The Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST) established as Centre for ASTRA (Application of Science and Technology for Rural Areas) in 1974, is IISc’s inter-disciplinary research and technology development centre for providing sustainable solutions to host of global concerns, primarily dealing with energy, buildings and environment. The Centre’s focus is on promoting Sustainable Technologies tailored to suit local conditions of resource availability and habitation.

Successful examples of CST’s diverse interventions are, Energy Efficient Wood Burning Devices, Biomethanation, Biomass Gasification, Alternative Building Technologies, Green Buildings and BiPV, Water Purification and Defluoridation, Sanitation, Sustainable Biomass for Energy, Forestry, Bioenergy & Climate Change, and Environmental Quality Assurance-Impact Studies. The spread and impact of technologies emanating from CST over the past three decades have been noteworthy; 1.5 million rural households are using the ASTRA wood burning devices for their cooking needs, adoption of biomass gasifiers for village electrification and industries is resulting in a daily savings of about 30 tons of fossil fuel, thirty-five biomethanation plants are converting bio-waste into useful biogas and about 12,000 buildings (including 5000 in earthquake affected regions of Gujarat) have been built using alternate building materials developed at CST. Technologies for defluoridation of water and appropriate tsunami-resistant sanitation systems designed and developed by CST is gaining popularity in the country. Major strides have also been achieved in designing policies for climate change at the national and global level.

CST (formerly ASTRA), having always imbibed the adage that the world is a global village, is now increasingly evolving itself to address modern-day energy and environment needs. Keeping in mind current national and international issues of concern, the Centre has started research programs in MSc (Engg) and PhD covering a host of modern issues such as, converting industrial wastes into building products, tailoring clays to retain radioactive wastes, sustainable habitats/human settlements, climate-responsive architecture and planning, building-comfort studies in tropical regions, tsunami and earthquake resistant shelters and sanitation for near-coastal settlements, desalination and bioremediation of waste-water and decentralized energy planning and modeling.

In addition, looking ahead, CST is envisaging to develop technologies for carbon sequestering, nano-technology based water treatment devices, bio-fuels, nitrogen-recovery from contaminated surface and groundwater resources, biomass refineries for gas (producer gas, hydrogen, etc), liquid fuels and byproducts, energy generation from waste, low-carbon buildings and climate-change mitigation. Thrust is also being directed towards policy studies on energy, environment, and sustainable development and in developing comprehensive design guidelines for region-specific green buildings and materials.

The Centre for Sustainable Technology also has been carrying out some rural extension activities at its Ungra Field Centre, located about 110km from Bangalore in Kunigal Taluk, Tumkur District.

CST welcomes applications from Indian citizens for Faculty Positions interested in pursuing cutting-edge interdisciplinary scientific research into Sustainable Technologies dealing with environment, energy, buildings, biomass, forestry, water, sanitation, climate-change and policy.