Full speed ahead for energy efficiency!

Liv Signe Navarsete, Norwegian Minister of Local Government and Regional Affairs, has appointed a working group of key people in the building industry, people with practical building experience and representatives of the research sector, environmental organizations and the public sector to provide input to an action plan for energy-efficient buildings. The group will report by July 2010. Senior scientist Tor Helge Dokker will be a member of the group, which will suggest a schedule for increasing energy-efficiency requirements for new buildings to make passive-house standards a reality by 2020, put forward proposals for significantly reducing energy consumption in existing buildings, and outline the contributions that can be made by the housing and construction sector to a future carbon-neutral society.