Godrej Properties and Xynteo Launch Habitat Matters to Accelerate Low-Carbon Construction Materials in India
Mumbai, August 28, 2026: Godrej Properties has launched Habitat Matters, a corporate social responsibility initiative under Godrej Good & Green Labs in partnership with Xynteo, aimed at accelerating the adoption of low-carbon construction materials across India’s built environment.
The launch comes as India undergoes significant urban development. The country is projected to add approximately 34 billion square metres of new building stock by 2050, with estimates indicating that new construction will nearly double current levels. Materials such as cement, concrete, steel, glass, and blocks account for a substantial portion of the construction sector’s carbon footprint.
Habitat Matters is structured to address the gap between material innovations and site deployment. Over the next five years, the initiative plans to implement pilots on active construction projects to evaluate low-carbon material solutions under real-world conditions, generating on-ground data to inform future construction practices, Godrej Properties said in a press release.
“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
.
“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,” said Pakzan Dastoor, Head, Good & Green, Godrej Industries Group.
“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,” said Suman Jagdev, Partner, Xynteo.
The programme has opened a Request for Applications, inviting start-ups, research institutions, material manufacturers, and technology providers to submit proposals. The initiative focuses on five primary material categories — cement, concrete, steel, blocks, and glass — alongside bio-based alternatives and other deployable embodied carbon solutions.
Innovations at Technology Readiness Level 5 and above are eligible to apply. Selected candidates will receive technical and commercialisation support while piloting their materials within active construction projects. Applications are being accepted via email through 15th October 2026.
