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therefore a large sector of the economy. In terms of energy use, the building sector accounts for more than half of the Brazilian electric energy consumption, while in the United Kingdom buildings are responsible for about 40 –50% of energy consumption (DET R, mentioned in Ref . [20]). Finally, the building sector is also accountable for consider able volumes of waste, most of which ending up in landfills—the Conseil International du Ba ?timen t (CIB ) estimates that in many countries, the construction industry generates up to 40% of the total waste generated nationally (CIB, mentioned in [20] ). On the other hand, as analyzed in the document Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries [5], the scope of the problems is more plex in the developing world. To begin with, regions marked by economic problems and extreme poverty within developing countries have much more accentuated environmental problems, particularly in urban areas, such as slums and illegal settlements, where the lack of proper infrastructure, sanitation and housing leads to the contamination of soils and water bodies, among other environmental impacts. Secondly, the developing world is still largely to be constructed and the activities of the building industry are extremely intense, posing 1 numerous pressures on the environment. The activities and products of the construction industry in developing countries should thus be oriented to be as sustainable as possible, avoiding since now the mistakes that have been made in the developed world. In a way, sustainable building turns out to be a much more urgent agenda in developing countries when pared to developed ones. Another aspect that distinguishes developed and developing countries is the current legislative framework applied to the construction industry, as in developing countries it frequently has a limited environmental content—norms and standards, for instance, do not go beyond what can be considered ?reasonable‘ in environmental terms, such as minimum requirements of natural ventilation and lighting inside buildings to a void excessive energy use. Against this background, the construction industry in developing countries tends to be most monly reactive, attempting to ply with existing regulations rather than seek bench marks and market differentiation through environmental gains (Ibid.).Although certa in environmentally friendly products and building ponents are already available in the market , as remarked by John et al. [20] in the case of Brazil , there is a lack of global solutions that seek to achieve more prehensive environmental effects. This way, environmental innovations in the building sector tend to emerge rather punctually in developing countries,as isolated examples, as these countries lack an under lying,more institutionalized background for environmental change. It can be argued that a more solid sustainable building policy framework is still to be elaborated for the developing world, and in this context the Dutch experience can in certa in aspects serve as a useful example. By fostering the environmental selfregulation of the construction sector through a bination of ?constraining‘ and ?enabling‘ policies, including an energy performance standard, packages for sustainable building, covenants, and advisory systems, the Dutch sustainable