This recent conference, held at the University of Oslo, on 22 - 23 November 2012, encouraged authors to address new visions and strategies for advancing the research and policy agendas on sustainable energy and the environment. The conference was organized by the University of Oslo interfaculty program ‘Environmental change and sustainable energy’ (MILEN) lead by Hal Wilhite: MILEN supports Wilhite’s participation as an individual member of the eceee Board. Both eceee and the University of Oslo have benefited from the exchange of information between MILEN and eceee networks. The MILEN International Conference 2012 provided a forum for the presentation of cutting edge research on the transition to low energy and low environmental impact societies. There were 28 paper presentations and two key notes. Sixteen papers are made available here in pdf form. All papers are available; for those interested, contact MILENs administrative coordinator Frøydis Elvik For more information about MILEN.