"Buildings account for approximately 40 per cent of the world's energy consumption, so I found it inspiring and fascinating to learn more about how Hydro develops solutions for energy-efficient and energy-positive buildings," Aasrud said after the meeting.

Aasrud was received at the new headquarters for Hydro's building systems activities in Bangalore, a building which is designed to use as little as 60 kWh per square meter annually.

The Hydro building is equipped with integrated solutions for sun-shading and solar cell-based electricity production, which is one of the reasons the building qualifies for a LEED platinum certification. LEED is a certification system for energy-efficient buildings and platinum is the highest degree awarded.

"We spent most of the time talking about energy-efficiency in buildings," said Subhendu Ganguly, Hydro's head of Building Systems in India. He adds that the minister seemed very interested in this topic.

During the visit Aasrud was presented a series of pictures of energy-efficient buildings for which Hydro has delivered façade solutions, most of them from Europe and India. Ganguly also talked warmly about the ambitions of Powerhouse, which is a collaboration on energy-positive buildings in "ice-cold" Norway.

"If we can make energy-positive buildings in the cold climate of Norway, I think we can make them anywhere," Ganguly told the minister.

• Powerhouse is a collaboration on energy-positive buildings formed by Entra Eiendom, Skanska, Snøhetta, the environmental organization ZERO and Hydro. Since Powerhouse was established in May 2011, the alliance has started working on two energy-positive projects in Norway, one new building at Brattørkaia in Trondheim and one rehabilitation project near Oslo.