The Passive House Network

NAPHN\u2019s work aims for the following impacts:\n1. Dramatic building carbon emissions reductions, proportionate to the needs of our climate emergency.\n2. A building stock that supports healthy, safe, and financially secure people of all socioeconomic conditions. \n3. High-quality buildings that are accessible to all people.\n\nThe impacts flow from the outcomes our work aims for:\n1. An upskilled building industry workforce - from the construction site to operations management.\n2. New public policies that incentivize Passive House levels of building performance.\n3. New regulations mandating Passive House levels of building performance.\n4. New innovative, value-added, high-performance building components, systems, and processes.\n5. A new building industry culture - of Passive House performance.\n\nThe outcomes flow from the outputs we aim for in our work:\n1. A building industry that thinks differently about the relationship between design \u0026 performance.\n2. Peer networks that share Passive House knowledge directly and informally.\n3. Raised expectations about what is possible and what should be done.

High-quality education. A Passive House education. \n\nThe North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) is a high-performance building literacy program. We provide comprehensive, high-quality Passive House education to stakeholders across the building industry - from architects and engineers to builders, tradespersons, and developers, to regulators and policymakers. We demystify the impact of design and construction choices, form knowledge-sharing networks, raise expectations, and transform how professionals fundamentally think and work. \n\nA Passive House education is like that really great teacher you had: giving you an unparalleled technical education, in a grounded way, revealing the underlying logic and connections, the power of ideas; it sparks imagination; it fundamentally leaves you thinking differently about the issues at hand, and leaves you empowered to act effectively. \n\nThere are three basic levels of education we offer: introductory, core certificate courses, and then a range of specialized courses. Each can be delivered in-person, live-online, or on-demand online. Working through networks of professional organizations, higher education institutions, and workforce training organizations we connect our instruction to varied communities of industry stakeholders. \n\nWe take a particular interest in educating policymakers and regulators, to embed this training where paradigm shifts can be instigated. We convene policymakers from varied jurisdictions for peer education and developing a sense of friendly competition. \n\nWe have seen that in areas where Passive House education has been most prevalent, support for Passive House adoption is strong and spurs a rapidly growing number of Passive House buildings, most notably in New York City and Vancouver, British Columbia.

We have extensive resources, from staff, to volunteers, sponsors, and a growing member network - but also collaborators and allies from a variety of organizations. \n\nOur staff produces regular trainings that serve our national audience. We host convening meetings, symposiums and an annual national conference - all bringing stakeholders together for growing networking and knowledge sharing opportunities.\n\nA critical partner is the Passive House Institute (PHI), with which NAPHN is affiliated. PHI is a global building performance research institute based in Germany and provides the quality-assured accreditation, technical capabilities and theoretical knowledge that ultimately illuminates the relationships between building design and performance.

So far we can identify significant accomplishments. We can draw a direct line from our programs to regional, national and international actions to hold the building industry responsible for producing unequivocal positive results commensurate with the existential emergencies we face. \n\nGlobally, NAPHN was part of an international education program that resulted in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (which includes the US) establishing the Framework Guidelines for Energy Efficiency Standards in Buildings. \n\nLocally, New York City, based on the work of professionals and policymakers educated by NAPHN passed Local Law 31 in 2016 that is compelling new City owned buildings to meet energy reduction targets equivalent to Passive House, and NAPHN is currently training the NYC School Construction Authority to support implementation of the law. \n\nAnd regionally, NYC and New York State recently passed additional laws demanding sharp cuts in building carbon emissions, as the New York State Energy Research \u0026 Development Authority (NYSERDA) invested $250,000 into NAPHN Passive House education programs. \n\nToday, stakeholders educated by NAPHN, by their example, and by peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, are changing industry expectations of what is possible. Across the building industry professionals, developers, regulators and policymakers are taking notice.