On July 24th, 2014, members of the North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) filed papers to formally incorporate as a cooperative corporation after operating informally since 2011. Representatives
from four regional independent Passive House advocacy organizations, New York Passive House,Passive House California, passivhausMAINE, and theCanadian Passive House Institute, served as the incorporators and provided the founding officers.

“The decision to use the cooperative structure reflects the evolution of this organization from a small informal network to an established, collaborative community,” said Co-President Bronwyn Barry, “NAPHN wants to provide the most support possible toward those working at the regional level, where we see the most activity taking place.”

As a network this group collectively organized the popular ‘Passive House Zone’ at Greenbuild 2012 in San Francisco and & 2013 in Philadelphia. NAPHN regularly facilitates the participation of international leaders at regional events. NAPHN organized and hosted speaker tours by Guenter Lang (Austria) in 2011, Joke Dockx (Belgium) in 2012, Wolfgang Feist and Witta Ebel (Germany) in 2013, and Nick Grant (UK) in 2014. A PHPP Dashboard competition was organized in 2012 to encourage information sharing among Passive House energy modelers. Various workshops and trainings were coordinated across the country for both manufacturers, architects and builders. The active participation by all the regional groups in these events served to lay the foundation for the cooperative principles this organization has now formally adopted.

NAPHN has grown substantially from the initial three organizations who founded this group. It formed in late 2011 to serve as a resource-sharing portal for the growing network of independent, regional organizations that began forming across the continent from 2008. The need for a democratic and transparent umbrella organization emerged from these grassroots efforts. New York, California and the Northwest initiated the early formation. They were then joined by the New Mexico, Canada, Maine and Western Pennsylvania regions, forming a network that stretches across the North American continent.

As NAPHN embarks as a cooperative, it’s producing its most important event to date, the NAPHN14
Conference & Expo, September 22nd-23rd, in Portland, Maine. The conference will showcase Passive House leaders and projects from across North America and around the world, including Dr. Wolfgang Feist, Director of the Passive House Institute, who will provide the opening keynote address.