Background In Europe today, greenhouses and integrated buildings are often built and maintained throughout their product lifecycle by unsustainable methods. There is a lack of synergy between economic horticulture and environmental conservation, resulting in serious problems relating to fossil fuel consumption, pesticide use and nutrient emissions. The yearly European fossil fuel consumption is estimated to be equivalent to 5 megatons (5 million tonnes) of oil, generating emissions of about 10 megatons of carbon dioxide (CO2). Hence, there is an urgent need to reduce CO2 emissions. Moreover, renewable energy counts for only a small percentage of total energy consumption. Using greenhouses as passive solar collectors and the further use of wind power, solar PV and biofuel represents a way forward. Finding alternatives to commonly used construction materials (steel, aluminium, glass) that have high embodied energy is another challenge. Objectives The project aimed to demonstrate the advantages of designing, constructing and operating environmentally sustainable greenhouses, by focusing on the environmental benefits of integrating greenhouses within other structures, e.g. office buildings. The initiative would consider all phases of the building lifecycle, including greenhouse design, cohesion with other buildings, assembly, building materials and energy consumption. It would also establish the potential for reducing the environmental impacts of horticultural production in greenhouses. A key objective was to test the hypothesis that the environmental impact of greenhouses could be significantly reduced through integration within other buildings and the utilisation of sustainable design, construction and operation. The project aimed to design and construct environmentally sustainable greenhouse/building systems that use sustainable materials and design, low embodied energy, low energy demand and sustainable energy sources in the building. Results The Integrated Greenhouse was not completed due to a lack of funds. The project was intended to design and build two interactive prototype buildings to demonstrate that the environmental impact of greenhouses can be significantly reduced through integration with other buildings and utilisation of sustainable design, construction and operation. The project succeeded in designing and building Prototype I, the “Human Impact Building” using low embodied energy materials and sustainable techniques. The design, which included the installation of a wood chip fired boiler, resulted in a reduction of C02 emissions of 220 tonnes per year. Prototype II, a greenhouse with a “Vertical Source Heat Exchanger” and solar harvesting was designed but not built due to lack of funds.