The main themes on which the symposium focused helped address some of the issues related to achieving sustainable construction. Evidently the collectively of the work suggests that this area is in the incipient stages and minor but nonetheless significant contributions have been made towards resolving these complex problems. Maintaining and sustaining the built environment through information integration, assessment and analysis techniques and the use of specifications as well as service life models for building materials, components and assemblies is likely to be an involved yet compelling challenge in the decades to come. Editorial Note This joint CIB/RILEM Symposium was one of the events organised during the CIB World Building Congress 1998 in Gävle, Sweden 7–12 June. As the President of CIB, Prof. C. Sjöström was in charge of the organisation of this congress. The Executive Secretariat of CIB 1998 was the Division of Materials Technology, Centre of Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, which is also a RILEM Titular Member.