Buildings and industries are responsible for almost 70% of all energy consumption in the world. If we are to limit the effects of global warming, protect economies from the volatile price of oil, and fight for a world of abundance and autonomy, we will need to develop radical ideas and changes that transform the way we use energy.

We believe that the combination of distributed generation (solar energy) and profound energy efficiency will allow our society to establish systems for the generation and sale and use of energy that are very different from the current ones. This combination of new technology and advanced management systems can make all of them the potential energy-generating buildings, and giving users control over how much and when we use energy from a particular source.

Today, it is already possible to create net-zero energy buildings, which connect to the grid and produce the same amount of energy they consume, this means that the user will not pay an energy bill, without the need for subsidies.

In tropical and subtropical climates, we believe that creating efficient designs and adopting practices such as smart bioclimatic architecture can make zero energy buildings a reality without increasing costs. In most developing countries, buildings consume far less energy than their equivalents in Europe and the United States. Developing “tropicalized” and appropriate energy projects, systems and policies means that countries like Brazil can pursue a much more efficient line of development, transforming them into international leadership in combating climate change.