It’s not the big centres of technology that have their nose ahead, but a small town in east Germany. Of the 28 buildings that were awarded the seal of quality of the German Society for Sustainable Building (DGNB) at the beginning of the year, the Paul Wunder- lich House in Eberswalde, Brandenburg, had the best overall score. Completed in 2007, this seat of the district administration and the state council of Barnim sets a new scale for sustainable building. The seal is awarded on the basis of a catalogue divided into five categories and comprising a total of 49 criteria. These are related to ecological and economic quality, as well as to socio- cultural and functional aspects, technical efficiency and process quality.