With more than 2,000 completed objects meeting the "passive house standard", Austria currently has the the world¿s highest ratio of of passive houses. Careful handling of natural resources is at the center of ecological goals and architectural development throughout the world. With the Kyoto protocol, which went into effect in 2005, the industrial member states have agreed to lower greenhaus gas emissions by 2012 to an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels. These gas emissions result primarily from burning fossil fuels - from the energy input or the emissions resulitng from building and operating buildings, and from transportation, primarily automobil and air traffic.The books shows more than 60 exemplary faciliites and innovative structures in and from Austria.