Zero emission buildings (ZEB) are buildings with a minimized energy consumption and renewable energy supply with zero greenhouse gas emissions. There is no common accepted definition of zero emission buildings. This is due to issues in defining the boundary of a balance in terms of building site and time frame of this balance. Further, there is no standard on accounting for emissions (on material, components, system, and building level) nor is there a standard for emissions from other building related environments. In this paper the goals for ZEB are specified and implications for components are discussed. $ullet$ Short-term: ZEHB: Zero emissions from heating of building $ullet$ Mid-Term: ZEB-OP: Zero emissions from operation of building $ullet$ Long-term: ZEB-OP&MAT: Zero emissions from operation and materials $ullet$ Focus on three building types: $circ$ Residential (ZEHB-R; ZEB-OP-R; ZEB-OP&MAT-R) $circ$ Office(ZEHB-O; ZEB-OP-O; ZEB-OP&MAT-O) $circ$ Educational/School: (ZEHB-E; ZEB-OP-E; ZEB-OP&MAT-E) $ullet$ All cases will be divided into new construction and retrofitting: $circ$ ZEHB-RR, $circ$ ZEHB-OR, $circ$ ZEHB-ER. The main focus of this paper is on office buildings and shows reduction of heating energy use in office buildings as the first step towards the development of zero emission buildings. Two other low energy proposal are made and $CO_2$ emissions of different energy supply options are compared.