Passive House Conference 2023
The annual Passive House Conference was held recently in Denver, Colorado and hosted by the Passive House Network. Attending the Passive House conference always leaves me inspired, energized, and optimistic, and never more so than this year. I have the sense that this is a pivotal moment for Passive House and that scaling-up is imminent. The need for climate change mitigation and adaptation has by now been made heartbreakingly clear to all of us, and Passive House is the most appropriate building model to address both concerns. And it is also well positioned to be adopted as a code standard for many jurisdictions, due to a combination of energy code requirements, tax incentives, and market demand.
I had the honor of participating in a policy roundtable where advocates from all over the country got together to discuss how Passive House legislation is progressing in our various jurisdictions. One of my big takeaways from that meeting was the idea that we should be focusing more on envelope performance, and less on whole building Energy Use Intensity (EUI). And that is because as designers we have more control on a building’s energy performance via choices we make about the envelope, if we design according to the Passive House standard, whereas we cannot control plug loads (how many appliances occupants use) or hot water usage, both of which have proven to be major factors in the discrepancies between energy models and actual energy usage. Another interesting moment from the roundtable was hearing more about Massachusetts' pioneering incentives campaign. The Mass Save® program is truly a model for the rest of us.
A third point of interest was the notion that as advocates we should first focus on educating Passive House practitioners in every jurisdiction, and only after a good base of knowledge has been established in the community should we advocate for energy code updates. Thinking about the importance of education, I feel proud of the work I do to introduce fellow building and design professionals to Passive House at the Building Energy Exchange. I will be giving my final presentation of 2023 in December (and there are still seats available).
One of the most interesting presentations I saw at the conference was given by a company based in Colorado called Timber Age. Their principle is to either identify forests that need thinning or use timber from properties where their owners need to do either thinning or clearcutting, and then use that timber for Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) construction panels. Forest fires have intensified in the past few years all over the world as a result of both climate change and an excess amount of fuel in the forests as a result of a century of misguided forest-fighting policies. By harvesting timber that is about to either die off or ignite, the carbon that has been captured in the tree can get sequestered in buildings rather than released in the atmosphere.
I spoke with one of the Timber Age founders who told me that trees such as the Ponderosa pine, which is what they harvest most often, have short lifespans, and capture more CO2 in their early years of life, while their trunks are growing in thickness. As the years go by and the forest densifies, trees seeking sunlight grow taller, and they capture less CO2. Regular thinning using low tire pressure machines that do not disrupt the forest floor promotes the forest's health while sequestering carbon that would have been otherwise released to the atmosphere with wildfires.
Finally, on the last day the formation of the Building Performance Assurance Council (BPAC) was announced. According to one of their founders, "it is essentially a brand-neutral, outcome-based, and data-driven approach to verifying the performance of buildings against decarbonization standards.” It was made clear that this is not a new standard, but will support and complement existing standards such as Passive House (PHI and PHIUS) and RESET to enable them to scale-up as more jurisdictions in the US begin requiring them. And in fact the reason BPAC was created is the anticipated scaling-up of these other building standards. More details on how BPAC will work and what type of certification a building would receive after going through their process have yet to be announced, so we are standing by.
My overall impression after a few days at the conference was that we are at a pivotal moment right now. More lawmakers, as well as investors, are now understanding the necessity of buildings that are resilient to the unpredictable and extreme weather events that are becoming the norm as a result of climate change, and which also provide healthy indoor environments, consume less energy, ensure predictable utility costs, all while not contributing negatively to climate change. These are very exciting times for the Passive House community and I feel honored to be part of a group that is helping shape the built environment for a livable future.
Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter. I welcome any and all questions, feedback, and outreach.
