Background Poor quality building practices can cause excessive energy consumption. This can be due to bad design and layout of buildings and ineffective heating/conditioning systems, with a consequent impact on the quality of the environment. Lack of eco-compatible criteria in planning single residential units can result in (on larger urban scales) poor management of a territory’s energy and water resources. Objectives The project aimed at demonstrating how the use of particular building techniques and materials could create energy savings of 20 percent in residential buildings. Energy savings were expected to repay any additional costs of construction over a short time period. Results Carried out in Sicily’s city of Palermo, the project successfully demonstrated how specific building techniques and materials derived from Mediterranean traditions could provide environmental benefits. This included two pilot actions, involving the renovation of an existing building and the construction of a new one, using land plots confiscated from the Mafia. Monitoring of the project’s eco-construction techniques and materials revealed that energy savings of as much as 40% were possible. This impressive outcome doubled the project's original expectations. Financial incentives and de-taxation measures were also analysed in a municipal context as part of the project. The combined findings were then used to produce a set of new Best Practice Guidelines for Sustainable Buildings. These ‘Sun and Wind’ (S&W) certification standards went on to inform the preparation of new legal standards for regional building controls that were approved as a Directorial Decree in July 2010. From a socio-economic point of view, the project will bring to job creation prospects due to the need of new specialists and technicians, sought as certifiers to check the compliance of the buildings with the guidelines included in the regional legislation. Furthermore, building companies with experience in the use of bio-climatic techniques and materials will also be involved in additional work opportunities. A broad range of stakeholders participated in the project, such as public institutions (Region, Province, Municipalities, University departments) and private sector bodies (building associations, construction trainers, industrial enterprises). This strong partnership helped to disseminate the project’s S&W guidelines, which were adopted and promoted by 60 Municipalities and 44 Managing Bodies of nature reserves. Fifty people (technicians and workers) were trained in 2008. Further dissemination was undertaken through the project’s website and an outreach awareness programme in schools and municipalities information centres. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).