Even though European cities excel at providing their citizens with comfortable living, social and sustainable environments, climate change, greenhouse gas emission, rising energy prices and dependency on fossil fuel increasingly threaten our natural habitats and resources and consequently the urban environment.

Throughout Europe, including the new Member States, construction businesses strongly profit through the migration towards the cities, the opening of the new markets and an increased expected standard of living. However, it is widely recognised that the sector extracts more raw materials than any other sector and that it accounts through the creation as well as through the operation of buildings for more than 50% of the overall energy consumption in Europe.

European buildings are designed to last for several generations. The very low energy prices from 1985 to 1999 led to building designs where energy consumption was of low priorit y . After the steep increase of energy prices from 2000 to 2006, most energy economists forecast that energy prices will remain high for the next decade. Cities, building owners and users, construction companies, architects and other stakeholders need to prepare for this radical change.

Since sustainability is defined through a harmonious balance of environmental, social and economic factors, the system becomes increasingly unbalanced and thus unstable for future generations if the economic component is not sufficiently valorised.

An integrated approach must lead like a red thread not only through the whole construction process (from the planning, the choice of, materials, components and systems), but also through the operational process of the buildings. Energy aspects must be an integral part of all stages of the life of a building and all relevant players – from the politicians, the energy providers, developers, planners - must play together to achieve the goal of true sustainable construction.

The CONCERTO vision clearly wants to demonstrate that this new integrated approach is beneficial not only for the environment, the citizens, but also for businesses: sustainable construction is not just feasible, but can also be economically viable, a holistic integration can be considerably more than the sum of its parts.

At the CONCERTO conference during the EUSEW, key stakeholders from various fields of the construction sector will discuss how cities and the construction industry as a whole can be motivated and prepared to re-define their well tested approach towards construction to include environmental and energy objectives as key elements in the overall construction process.

The CONCERTO team invites you cordially to register NOW for this event. For more Information on the CONCERTO event please log on to:
www.concertoplus.eu or www.eusew.eu .