Mumbai, August 28, 2026: Godrej Properties (GPL) has launched Habitat Matters, a CSR initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption of low-carbon construction materials in India’s built environment. The programme has been launched under Godrej Good & Green Labs, the innovation arm of Good & Green, Godrej Industries Group, in partnership with Xynteo.
The initiative will identify, test and validate low-carbon material innovations by moving them from laboratory-stage development to pilots on live construction projects. Over the next five years, Godrej Properties plans to deploy selected innovations and build evidence from real-world applications that can support wider adoption across the construction sector.
Habitat Matters comes against the backdrop of India’s expected growth in construction. According to the information shared by the organisations, the country could have around 34 billion square metres of new building stock by 2050. Materials such as cement, concrete, steel, glass and blocks account for a significant part of the carbon impact associated with construction.
“Godrej Properties has always been at the forefront of sustainability in Indian real estate, and Habitat Matters is our effort to take that a step further. We aim to bridge the gap between promising ideas and what can actually be deployed on a live site. Through this, innovators get engineering rigour, a real site to test innovations in agile and real-world dynamic conditions and evaluations that will help create new industry standards,” said Rohit Mohan, Chief Design and Sustainability Officer, Godrej Properties.
Pakzan Dastoor, Head, Good & Green, Godrej Industries Group, said, “India's growth story over the next decade will be written in the choices we make about how we build. At Good & Green Labs, we exist to take on the big hairy problems the industry hasn't cracked yet, and low-carbon construction materials is one of the biggest. We don't believe in solving these in isolation; every solution we back is built in partnership with people who understand the science and the ground reality. We aim to build solutions that the wider real estate ecosystem can adopt, scale and take the entire industry forward.”
Focus on Material Innovation and Deployment
The programme will focus on five priority material categories—cement, concrete, steel, blocks and glass—along with bio-based alternatives and other deployable solutions aimed at reducing embodied carbon.
Habitat Matters has opened a Request for Applications (RFA) for start-ups, research institutions, material manufacturers and technology providers. Innovations at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 and above are eligible to apply.
Selected applicants will have the opportunity to pilot their solutions within active construction projects and receive technical and commercialisation support as they work towards wider market adoption.
Suman Jagdev, Partner, Xynteo, said, “India does not necessarily have an innovation problem in low-carbon materials. It has a deployment and adoption challenge. Habitat Matters creates the bridge that the market has been missing, connecting promising solutions with live construction projects, real site conditions and supported by enabling policy. It provides a platform that helps to establish commercial credibility based on proven performance and lays the foundation that can eventually deliver scale.”
The initiative is intended to generate on-ground evidence on the performance and commercial viability of low-carbon construction materials, with the longer-term objective of supporting their adoption across India’s real estate ecosystem.
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