Energy for Building: Improving Energy Efficiency in Construction and in the Production of Building Materials in Developing Countries

Over the past decade there has been a rapid increase in both awareness and concern about the impact of buildings on the global environment. There is concern at one level about the health of the living environment within and around buildings, and there is concern also about the impact of the resource use in buildings on the global environment.

There is a growing commitment in some of the industrialized countries to reduce the use in buildings of products whose deterioration will damage the global environment, of hardwoods which are contributing to the loss of the tropical forests, and of energy from non-renewable sources, and the pollution consequences of the use of fossil fuels. These problems are all directly related to energy use or have energy implications, since whatever solutions are found will have some bearing on energy.