Many innovative techniques and policy measures have been introduced to reduce energy consumption. Despite the high ambitions and societal pressures, the adoption rate of energy measures in office buildings is still low. Using adoption theories this paper provides a framework to analyse the adoption process of energy saving techniques in building processes. This framework is used to analyse the design and building processes of four Dutch office buildings. In these processes the roles of the stakeholders, in relation to the adoption of energy measures, are identified during every phase of the building projects. It enables us to better understand by which means certain stakeholders can exert influence on adopting or rejecting certain energy concepts and measures. The complex network of temporary relationships among stakeholders makes it hard to turn high ambitions into a broad adoption of multiple energy techniques, which can lower the energy use or which make use of renewable sources.