On 20 June 2012, during the EU Sustainable Energy Week, EPEE, Eurovent and REHVA organised a conference around the theme: Energy Efficient Buildings – Healthy people. More than 70 participants attended the conference, dedicated to the importance of indoor air quality.

Recently, the EU has strongly focused on energy efficient buildings - and has thus not granted less attention to indoor air quality. However, this topic plays a major role: the majority of our lifetime is spent indoors and the air quality impacts on both our health and our productivity at work.

The workshop involved participants from a range of backgrounds including the patients' association EFA, Ronald Dahl, Professor for respiratory medicine at Aarhus University in Denmark, Professor Bjarne Olesen of the Technical University of Denmark as well as industry representatives. They took part in a lively debate, addressing key points on how to improve indoor air quality. Among them: education and awareness raising; setting standards and mandatory targets; the necessity of involving architects and the vital question of funding.

As a key outcome of the debate and in view of the 2013 "Year of the Air", participants decided to develop a green paper dedicated to the improvement of indoor air quality. All presentations are available at REHVA website in the address: www.rehva.eu.