Air-conditioning systems: the simultaneous control of temperature, humidity, and movement and quality of air inside a space.

Cross-ventilation: natural ventilation with an entrance and an exit for air has to be present, and where the pressure of the air entering the space must be different to the pressure of the air leaving.

Domotics: All systems capable of automating a home, providing energy management services, security, welfare, and communication, and can be integrated through outdoor and indoor communication networks, wired or wireless or whose control has certain ubiquity, from within or outside the home. It could be defined as the integration of technology in the intelligent design of a building.

Geothermal energy: energy that can be obtained using the heat inside the earth.

Gray water recycling: recovery systems for the wastewater generated from plates and washbasins, showers and baths, because it is nearly as clean as potable water. Gray water often also includes wastewater from washing machines and sometimes includes discharge from dishwashers and kitchen sinks. The gray water can be recycled onsite for uses such as toilet flushing, landscape irrigation, and constructed wetlands.

Green roof: roof that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. Green roofs absorb rainwater, provide insulation, create a habitat for wildlife, increase benevolence, and decrease stress of the people around the roof by providing a more aesthetically pleasing landscape, and help to lower urban air temperatures and mitigate the heat island effect.

Indoor air quality (IAQ): air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants.

KNX (standard): standardized (EN 50090, ISO/ IEC 14543), OSI-based network communications protocol for intelligent buildings.

Landscape integration: integration of the building in the land, respecting the environmental, geological, and morphological characteristics.

Local materials: materials produced locally that reduce the fuel need for their transport.

Natural daylight: calculated placement of windows or other openings and reflective surfaces so that during the day natural light provides effective internal lighting.

Natural ventilation: process of supplying and removing air through an indoor space without using mechanical systems.

Passive solar: design strategies of buildings where windows, walls, and floors are specially placed to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. Passive solar design, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices.

Passivhaus (Passive house): rigorous and voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.

Photovoltaic solar energy: method of converting solar energy into direct-current electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. A photovoltaic system employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells to supply usable solar power.

Radiant floor: a type of radiant heating system where the building floor contains channels or tubes through which hot air or water are circulated. Radiant floor heating eliminates the draft and dust problems associated with forced-air heating systems.

Rainwater collection: accumulation and deposition of rainwater for reuse onsite, rather than allowing it to run off. Its uses include water for gardening, livestock, irrigation, domestic use with proper treatment, and for indoor home heating, etc.

Recyclable materials: materials used in the building construction that can be recovered and reused after the finish of the effective life of the building.

Recycled materials: new materials obtained from the processing of waste materials. These materials can be used in sustainable buildings to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for “conventional” waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas.

Solar (thermal) chimney: a way of improving the natural ventilation of buildings by using convection of air heated by passive solar energy.

Straw-bale construction: building method that uses bales of straw (commonly wheat, rice, rye, and oats) as structural elements, building insulation, or both.

Sustainable wood: wood that comes from responsibly managed forests.

Thermal comfort: satisfaction of a person with a specific thermal environment.

Thermal inertia: capacity of a material to store received thermal energy and release it progressively.

Thermal insulation: capacity of materials to resist the passing of heat through conduction. All materials offer resistance, to a greater or lesser degree, to heat passing through them.

Visual integration: integration of the building in the aesthetic and visual characteristics of their immediate environment, whether urban or rural.