Policy That Works

An investigation into policies driving Passive House adoption in North America

“There are currently eighty-six (86) multifamily buildings pursuing Passive House certification in Massachusetts. How did this happen so quickly, and what were the policy drivers responsible for this remarkable escalation?

To further understand the policy structures and mechanisms driving Passive House adoption, not only in Massachusetts but elsewhere across North America, the Passive House Network (PHN, formerly NAPHN) embarked upon a comprehensive study to identify what, where and how Passive House policies were being implemented across North America. Not only did we want to understand the drivers behind these policies, but we wanted to determine which policies were more successful and why. We began by inventorying and benchmarking all existing Passive-House-focused, or Passive House-related policies, using Certified Passive House projects as our yardstick. Using that metric, we found three front-runner regions and then reviewed specific policies operating in those regions to look into how they were structured and what key patterns or mechanisms they shared, if any.

We’ve described our journey of discovery here.“

You can find this and other reports, including our policy brief, Stepping Up to Passive, and Safe at Home, and investigation into how all-electric multifamily buildings can provide safe, comfortable, cost-efficient climate resilience on our reports page.