A Comprehensive Suite of Tax Credits for Building Decarbonization:

If you can support this effort, please sign this letter to Congress by the end of the week and encourage others to do so as well.  We’d like to get this proposal to Congress before the July Fourth recess. More details on this suite of tax credits are below. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to discuss these tax credits further. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdLEwpVy35it-lAp80n8S2fMIyHg2g1GxWio-02s0I5REWhQw/viewform A Comprehensive Suite of Tax Credits…


Passive house is an enclosure first “passive” approach

Passive house is an enclosure first “passive” approach It encompasses all aspects of high energy performance, sustainability, and resiliency that can be applied to all types of buildings, in all types of climates. While the adoption of the Passive House standard across Canada and the United States has not been easy, its uptake is beginning to accelerate. In the below policy guide developed by the North American Passive House Network (NAPHN)…


Emerging Local Legal Pathways for Building Electrification: Air Pollution and Land Use Regulation in New York City & Brookline, Massachusetts

By Amy Turner This week marked significant growth for the building electrification movement, as the legal pathways in use by local governments to catalyze electrification doubled in number. Previously, local governments had pursued building electrification through building code provisions requiring or incentivizing electrification expressly, or through affirmative “bans” on natural gas hookups to new and renovated buildings. More than 40 local governments in California have taken the former approach, in…



How Windows Make (or Break) Wall Performance, Illustrated

The thermal performance of your building’s walls is only as strong as the weakest link, and windows are too often that weak link. Even if you’ve gone to great lengths to build a super-insulated high performance wall, if you poke that wall full of holes, then plug those walls with mediocre windows, you will get a poorly-performing wall. Bad windows will ruin the best wall assemblies. Conversely, good windows can…


Designing the ‘Perfect Wall’ | Partel Tech Knowledge Series

The third episode in this series brings technical information on key layers in designing a perfect wall system. Construction evolved, and energy-efficient buildings now require proper sequencing to control the inside from the outside. Hugh Whiriskey, Technical Director of Partel, approaches the critical roles and properties of the four essential control layers: rain, air, vapor, and thermal in this session. Learn more about: What is the Perfect Wall and the…


Amer Jandali interviews Andreas Benzing, co-founder of New York Passive House

Enbridge Lines, Court Battles, Non-Proliferation & Energy-Efficient Buildings (767) June 11, 2021 We mention Keystone, drought, Biden, salmon and Trans Mountain, and discuss Enbridge’s lines 3 & 5, a German court ruling, and the utility of climate cases. Stefan interviews Seble Samuel of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. Amer Jandali interviews Andreas Benzing, co-founder of New York Passive House.


Efficiency: The First Renewable Energy

The International Passive House Association (iPHA) launched a campaign—"Efficiency: The First Renewable Energy"—with the goal "to raise awareness for the vital role energy efficiency in buildings plays in meeting our climate goals." The iPHA is a global network of 22 affiliate organizations promoting the concept of Passive House; it has been promoting energy efficiency for its entire existence—it is the raison d'être of the movement. The new campaign raised some…


PASSIVE HOUSE UPDATE – EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

On October 17, 2020, the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Executive Committee voted unanimously to update its January 25, 2019 resolution on Passive House to highlight the public health as well as environmental rationales for promoting this green building design. The resolution, which I introduced, states: “It is the position of the Atlantic Chapter that all new buildings in NYS that receive any form of public financing and, optimally all new…


New York Passive House joins the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction as a Member

New York Passive House becomes the first US based Passive House Organization to joint the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) organized by the United Nations Environment Program. We joined the Work Areas Market Transformation, Building measurement, data and information and beyond. We are honored to work alongside the United Nations Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction to advanced building energy efficiency and Passive House. See More >


Hybrid Conference | Passive House For All

NYPH is proud to announce its Conference Partnership with the North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) for its upcoming 2021 Conference on June 10-11. This will be a hybrid conference , with in-person and virtual available As a Conference Partner, NYPH will provide volunteer assistance during the conference and will solicit NYC projects, under construction or completed, that may be available for NAPHN’s in-person open houses on Saturday June 12.…


High-rise Passive House in NYC

By Lisa DiCaprio, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club NYC Group Photo Courtesy of Handel Architects NYC is leading in high-rise Passive House design and construction. On November 1, 2017, the Passive House Institute certified the 26-story Passive House residential building on the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island, which is now the largest and tallest Passive House building in the world. Handel Architects, based in NYC, designed the building. [1] The…