suggests, it all begins at home.

The organizers of Solar Decathlon India, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) – India’s leading policy support and implementation organisation catalysing the responsible use of energy for a climate-resilient and energy secure future, and Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), a national knowledge institution that is committed to the equitable, sustainable, and efficient transformation of India’s cities, towns, and villages, beckons us to turn our gaze towards our buildings, which account for three percent of India’s energy and process-related carbon dioxide emissions.

Currently, only 10 percent of Indian households have air-conditioning.

But, the solution does not lie in scaling this number — this runs the risk of overburdening power grids. Instead, could we look at shifting the goalposts from conventional cooling technologies to more sustainable alternatives?

This is exactly the mindset shift encouraged at SDI, compelling students to come up with low-energy, affordable, user-friendly products that people can install without hiring engineers or technicians. The premise here is retrofitting.

“The word ‘retrofit’ conjures up images of significant components of buildings being removed and new stuff being added. But that’s not........

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