Prof Thomas Lützkendorf was, until recently, the Chair of Sustainable Management of Housing and Real Estate in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. As chairman of the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), he coordinates German contributions to European and international standardization (CEN and ISO, respectively) in the area of sustainable building. He is a founding member of the international Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE), and was one of the leaders in Germany in the development and testing of sustainability assessment systems for buildings (BNB, DGNB, NaWoh). He has been a leading contributor to IEA EBC Annexes and is currently one of the leaders of Annex 89 (Ways to Implement Net-zero Whole Life Carbon Buildings). In being awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit at the Thuringian State Chancellery, the State Minister-President cited his work relating to national and international standardization, active contributions to various advisory councils, government initiatives and the international SBE conference series as important contributions to sustainable development worldwide.