Recent efforts of French professionals from the building sector to account for airtightness

According to the recent conclusions of the 'Grenelle de l’Environnement', the energy performance of buildings has become very recently a major concern in France. As a matter of fact, building’s airtightness is now explicitly considered as one of the two levers, with thermal bridges, that will lead French buildings toward higher energy efficiency constructions. Indeed, what used to be a confidential issue a few months ago has now become a real subject that French professionals thoroughly take into account. Yet, if it is very difficult to understand why changes happened so fast, it may be interesting to describe the conditions that led to this unexpected evolution and towards promising future results.