On 19 January 2017, the Luxembourg Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Francine Closener, and Minister for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, François Bausch, participated in the implementation of the Rifkin study.

Together with the managers of the Conseil National pour la Construction Durable (CNCD) and the German Society for Sustainable Building (DGNB), Francine Closener and François Bausch took part in the implementation of the Rifkin study, agreeing on a closer collaboration between these two institutions.

The aim of the CNCD is to create a more sustainable future in the field of construction. This platform, composed of architects, engineers, real estate companies as well as associations and ministries, was commissioned by the government to implement the Rifkin study to strengthen the competitiveness of the Luxembourg construction sector. It aimed to do this by consolidating and developing competences in the field of sustainable construction, particularly in the fields of energy, buildings, mobility and recycling.

Francine Closener, State Secretary for Economic Affairs, stated: "In the future, we will increasingly have to rely on sustainable materials in our buildings to guarantee maximum living quality and healthy living, all with a very low energy consumption. Today's exchange and future cooperation is a step in the right direction. Exchange through different approaches in different countries will help us move faster than with national alliances.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, François Bausch, underlined that: "Sustainable Building has to be given a higher priority and that the government has set a milestone in the area of ​​Sustainable Building from January 2017 with the introduction of a national sustainability certification and adequate funding programs.”

Within the framework of a workshop, representatives of both the CNCD and the DGNB intensively exchanged views on the areas of sustainability certification and cycle management in order to elaborate common approaches and thus to make use of funding programs or other instruments.

Within the framework of this exchange, representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the "Ordre des Architectes et Ingénieurs (OAI)" also exchanged views on possible cooperation, in particular between architects and engineers. In the context, follow-up projects were also discussed between the OAI and the DGNB to strengthen German-Luxembourg economic relations in the construction sector.