The Passive House Community is dedicated to making Passive House design and construction mainstream.
We are architects, engineers, developers, builders, energy modelers, material and equipment suppliers, consultants, designers, and others working to address the climate crisis through the creation of a sustainable built environment. Green Building United’s Passive House Community Council coordinates public meetings, trainings, and events throughout the year to educate and advocate around this important topic.
We meet on the second Wednesday of every month from 4:30 – 5:30 pm ET.
Passive House Community Volunteers
Interim Co-Facilitators: Amy Cornelius & Charles Loomis
Resources
This ongoing project focuses on how to make any existing rowhouse a Passive House. Detailing window selection and installation, air sealing and insulation, plumbing, HVAC systems and renewal energy options, the Manual takes you step-by-step with your designers and consultants to reach peak performance and reduce your energy loads to near zero. Check out the Manual here and watch the first and second films in our series meant to show real life examples of Passive House in action.
We collaborated with Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia (Habitat) to further their goal of offering an increased volume of affordable, high-performance housing. The Demonstration Project involved our joint communities to dream about, design, and generate an affordable passive house alternative for Habitat to use the existing Oxford
Green Community Model. Check out the final report here.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are important drivers for improving the lives of all creatures, preserving the environment, and setting a course of action for all of us to participate in that preservation and improvement. Passive House supports the goals of the SDGs by being an amazing tool to in the effort to lower energy consumption, improve indoor air quality and occupant health, and reduce carbon emissions and other green house gases. Check out how Passive House and the UN SDGs align! For more information visit Passipedia.
We are proud to partner with two incredible organizations focused on Passive House.
North American Passive House Network (NAPHN)
NAPHN is a non-profit educational organization that works to transform the built environment, using the tools developed by the Passive House Institute, in a critical effort to combat global warming. They provide training, conferences, and other events to both engage and educate design and building professionals, policymakers, and the general public. NAPHN supports the success and vitality of the Passive House community.
Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS)
PHIUS trains and certifies professionals, maintains the PHIUS+ climate-specific passive building standard, certifies and quality assures passive buildings, and conducts research to advance high-performance building. PHIUS is committed to making high-performance passive building the mainstream market standard.
Resources We Love
The Sponsors of Mass Save®, in partnership with Passive House Massachusetts, have launched a Passive House Training offer to support workforce development and market transformation in the energy efficiency and building construction industries in Massachusetts. The goal is to enhance the skill set of the energy efficiency workforce in Massachusetts by offering no-cost trainings and 50% cost reimbursements of PHIUS/PHI accreditation training. You can keep up with the growing demand for high-performance housing and become certified as a Passive House builder, consultant, designer, rater, verifier, or tradesperson. Check out the Mass Save website and the Passive House Online Learning Center to learn more about the Mass Save® Passive House Training.
- How They Pulled It Off: A Record-Breaking Passive House Behind a Refreshed Bungalow
- Passive House Accelerator Podcast: Green Building United Revive Panel
- Resistance Is Not Futile: Laura Blau and a Legal Win for Passive House Levels of Insulation
- WRB Moisture Comparison Test: SOLITEX vs Majvest vs Tyvek. Which is best?
- The Urgency of Embodied Carbon and What You Can Do about It
- NYC Passive House guide: Where to find eco-friendly apartments and townhouses that are healthy and quiet too
- Passive House Accelerator –
- How to Fix the PES Refinery Mess
- NYT What Will Another Decade of Climate Crisis Bring?
- Building Science Podcast
- Marin County First to Adopt Low-Carbon Concrete Code
- Structural Engineers Study Embodied Carbon of 600 Buildings
- NREL + URBANopt = High Performance Energy Districts
- Mag Lev Chiller uses Low-Global-Warming-Potential Refrigerant
- Hydrocarbon pentane and some other items with lower GWP all contained within their own units
- The Klingenblog Passive building science and practice in North America
Passive House News and Events
