India’s built environment is at the centre of its net zero journey—already responsible for roughly a third of national emissions, and with over 70% of the 2030 building stock yet to be constructed. This makes every material choice a climate decision.
The question is no longer whether we can decarbonise construction, but how fast we can move from pilots and promises to proven, scalable solutions on real sites.
The Compendium of Low‑Carbon Alternatives, developed with Build Ahead coalition partners across India’s construction value chain, brings together seven real‑world pilots that demonstrate what is possible today. Spanning airports, highways, commercial IT parks, residential towers and public infrastructure, these case studies move beyond theoretical modelling to show how high‑SCM concretes, recycled aggregates, industrial‑waste cladding and other alternatives perform under real project constraints—on strength, durability, cost, and embodied carbon.
This report equips developers, material producers, infrastructure owners and financiers with empirical evidence to accelerate adoption. It quantifies embodied carbon reductions at material and building level, validates performance parity with business‑as‑usual mixes, and distils practical lessons on mix design, QA/QC, supply‑chain readiness and policy enablers. By focusing on market‑ready solutions that align with current codes, commercial parity and site‑level realities, the compendium offers a pragmatic roadmap to embed low‑carbon materials across portfolios—turning early pilots into a pipeline towards a net‑zero, climate‑resilient built environment.
Suman Jagdev
Partner, Xynteo; Programme Director, Build Ahead India
Milan Kaur
Manager
Smriti Viswesvaran
Consultant
