Since 2014 our national conference has brought North America’s Passive House community together: designers, builders, developers, manufacturers, owners, and policymakers, learning from each other’s work. Here is every one, with the presentations, videos, and books that are still online.
Next: our next national conference is planned for spring 2028. Details will be here and in our newsletter when they’re set.
On this page: 2026 · 2023 · 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018 · 2017 · 2016 · 2015 · 2014
2026: New Haven
June 4–5, 2026 · Hotel Marcel, New Haven, Connecticut · Profit by Experience
We met inside a Passive House: Marcel Breuer’s Brutalist Armstrong Rubber headquarters, reborn as the EnerPHit-certified Hotel Marcel. Professionals, developers, builders, manufacturers, owners, lenders, insurers, advocates, and policymakers looked at what Passive House returns to everyone who takes part: health and well-being, social justice, financial security, property protection, and wealth creation.
- The 2026 conference: program, speakers, sponsors
- Conference recordings
- Photos
- Hotel Marcel case study
2023: Denver
October 4–5, 2023 · McNichols Civic Center Building, Denver, Colorado, and online, with online sessions September 28
A call for rapid climate action through buildings. Sessions covered schools, a police station, a YWCA, and apartment buildings across the US and abroad, with a focus on all-electric multifamily Passive House, and on the code work in Massachusetts and Scotland. Workshops ran October 3 and 4, and a buildings tour October 6. Partners included the Passive House Institute, the International Passive House Association, Passive House Rocky Mountains, and the Colorado Green Building Guild.
Around the conference: our Ice Box Challenge at Denver’s Union Station, the first PHN Design Awards, and our report Safe at Home.
All the session recordings (25)
September 28, 2023 (online)
- Opening Welcome: A View from Colorado
- Airtightness Testing: From Small to Large Buildings
- Sustainable Density: A Look at European Climate Adaptive Districts
- Making a Better Crystal Ball: Strategies for Passive House Energy Modeling
- Wildfire Resilience: Strategies, Codes, Data & the Wildland-Urban Interface
- Massachusetts & Scotland: The Passive House Stories
- High Rise Envelope Optimization Means Controlling Your Thermal Bridges
- After the Marshall Fire: Building Back with Passive House Gets Real
- Can Mass Production Figure Out Passive House?
- Geothermal Systems Go Big: A Climate Justice Framework
- Mass Timber Passive House: Two Case Studies
October 4, 2023 (Denver and online)
- Opening Plenary & Keynote: Dream Big, Passive House Is the Platform
- Passive House for the Public: Public Schools Case Studies
- Commercial Building Retrofits: Two Case Studies
- Why Passive House Multifamily? Market Rate & Affordable Housing Explain
- Public Policy & Passive House: A Warming Relationship
October 5, 2023 (Denver and online)
- The Marshall Fire: A Community Changes Business as Usual
- In Search of Multifamily Performance Data
- Western Trailblazers: Passive House Team Builders
- Making the Market: Real Estate, Financing & Passive House Value
- Passive House Frontiers: New Typologies
- Building Sustainable Communities: Opportunity & Resilience
- Passive House, Embodied Carbon & Environmental Sustainability
- Go West, Passive House Multifamily!
- Closing Plenary: PH++++
2022: Boston
June 10 online, and June 17, 2022, in Boston and online · Passive House for All
The program looked at where four drivers of climate action meet: energy efficiency, electrification, embodied carbon, and social equity. Dr. Wolfgang Feist, founder of the Passive House Institute, gave an address; Jessica Grove-Smith of PHI led a PHPP 10 workshop; and a buildings tour followed in Boston. Partners were the Passive House Institute, the International Passive House Association, and Passive House Massachusetts.
We gave our first Trailblazer Award to the developer MP Boston for Winthrop Center, a 691-foot (211 m) mixed-use tower whose 812,000 sq ft (75,400 m²) of offices were built to Passive House. Watch: Winthrop Center.
All the session recordings (27)
June 10, 2022 (online)
- Opening Remarks
- Meeting the Market with Efficiency
- Speculative Solutions: Passive House Potential in the Biolab Building Boom
- Nice outPHit!
- Indoor Air Quality at the World’s Largest Passive House Premium Building
- The New Frontier, Downtown: The Passive Spec Office Building
- Passive House from the Grassroots with Fred McGee
- Get Cool, Stay Cool
- Passive House, Large Scale Development & Electrification
- Financing the Energy Transition
- Scaling Historic Masonry Retrofits
- Who’s Going to Build It All? Workforce Development, Incentives & Equitable Outcomes
- Certified Efficiency
- A Kitchen For 750 Please, Hold the Gas
- Advancing All-Wood Design and Carbon Storage in the Built Environment
- Racism, Housing, Community Development, Passive House
- An Education in Harnessing Efficiency
- The Chef’s Kitchen: All-Electric
- Retrofit First: Occupied Apartment Tower Step-by-Step EnerPHit
- The Future of Building Standards
June 17, 2022 (Boston and online)
Exhibitor showcase and student videos (14)
- 475 High Performance Building Supply
- Aero Aggregates
- Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC)
- Owens Corning
- Rockwool
- Rothoblaas
- Schuco
- Swegon
- Ventacity
- Wythe Windows & Doors
- Passive House For Everyone 2022 Jackson St Elementary MA
- Passive House For Everyone 2022 Boys and Girls HS
- Passive House For Everyone 2022 Pratt Body in Motion
- Passive House For Everyone 2022 Pratt Collage and Words
2021: New York
June 10–11, 2021 · New York City and online · Passive House for All
Our first hybrid conference, in person at reduced capacity and online. Passive House for All was a call to action: Passive House serving everyone and open to everyone, across uses, regions, climates, and construction types, as a core tool for sustainable communities, equitable living conditions, skilled work, health, and the climate.
- Conference program (PDF)
- PH2021: Day 1, Day 2, and thank you, exhibitors (video)
- Get ready for something totally different: PH2021 in person and online (video)
2020: Online
Wednesdays, June 24 to July 29, 2020 · Online · Passive House 2020: Choose Your Future
Planned for June in person, the conference moved online when the pandemic hit, and stretched over six Wednesday afternoons. Alongside the technical program, three Owners Roundtables, moderated by Beth Eckenrode of the AUROS Group, had developers and owners tell how they decide on Passive House, make it good business, and run their buildings after.
- Owners Roundtable 1: Deciding to Do It (eBook) · video
- Owners Roundtable 2: Making Passive House Good Business (eBook) · video
- Owners Roundtable 3: Occupancy, Measurement, and Management (eBook) · video
- The Owner’s Manual (PDF)
All the session videos (21 more)
- Passive Assets: Using the Data to Underwrite Passive House Financing
- Own Your Passive House Development Process Too: Hitting Milestones & Budgets
- NYC Public Schools: An Education in Passive House Performance
- Retrofit Everything: Scaling Action in New York and Ontario
- Historic Preservation, Use Conversion & Affordable Development: An EnerPHit Story
- NAPHN – What’s your buildings carbon debt? You should know.
- Is Your Materials Pallete Ready for the Growing Focus on Embodied Carbon?
- Keeping Your Students Healthy & Funders Happy: Passive House Matriculates
- China Goes Passive House
- Vancouver & New York State: Two Climate Leaders Show Their Cards
- Buildings of Excellence: Case Studies in Elevated Expectations
- It’s About the Outside Air: Why Passive House Ventilation is the Invisible Hand of High Performance
- Heat Pumps Are Everywhere! Critical Data & Applications in the Passive House Context
- Why does Covid-19 Hate Passive House? Strategies to Mitigate the Spread of Viruses
- Density is Good & Infill is Best: A Mass Timber Passive House Case Study and Call to Action
- Regulations Are Changing Everything: How Passive House Helps Mitigate Growing Risks
- How Smart is Your Data? What We’re Collecting and What it Means
- PHPP & Dynamic Energy Models: Understanding An Evolving Relationship
- Making PER Work for Large Multifamily Buildings: Tools for Futureproofing
- High-Performance Highrise Enclosures
- What next? A Closing Plenary Discussion
2019: New York
June 27–28, 2019, with workshops and tours June 25–29 · New York City, co-hosted by New York Passive House · Build the World We Want
More than 30 sessions on how professionals and policymakers were putting Passive House to work at scale: university buildings in Australia and the UK, an office retrofit in Brussels, affordable senior housing in Queens, and policy roundtables. Dr. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz spoke at the dinner.
- Conference program (PDF)
- Conference highlights (video)
- Policy roundtable: Do Get Me Started (video)
- Policy roundtable: Clear Targets, Good Direction (video)
- Dr. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz at the dinner (video)
- Policy Resource Guide, written for the conference
2018: Pittsburgh
October 17–21, 2018 · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, co-hosted by Passive House Western Pennsylvania
A city with one of the largest concentrations of Passive House and deep green building on the continent, thanks to a strong professional base, innovative public policy, and forward-looking developers and housing agencies.
- Conference highlights (video)
All the presentations (48)
Health and Wellness
- Resiliency to Power Outages in Remote Communities in Very cold Climates, Jeanie Chan, Andrea Frisque, and Innes Hood
- RESET NAPHN 2018, Craig Stevenson
- High Humidity in winter: Analyzing Multi-Family Passive House Projects, Hugh Crowther
- Is Polyurethane Insulation Really That Bad, Gary Gardner
- NAPHN 2018 West Vancouver Passive House Presentation, James Dean, Stuart Hood & Marcel Studer
- Healthy Kitchen Ventilation, Best Practices in Low E Homes, Tom Phillips
- Environmental Injustice and Air Pollution, Harold Rickenbacker and Melissa Bilec
- Radon Emissions from Common Building Materials: Risks, Prevention and Mitigation for Passive Houses, Christina Snyder
- Beyond Dilution: Reducing Exposure to Particle Pollution in High Performance Homes, Linda Wigington
Innovations
- Pushing Two Envelopes: Integrating Passive House Practice with Prefabrication, Bronwyn Barry, Chris Carson, Tad Everhart, Paul Grahovac, and Jonah Standford
- Passive House Design for Commercial Offices: Scaling Up, Design Tools, Overheating, and a Client’s Motivation, Andy Chong and Mark Bernhardt
- BIM & PHPP Integration, Kelly Fisher
- New Guide for Modeling Passive House Windows, Melissa Furukawa
- Charting New Territory in Passive House: Vancouver Fire Hall No. 17, Melissa Higgs and Scott Ghomeshi
- Charting New Territory in Passive House: Clayton Community Center, Melissa Higgs and Joe Quad
- Large Building Airtightness Testing Case Studies, Rob Hosken
- Optimization Techniques for PHPP, Irwin
- How Passive House Performs Across BREEAM, LEED, and WELL Building and Reduce the Performance Gap, Tiffany Lewins
- Air Tightness Testing in Multifamily Passive House Buildings, Adam Romano
- Reimagining Carbon: the Future of High Performance Materials, Richard Skorpenske
- Insulated and Conditioned Basements as a Passive Cooling Strategy in Climate Zone 5 Pittsburgh, Michael Whartnaby
Large Buildings
- PH University of Toronto, Scarborough’s 750-bed Student Residence, Deborah A. Byrne
- Large Scale Passive Houses: Applying Lessons Learned, Deborah Moelis and Lois Arena
- Scaling New Heights: Passive House at Scale, James Woodall
Retrofits
- Lessons from an EnerPHit Industrial Building in Sri Lanka, Lois Arena and Jordan Parnass
- Innovative to Education: Early Learning Center Goes Passive in an Historic District, Anne Bannon, P. Andrew Collins and James Wagman
- Hybrid Ware/House: Italian Market Passive House, Laura Blau
- Reaching for the Stars: Inside the Workings of a RetrofitNY Team, Jordan Dentz and Christa Waring
- EnerPHit: Phased but Unfazed, Tad Everhart
- Passive House Retrofits, Essential Lessons and Game Changing Realities, Michael Ingui
- EnerPHit Retrofit of a Derelict Multi-family Building, Cameron Laidlaw
- Local Lessons Learned: Two Big Affordable Housing Retrofits in Pittsburgh, Laura Nettleton, Rebecca Griffith and Phillip Ford
- Panel Masonry Retrofit Discussion, Paul Thompson, Laura Blau, Michael Ingui and Laura Nettleton
Social Equity and Inclusion
- Passive House for All-Affordable Housing Project as a Tool for Social Equity, Deborah A. Byrne, Alice Gibson and Kelly Fisher
- Ultra-Efficient Housing: The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Strategy, Tim Eian and Stephan Tanner
- PHFA Work and Experiences, Stan Salwocki
- Hot & Humid Climate Challenges for Multifamily Affordable Buildings: Puerto Madero Project, Andrew Straus and Enrique Bueno
Solutions Using Passive House
- S, M, L, XL Many Sizes, Different Challenges, Deborah A. Byrne and Jonathan Kearns
- West Vancouver Passive House, James Dean, Stuart Hood and Marcel Studer
- Passive House and Off-Grid Locations: A Match Made in Heaven, Chris Doel, Derek Newby and Cillian Collins
- Valleyview Town Hall Ultra Low Energy Building, Oscar Flechas
- Wood Innovation Research Lab at the University of Northern British Columbia, Andrea Frisque, Ray Wolfe, Guido Wimmers and Keith Bate
- Certified Passive House Details for Commercial Buildings, Alejandra Nieto and Todd Kimmel
- Passive House Child Cares Made Easy, Mary On and Adam James
- Shifting Gears: A Passive House Car Dealership in the Making, Andrew Peel
- Air Tightness Requirements of the PH Standard, Scott Pusey and Mike O’Donnell
- Madison Haus, Tessa Smith
- Midtown Passive House, Nathan St. Germain
2017: Oakland
October 4–7, 2017 · Oakland, California, co-hosted by Passive House California · Passive + Renewables
Three representatives of the United Nations addressed the opening plenary. Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, spoke by video on the role Passive House can play in reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Michael Møller, Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva, announced by live link a global network of UN Centers of Excellence, with Vancouver and New York City chosen as two of the hosts. And in person, Scott Foster of the UN Economic Commission for Europe set out the framework and the work ahead.
- Amina J. Mohammed’s address (video)
All the presentations (56)
- Researching High Performance: Barry McCarron · Yetsuh Frank
- Okay, but will your banker fund it?: Tim Weyand and Brandon Nicholson · Tim McDonald
- Vancouver & NYC Make Passive House Stick: Aaron Ordower · Andrea Wickham and Chris Higgins
- Thermal Bridging Can Poison Passive House Performance: Colin Shane · Rolf Jacobson and Chris Petit
- Passive Goes District Wide: Marine Sanchez · Mike Eliason · Monte Paulsen
- Much More than a facelift- Home Retrofits: Albert Rooks · James Bill · Stas Zakrzewski
- Renewable Storage and the Passive House: Jean Woo · Olaf Lohr · Sven Thesen
- Clean Air for Healthy Living: Brett Singer · Christina Snyder · Gabriel Rojas · Monte Paulsen · Ryan Militello-Hourigan
- Forget About the House: Andrew Peel · Carl-Jan Rupp · Stuart Hood
- Become Certified Not Certifiable, Tad Everhart and Tomas O’Leary
- The New Power Couple, Stefan Gracik and Stet Sanborn
- The New Power Couple – PH & the Renewable Grid: Jessica Grove-Smith · Zack Semke
- Schools are Learning to go Passive, Fiona Brazill
- Driving a PH market – Can you Sell what you can’t see: Andreas Benzing · Debra Little · Stas Zakrzewski
- Net Postive Water ILFI: Brad Liljequist and Josiah Cain · Kenner Kingston · Pete Muñoz
- PH Across the Pacific (Australia), Clare Parry
- PH Across the Pacific (China), Cui Yuansheng
- PH Across the Pacific (Japan), Miwa Mori
- PHPP Modeling Secrets Revealed: Andrew Peel · Christina Snyder · Dylan Lamar
- Passive Stands Tall – High Rises: Eric Catania · German Velazquez · Lois Arena
- The American Dream Renewed – PH Plus for Everyone: John Mead and Matt Daby · John Sarter · Michael Ingui · Tim Eian
- Heat Pumps are your friend: Dan Johnson · Ken Eklund · Stefan Gracik and Stet Sanborn
- Net Positive and Zero Energy – ILFI Crosswalks to PH, Brad Liljequist and Bronwyn Barry
- Nothing will be Untouched – PH meets Building Codes and ZEB: Mark Lyles · Monte Paulsen
- Closing Plenary – The Intoxicating Paradigm of PH, Elrond Burrell
2016: New York
June 13–14, 2016 · Metropolitan Pavilion, New York City, co-hosted by New York Passive House · Decarbonize Our Future Today
Building strategies, components, and professional development for an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050: high-rise and rural, arctic to tropical, affordable and market-rate multifamily, steel, concrete, wood frame, and cross-laminated timber.
- Passive House Accelerates, the program book: the conference and the people, companies, and institutions making Passive House real
All the presentations (15)
- Pre-Designed & pre-Fabricated: Retrofits & New Construction, Enrico Bonilauri
- Residential Survey: New Retrofit, City & Country, In Cho
- Residential Survey: New & Retrofit, City & Country, Darren Macri
- Thermal Bridge Free Detailing: New Certified Facade Systems & Evolving Approaches: Tessa Smith & Jesse Thompson · Alejandra Nieto & Shawn Torbert
- Never Too Cold: Passive Houses Up North, Jesper Kruse
- Passive Software Tools SketchUp & PHPP9: Think in 3D, Calculate Payback & Optimize for the Renewable Future: Andre Harrmann · Dylan Lamar
- Passive Builds Resilience, Michael Hindle
- Ventilation Performance: Testing & New High Volume Options: Andrew Peel · Salvatore D’Auria
- Towards a Localized Passive House ‘Vernacular’ in North America, Lukas Armstrong & Bronwyn Barry
- Los Angeles & Mexico City Get Passive, Marisa Egea, Antonio Pelaez & Xavier Gaucher
- Blower Door Testing Big Buildings, Holger Merkel
- The Data Tells The Story: Cost & Performance, Laura Nettleton
2015: Vancouver
October 1–2, 2015 · Vancouver, British Columbia, hosted by CanPHI West
Holding the conference in Canada made the point that Passive House is a continental and global effort. The program put large buildings on stage: the first social housing project in Canada to target Passive House certification, in Ontario; Herz & Lang of Germany, Passive House Award winners, on making Passive House the logical choice for large buildings; and a 95-unit rental building about to start in Vancouver. Tours went to projects in Vancouver and Whistler.
- Net Zero Energy Buildings: Passive House + Renewables, our first eBook, issued at the conference: why net zero should start with cutting demand, not adding supply
2014: Portland, Maine
2014 · Portland, Maine, co-hosted by passivhausMAINE
Our first conference. Attendees came from across the US and Canada, and guests from Germany, Austria, the UK, Ireland, Turkey, Korea, Japan, and China joined a large local Maine crowd. In the keynote, Dr. Wolfgang Feist introduced two new Passive House classes to North America: Passive House Plus and Passive House Premium.
- Martin Holladay’s report on the conference (GreenBuildingAdvisor)
Questions about a past conference, or interested in presenting or exhibiting at the next one? Write to us at conference@passivehousenetwork.org. See also our Ice Box Challenge.
Checked October 2026.
