A recent report by the UNEP's Sustainable Construction and Building Initiative states that the construction sector (which accounts for 30-40% of all energy use worldwide) can help to combat climate change by reducing its CO₂ emissions.

In this context, Vinyl 2010 seeks to invest in projects that demonstrate how the material PVC can be used to contribute to society's sustainable development. At Green Week 2009, organised in Brussels, Belgium, 23-26 June, Vinyl 2010 showcased a new ‘passive house' development at Ozzano in Italy that demonstrates how a low cost material technology, readily accessible to all, can make a real difference to energy saving.

Being inherently extremely durable and cost-efficient to produce, PVC conserves natural resources, and very important today, presents a highly energy-conservation at an extremely low cost. Moreover, at the end of its functional life, PVC can be 100% recycled to make new products thus further contributing to climate protection. In the ‘passive house' concept, PVC was chosen as a material that could contribute to sustainable development in a variety of applications such as roofing, covering sheets, insulating membranes, resilient flooring, gutters, windows and roller shutters, cables, cable try, pipes, and greenhouses.

The Ozzano project being showcased at Green Week by Vinyl 2010 with an impressive 3d model of the project, was supported and developed by the Centro di Informazione sul PVC (the Italian association of the PVC industry) and AIPE (the Italian association of the EPS producers), designed and realised at Ozzano Emilia, Italy by the architects from Studio Arkit in Bologna.