The name of the process, "Le Grenelle de l'Environnement", refers to a 1968 conference when government negotiated with unions to end weeks of social unrest.
The six working groups addressed climate change, biodiversity and natural resources, health and the environment, production and consumption, democracy and governance, and competitiveness and employment.
Recommendations include: 20% reduction in France's energy consumption by 2020 and a boosting of the use of renewable energy, such as wind power and biofuels, by 20% by 2020; Building labels The French regulation (RT) for new construction was following an incremental logic with a regular (every five years) increase in the exigence level requested to achieve by 2020 (RT 2020) a 40% reduction of energy consumption with respect to the RT 2000.
Within the framework of the "Grenelle de l’envronnement", a performance acceleration is expected to meet with the following objectives for tertiary buildings: I.
Low consumption buildings (BBC) by 2010 with minimum requirements concerning the levels of renewable energy and CO2 absorption materials by 2012.