Passive House 2020: Choose Your Future

Lois Arena, Director of Passive House Services at Steven Winter Associates, Inc., possesses over 25 years of experience in the building science field and has extensive experience with new and existing buildings. Lois holds both US and international Passive House consultant certifications and is currently consulting on some of the largest and most difficult Passive House projects in the world. She has co-authored and presented training programs about energy-efficient building practices to professionals in all sectors of the building industry and is regularly invited to present at conferences and private firms around the world to discuss the benefits of and roadblocks to PH adoption.

Christina McPike is the Director of Energy & Sustainability for WinnCompanies, an owner, developer, and manager of mixed-income multifamily housing. Since joining Winn’s Energy & Sustainability team in 2013, Ms. McPike has managed over $20 million worth of energy efficiency upgrades across Winn’s portfolio. Under Ms. McPike’s leadership, WinnDevelopment successfully integrates high-performance design and targets in every project, from occupied moderate renovations to historic adaptive reuse projects to ground-up new construction.

Ms. McPike is a Lifetime Member of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, through which she received the Kate Goldstein Fund award in 2016. Ms. McPike has spoken at numerous conferences including NEEP’s Electrification Symposium, NESEA BE Boston and BE NYC, NH&RA’s Annual Conference, Greenbuild, and Multifamily Exchange. She holds an M.S. degree from Northeastern University and a B.A. from Boston College.

Dr. Frisque is a Building Performance Engineer at Stantec. She provides technical direction and leadership in low-energy design for buildings and communities. She publishes technical papers in international journals, presents at national and international conferences, and has been invited to give talks and lectures. Dr. Frisque has 15+ years of experience related to analyses and computer simulations for sustainable design. Dr. Frisque was a founding director of the Canadian Passive House Institute (CanPHI) and is a Certified Passive House Designer. With her team, she recently completed PH certification of the Wood Innovation Research Lab at UNBC, Prince George, BC.

Elena Reyes Bernal joined the team of the Passive House Institute in 2016. She does consulting and certification of buildings, coordinates the accreditation of external building certifiers and conducts workshops. She also participates in international cooperation projects to implement the Passive House standard in Mexico and India, for example.

Melissa Furukawa is a Passive House Consultant with experience in low energy building design and analysis. She completed her Master of Building Science degree at Ryerson University where she took courses in Building Science Theory, Energy Efficient Building Services and Renewable Energy Systems, Building Envelope Systems, Ecological and Resource Efficient Design etc. Melissa has worked on a variety of projects all over the world designing buildings that are climate-responsive by incorporating passive design elements in order to maximize user comfort while minimizing energy use. She has extensive experience in energy modeling, daylight analysis, climate analysis as well as various other engineering analyses.

Sailen Black, Architect AIBC, works for the City of Vancouver as a Senior Green Building Planner. His work includes changes to the zoning and development process to facilitate more zero emissions buildings, including large scale Passive House projects. He previously worked in the Urban Design division at the City of Vancouver as a development planner.

Greg is leading NYSERDA’s creation of a policy roadmap to achieve a statewide carbon neutral building stock. This work includes strategic co-leadership for RetrofitNY, an initiative aimed at developing scalable retrofit solutions that achieve or approach net-zero energy for New York’s multifamily housing stock.

Prior to NYSERDA, Greg was Senior Advisor to NY’s Chairman of Energy & Finance, focused on the development and execution of Governor Cuomo’s signature energy policy– Reforming the Energy Vision (REV). Greg oversaw the establishment of the $1 billion NY Green Bank and was the lead author of New York’s 2015 State Energy Plan.

Lois Arena, Director of Passive House Services at Steven Winter Associates, Inc., possesses over 25 years of experience in the building science field and has extensive experience with new and existing buildings. Lois holds both US and international Passive House consultant certifications and is currently consulting on some of the largest and most difficult Passive House projects in the world. She has co-authored and presented training programs about energy-efficient building practices to professionals in all sectors of the building industry and is regularly invited to present at conferences and private firms around the world to discuss the benefits of and roadblocks to PH adoption.

Monte Paulsen leads the Passive House team at RDH Building Science, which is currently consulting to more than 5 million square feet of Passive House across the US and Canada. He has trained hundreds of Passive House designers and consultants, and he leads the “Pattern Language from Passive House” workshop series with the Vancouver Zero Emissions Buildings Exchange.

Chris Magwood is obsessed with helping reverse climate change by making carbon-storing buildings that are also healthy, beautiful, efficient and inspiring.
Chris is currently the executive director of The Endeavour Centre, a not-for-profit sustainable building school in Peterborough, Ontario. The school runs a full-time certificate programs – Sustainable Building and Design – and hosts dozens of hands-on workshops annually. In 2019, he helped to establish Builders for Climate Action, which will be rolling out a set of tools and policy options to help governments, designers and builders reverse climate change with their buildings.
Chris has authored seven books on sustainable building, including Essential Sustainable Home Design (2017). He is co-editor of the Sustainable Building Essentials series from New Society Publishers, and recently, he contributed a chapter to the book The New Carbon Architecture. In 1998 he co-founded Camel’s Back Construction, and over eight years helped to design and/or build more than 30 homes and commercial buildings, mostly with straw bales and often with renewable energy systems. Chris has completed an MA at Trent University. His thesis, Opportunities for Carbon Removal and Storage in Building Materials which was published in the fall of 2019. Chris is an active speaker and workshop instructor in Canada and internationally.

He is an award-winning architect and has become a leader in Passive House design in the U.S. and speaks internationally on sustainable design. He co-founded GO Logic, a design/build firm that is focused on developing a practical, cost effective approach to meeting the ultra-high-performance Passive House standard, which use 90% less energy in space heating when compared to traditional buildings. Their first project, the GO Home became the 1st certified Passive House building in Maine. Next he went on to found GO Home, which provides pre-designed, prefabricated, homes for New Englanders, which also use 90% less energy. This spring he launched OPAL, an architecture firm that is focused on creating the next generation of large scale passive house, carbon-positive buildings. Believing a “well insulated home can change the world,” Matt launched his latest venture, GO Lab, which will help transform the forest products economy by creating a manufacturing facility in a former paper mill in Madison, Maine. It will turn daily shipments of wood chips from Maine’s lumber yards into affordable, sustainable insulation and create good paying jobs. Knowing that buildings produce 44% of carbon emissions, GO Lab believes that “the survival of the planet is at risk unless critical industries change the way they do business.” Matt has spent his career rethinking every detail of building construction, with an eye toward high performance, quality, and sustainability. He is an architect, entrepreneur and visionary leader. For these reasons, we present Matt with the 2019 Alnoba CEO Environmental Responsibility Award “ It is my responsibility as an architect to create buildings that not only meet current performance standards, but also anticipate future standards and contribute to the well-being of future generations.”

Lois Arena, Director of Passive House Services at Steven Winter Associates, Inc., possesses over 25 years of experience in the building science field and has extensive experience with new and existing buildings. Lois holds both US and international Passive House consultant certifications and is currently consulting on some of the largest and most difficult Passive House projects in the world. She has co-authored and presented training programs about energy-efficient building practices to professionals in all sectors of the building industry and is regularly invited to present at conferences and private firms around the world to discuss the benefits of and roadblocks to PH adoption.

Deborah Moelis AIA CPHD is a Principal and a founding member of Handel Architects. She is a licensed Architect in NY and California and a Certified Passive House Designer. Ms. Moelis has lectured extensively on the principles of Passive House design, including recent presentations at AIANY, Greenbuild DC, nZeb in Wexford, Ireland and the International Passivhaus Institute conference in Vienna, Austria. Ms. Moelis has managed all of the firm’s Passive House projects, including serving as Project Manager for Cornell Tech’s new residential tower on the Roosevelt Island campus in New York City. Called The House at Cornell Tech, the tower is the largest and tallest building in the world built to Passive House standards. Current work includes serving as Project Manager for Sendero Verde, a new 650-unit residential building in New York City, which, when complete, will be the largest fully affordable Passive House building in the world. Previously Ms. Moelis managed the design and construction of Aire, a 42-story 315-unit residential tower on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, as well as Millennium Place, a 256-unit residential building in downtown Boston. She has also led numerous teams through successful entitlement processes in NY City as well as Jersey City and Boston, MA. Additionally Ms. Moelis has run several winning competition teams in her tenure. Her projects have been extensively published and received numerous awards, including honors from AIANY, the BSA, and the Boston Preservation Alliance. Prior to joining Handel Architects, Ms. Moelis worked in the New York and London offices of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.

Jennifer Adams Peffer, AIA, RAIC, LEED AP is an architect and urban designer specializing in Higher Education Planning and Design. With over 25 years of experience, Jennifer brings a passion for excellence in design and place making that incorporates best practices in health & wellness, accessibility, environmental and social sustainability. As Campus Architect for the University of Toronto Scarborough, Jennifer leads a team of professionals in the pursuit of these goals through the renovation and improvement of campus spaces, and provides leadership toward the planning and design of capital projects and master plans. Jennifer first attended the International Passive Haus conference in Darmstadt in 2017 together with a few like-minded colleagues interested in bringing PH to the Scarborough campus. She is thrilled that a 750-bed residence targeting PH certification will be under construction on campus in early 2021.

Stacy has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Washington, and over 15 years in the architecture and construction professions. Her resume includes the first LEED for Homes Platinum certified project in Washington State as well as the first project in the world to be certified under Living Building Version 2.0 standards. At Skanska, Stacy leads sustainable initiatives, and is considered a subject matter expert in LEED, Living Building Challenge and
carbon emissions associated with buildings and construction. In her role at the newly established nonprofit, Building Transparency, Stacy leads the continued management and development of the free, open-access Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool and works to educate and engage the building industry on actionably reducing embodied carbon emissions of building materials. Stacy has served in various advisory and leadership roles, including: Co-Chair of the Washington Businesses for Climate Action; Advisory Board
Member for the University of Washington Carbon leadership Forum; Construction Taskforce Chair for the Embodied Carbon Network; Advisory Group Member for AIA Materials Working Group; and Emerging Professional Regional Chair for USGBC. She is a 2020 Grist 50 Fixer, a 2019 ENR Top 25 Newsmaker, and a Living Building Challenge Hero.

Tim Martel is a UK-based freelance Chartered Architectural Technologist, Passivhaus Designer and Retrofit Coordinator with a background in calculations through commercial R&D. He has been a Passivhaus Designer for 6 years, working on new houses and the new Passivhaus Garway community centre. He uses the latest features of PHPP, is an expert of PHPP and the advanced variants feature and has written the PHribbon tool to make it faster. He spoke at the
2018 International Passivhaus Conference in Munich and worked extensively with the Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) in energy/cost calculations for their Carbonlite Retrofit Course, which were done in a modified version of PHPP. Many students asked if they could have a version of the economics software they could use on their own projects, and after some development he produced ‘REALcosting’ and then ‘PHribbon’ software
for the AECB. He is currently a tutor for the AECB for the Economics and Building Physics/Case studies modules. As a Chartered Architectural Technologist Tim is an expert in Revit – a 3D drawing package at the forefront of the latest BIM approach to drawing. He combines that with expertise in UK
Building Regulations to ensure buildings not only meet minimum standards, but exceed them in terms of energy performance.

Jason is an ex-NASA International Professional engineer from Massachusetts now working as a Passive House Designer/Certifier and building scientist in New Zealand. He is happiest solving tough technical problems and focuses on the intersection of physics and the design of buildings. He has outspoken views on New Zealand housing and is deeply concerned about the lock-in effects of poorly designed buildings.

Ms. Barry is a registered architect based in San Francisco, CA. She was educated in South Africa, the UK and the USA and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Natal-KwaZulu. She attended courses in Architecture at UC Berkeley before apprenticing at various architecture practices throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She organized and directed California’s first all-women construction crew for Habitat for Humanity before founding both Passive House California (PHCA) and the North American Passive House Network (NAPHN), where she currently serves as Board President.
Ms. Barry’s advocacy work extends internationally. She was an active contributor to the UNECE’s Coalition on Buildings, working to develop a global standard for high performance buildings. Locally, she has focused on direct implementation by designing and building Passive House buildings since 2008, working in collaboration with One Sky Homes and through her own architecture firm, PassiveHouse BB. Ms. Barry has contributed as a subject matter expert on a number of research projects in collaboration with researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (LBNL.) Most recently she worked with California’s Codes and Standards team on exploring a Multifamily Passive House Reach Code for California. She directed NAPHN’s policy support programing and edited the NAPHN Policy Resource Guide published in 2019 at NAPHN19.

Beth Eckenrode is co-author of the recently published book, The Power of Existing Buildings — Save Money, Improve Health and Reduce Environmental Impacts. She is co-founder of AUROS Group and is a certified RESET AP with Regenerative Ecological Social & Economic Targets. She is a Fitwel Ambassador with Centers for Active Design’s Fitwel Certification Program and is a Strategic Advisor to the North American Passive House Network.

“As the fourth-generation leader of Bernstein Real Estate, Alex has taken on nothing less than making the company future-proof. He notes that eighty percent of the company’s holdings sit within four blocks of his desk. “Instead of having twenty buildings and four hundred businesses and seven thousand people who work in them, I see twenty-nine million possible combinations.” We view our tenants as collaborative partners not adversaries. In some ways, Alex resembles the scions of many family real estate companies: he ran a freight elevator in high school, he worked as construction crew during summer breaks, and he believes deeply in the value of community as it relates to our tenants. Then there’s everything else: Alex runs marathons and cooks sous vide, he practices yoga, and years ago, his wife introduced him to Burning Man. He recalls, “My first year I did a Moroccan tea service. The second year I built a disco in the middle of the desert. At Burning Man, there’s no velvet rope. There’s no living in a box, working in a box, eating out of a box.” He has also traveled immensely, covering 6 continents, 38 countries, and 36 states. Alex obtained his BA at Union College in upstate New York and his MBA from Columbia Business School in 2000 majoring in Real Estate Finance. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York and the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association of New York, serving as Governor for three years. He was recently hailed the “”Young Real Estate Professional of the Year”” in 2018. A network of individuals: this is the idea that forms Alex’s vision for our neighborhood, North Chelsea, and all he’s done at Bernstein. When he redesigned the offices, for example, he sat the executives in transparent cubes, streaked with light. “There’s no boys’ club here,” he says. “No back-office staff hidden from sight.” He ticks off the firm’s other cutting-edge projects, from smart tenant meters to Manhattan’s biggest residential passive house. “There’s always a solution,” he says. “There’s always some overlap in the Venn diagram.” Alex resides in New Jersey with his wife and three children. “

Grant Ervin serves as the Chief Resilience Officer and Assistant Director for the Department of City Planning for the City of Pittsburgh. Grant oversees the integration of sustainability and resilience into City of Pittsburgh’s services, programs and policy. He works to make the City of Pittsburgh a smart, sustainable and resilient city by fostering partnerships, leveraging assets and finding creative ways to solve problems. Prior to joining the City of Pittsburgh, Grant served as the Regional Director for 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a statewide sustainable development policy organization where he focused on land use, transportation finance and infrastructure policy; and as Public Policy Manager for Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG)

Emma Osmundsen BSc (Hons) Pg Dip (Arch Conserv) MA MRICS Emma is a Chartered Building Surveyor with over 25 years of development experience in the public, private and charitable sector. UK pioneer of Low Carbon, Healthy and Climate-ready buildings and leading developer of the International Passivhaus Standard. Managing Director of Exeter City Living Ltd, the ‘Profit for Purpose’ Development Company of Exeter City Council. Responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of developments spanning residential, commercial and leisure. Emma has been developing Certified Passivhaus buildings for the last 12 years, many of them UK firsts, including the first multi-residential passivhaus development in 2010, first Extra-Care Older person’s passivhaus village and the first passivhaus leisure centre. Her current development portfolio spans over 1,000 new passivhaus homes across Exeter. Non Exec Director and Trustee of the UK Passivhaus Trust and Constructing Excellence South West.

Canadian based Automotive Retailer. Graduating from University of Alberta with a degree in Finance and Marketing, I became fixated on finding companies and ways to invest in efficiency. After a downturn in 2008 I returned to the family automotive business and took that same passion for efficiency to that sector. In July of 2019 I completed my first passive house automotive dealership, Scott Subaru. After working for a decade to improve our dealership operational efficiencies, it became clear we needed to improve our buildings in the same manner. Passive became our answer and has been a motivator for many other endeavors we are embarking on now. I have very little knowledge regarding building construction, but analyzing the dollars and sense, and marketing standpoint of a passive project I feel I’m becoming an expert.

Ed Kolic is the founder of Eighth Ave Development Group, based in Vancouver Canada. We have over seventeen years experience in mixed use multi-family residential development. Vancouver is a North American leader in green energy and sustainability. Our Experience includes: The Heights an 85-unit, 6 story, mixed use residential rental apartment, the largest mixed use Passive House development built in Canada, helped set the stage and push forward the City’s green building policies for Passive House growth in Canada; Vancouver’s first multi-generational Co-Housing project, a 35 unit stacked town home community. Our latest project, Skagen, is a 52 unit Passive House town home project that incorporates, large family oriented homes (1650 to 2080 sf), co-housing living principles, at grade living, and a common house,……..all designed to create neighbour interaction and community. Construction commences September 2020. SKAGEN – UPSIZE YOUR HOME. DECREASE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT. FUTURE PROOF YOUR LIFESTYLE. Eighth Ave is a socially conscious developer driven to build better communities and better, healthier buildings. We believe it is our responsibility to improve how people live.

Anna Kazmierska is a Design Manager at Toronto Community Housing. In her role, Anna oversees the design of and supports with the implementation of multi-disciplinary retrofits across the organization’s 2,100 building portfolio. Anna is a professional engineer registered in the province of Ontario with a background in sustainable design and civil engineering. She holds a B.A.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Queen’s University and an M.Eng. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Christopher Mahase oversees the RetrofitNY initiative at NYSERDA, with the ambitious goal of scaling building retrofits in NYS to net zero levels of performance. Prior to NYSERDA, Chris served as the Director of Sustainability at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) for 8 years, where he oversaw development and implementation of the agency’s green building policy and other sustainability initiatives. Chris has extensive experience in real estate finance and development in the affordable housing sector.

Noah Slater is the Director of Capital Planning, Design & Engineering for Toronto Community Housing. He oversees the ongoing renewal of over 50 million square feet of residential space; a public asset portfolio worth over $10B.

As an architect with nearly 20 years of senior experience, he has led the delivery of a wide variety of complex mixed-use, residential, commercial, and institutional projects. Since he has joined TCHC 4 years ago, he has led the delivery of hundreds of capital projects for TCHC worth over $1B in construction.

Noah’s work is focused on implementing a transformative capital action plan for TCHC; a multi-year investment plan focused on renewal, accessibility, and energy performance.

Richard Gerbe, a 2017 ENR New York Top Young Professional and a 2016 Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 Under 40 Award Winner, is a visionary and seasoned HVAC authority with nearly two decades of industry experience. His robust expertise in the best and most innovative products, technologies and processes available today for boosting building efficiency is unparalleled. Gerbe is committed to challenging the HVAC industry’s status quo and imparting a new mentality centered on greater efficiency in the built environment. Prior to co-founding HIGHMARK NY, Gerbe worked as both a consulting and sales engineer at Trane for almost a decade, as well as held several other top-level positions at leading engineering and consulting companies in the HVAC industry. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the New York Institute of Technology. For more information, visit: www.highmark-ny.com.

Tomas Mikeska joined the team at Passive House Institute in 2014. He received his Phd degree in Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark in 2015. Tomas has been focusing on energy efficiency in buildings during most of his studies and sees the Passive House concept as a very natural way of building houses. His areas of expertize are technical installations in buildings with special focus on heating and cooling solutions. At Passive House Institute he is involved in the development of certification schemes for heat pumps.

Andrew’s primary areas of expertise are in low carbon buildings and renewable energy. His professional and academic experience ranges from consultancy, program management, authoring technical and non-technical articles, course and lecture delivery, and technical research. Andrew provides Passive House and sustainability consultancy, certification, and training services to the building sector. He is one of only a handful of Canadian-based Passive House certifiers accredited by the German Passivhaus Institut.

Jennifer is a Certified Engineering Technologist with over 13 years of experience in building science engineering. Jennifer is currently the Practice Leader for Energy Management, Building Envelope Commissioning, and Passive House Services at Pretium Engineering Inc. In addition to her extensive experience in the investigation of building envelope failures, building condition assessments, specification writing, contract administration and field review of building condition rehabilitation projects, and capital planning studies; Jennifer also has experience in energy and green retrofit analysis, Passive House, hygrothermal modelling, building enclosure commissioning, and artistic renderings. Jennifer has been an active participating member of the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC, formerly RCI) since 2012, serving on the Board of Directors since 2015. She is currently a Regional Director for IIBEC and is the proud recipient of several awards from IIBEC including The Emerging Professional Award of Excellence, The President Recognition Award, and an Outstanding Volunteer Award. She is also the recipient of the Ontario Building Envelope Council’s Rising Star Award which is given in recognition of exceptional knowledge of the design, construction, and performance of the building envelope. Jennifer is also a member of the CAGBC and the Building Commissioning Association (BCxA). Jennifer is a frequent speaker/presenter at all the associations she participates in and has authored several technical publications.

Management professional with 20+ years experience in automotive manufacturing environment with extensive experience in planning and leadership.

Successful at developing and “on-time” launching cost competitive products in the marketplace.

Results driven with coaching style management, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, international exposure, customer focused.

Emphasis on financial management of operations and capitalization.

Anjanette is co-author and Director of Standards Development for RESET, the world’s first standard and certification program utilizing continuous monitoring to measure the health performance of the built environment. With 17+ years of experience in architecture and design, she has been on the forefront of research and critical analysis of the health and well-being of building occupants for the better part of her career. Anjanette serves on advisory boards and peer reviews for domestic and internationally recognized building certification programs; LEED, LBC, LPC, Fitwel and WELL. As a materials analyst, Anjanette advises a spectrum of global manufacturers on single and multi-attribute certifications. She has authored and contributed to HPDs, EPDs, Living Products, Declare labels, and international PCRs She is recipient of the Living Building Challenge’s Hero Award for her contributions to the ILFI.

Beth Eckenrode is co-author of the recently published book, The Power of Existing Buildings — Save Money, Improve Health and Reduce Environmental Impacts. She is co-founder of AUROS Group and is a certified RESET AP with Regenerative Ecological Social & Economic Targets. She is a Fitwel Ambassador with Centers for Active Design’s Fitwel Certification Program and is a Strategic Advisor to the North American Passive House Network.

Ms. Barry is a registered architect based in San Francisco, CA. She was educated in South Africa, the UK and the USA and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Natal-KwaZulu. She attended courses in Architecture at UC Berkeley before apprenticing at various architecture practices throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She organized and directed California’s first all-women construction crew for Habitat for Humanity before founding both Passive House California (PHCA) and the North American Passive House Network (NAPHN), where she currently serves as Board President.
Ms. Barry’s advocacy work extends internationally. She was an active contributor to the UNECE’s Coalition on Buildings, working to develop a global standard for high performance buildings. Locally, she has focused on direct implementation by designing and building Passive House buildings since 2008, working in collaboration with One Sky Homes and through her own architecture firm, PassiveHouse BB. Ms. Barry has contributed as a subject matter expert on a number of research projects in collaboration with researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (LBNL.) Most recently she worked with California’s Codes and Standards team on exploring a Multifamily Passive House Reach Code for California. She directed NAPHN’s policy support programing and edited the NAPHN Policy Resource Guide published in 2019 at NAPHN19.

Dr. Berthold Kaufman (since 2000) does research at Passive House Institute on the thermal properties of buildings and its components, especially design of windows and ventilation systems and combined systems with heat pump for air conditioning, heating, cooling, dehumidification and DHW preparation. He advises architects engineers and construction contractors on passive house design for new build and retrofits. Much of his scientific work – and the Institute’s − has been published on www.passipedia.org , to provide wider access to reliable data on temperature, energy consumption, thermal flows, etc. for energy efficient design of buildings.

As a Building Performance Analyst at AUROS Group, Bhakti works with architects and engineers to optimize building design and evaluate energy efficiency by minimizing first costs, long term operating costs and carbon emissions. Passionate about informing resource efficiency throughout the life cycle of the buildings, Bhakti helps design teams achieve high performance targets by simulating various passive and active design strategies. She has experience creating whole building energy models for diverse new and existing buildings, evaluating and calibrating performance of existing buildings under simulation environment, developing energy reduction strategies, and managing projects pursuing various green building certifications and standards.

Matthew Bowers spent 6 years in the Navy as a nuclear engineer and became interested in Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics. Once his tour was over, he attended RIT’s Mechanical Engineering Technology Program where he wanted to become a HVAC designer. While at RIT he learned of “homes so efficient they don’t need furnaces”. He then focused his career path on Passive House. He graduated with the highest honors in 2010. Since 2013 Bowers has worked as a Certified Passive House Consultant and Tradesman and HERS Rater. In 2017 Matt started his own Company – Rochester Passive House Consulting – specializing in high performance homes. He has been featured in the Journal of Light Construction’s Energy Column under multiple topics including Blower Door Testing for extremely tight homes, Infrared Scanning, Blower Door Testing and Retrofitting airtightness and trouble spots for airtightness in new homes. He was the designer of Rochester’s 1st Certified Passive House – his personal home. Matt started certifying Passive Houses in 2019 and providing assistance with PHPP and FLIXO.

Jeremy Shannon is a Registered Architect and Director of Sustainable Design and Resiliency for the NYC School Construction Authority, the public agency that designs and builds all of NYC’s new public schools and oversees capital improvements of the more than sixteen hundred existing public school buildings. He is a founding member and served on the Board of NY Passive House and is devoted to expanding the implementation of low energy intensity building construction and all things sustainable. Prior to working in the public sector Jeremy was the principle of a design-build firm that specialized in Passive House buildings and design-built more than a dozen projects to Passive House International Standards. He is currently heading up the New York City School Construction Authority’s sustainability efforts to design their next generation of public schools to near Passive House, net zero levels.

Paula Zimin is the Director of the Sustainable Building Services group at Steven Winter Associates, Inc. Her focus is on sustainable building and energy efficiency strategies for the new construction and renovation market. With a professional background in architecture and design, she has developed expertise in high performance design for both commercial and residential sectors over the last 20 years. Paula’s group includes SWA’s Commercial Green Programs team who assists with commercial green building certifications, as well as SWA’s Energy Analytics team which assists project teams in understanding building loads and evaluating passive and active strategies for energy use reduction. She is a former Chair of USGBC’s Energy & Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group having led the LEED v4.1 credit updates in that category. She volunteers on the AIA New York Committee on the Environment and participates in the Cross-Learning Alliance, an educational collaboration of the local AIA and ASHRAE chapters with the Urban Green Council.

Daniel Piselli joined FXCollaborative in 2005, was named a Senior Associate in 2015 and Director of Sustainability in 2018. Dan guides the office’s sustainability strategy and leads implementation of those strategies on multiple projects. He has 20 years of experience and has led design teams on educational, cultural, residential and infrastructure projects, most recently on the Statue of Liberty Museum. Dan has extensive experience in sustainable design including many LEED projects, including LEED Platinum and net zero energy efforts. He co-authored a research study entitled “Feasibility Study to Implement the Passive House Standard on Tall Residential Buildings”, and has worked on Passive House & EnerPHit efforts with the New York City School Construction Authority, multiple institutions of higher education, and private clients. He is also an industry leader in bird-friendly building design.

M. Chiara Failla is working since 2017 as research associate at the Passive House Institute (Darmstadt, Germany). The main focus of her work has been consultancy and certification according to the Passive House Standard for residential and non-residential projects in different climate zones, in particular in Asia and North America. Evaluation of thermal bridges and calculation through 2D and 3D software as well as developing learning material on this topic belong to her expertise. Certification of transparent and opaque components is also one of her activities at the PHI.

Wei Kuang studied architecture in China and TU Darmstadt. Before his master study in Germany he worked in China as a project architect. Since 2017 he joined Passive House Institute in Darmstadt for consulting and certification for various residential and non-residential projects in different climate zones according to Passive House and EnerPHit standard. He is also involved in managing the technical communication activities for the Passive House in China, including organizing with colleagues the international conferences and events, in order to enhance the professional bilateral exchange as well as promote the development of sustainable construction in both countries of sustainable building

Dr. Berthold Kaufman (since 2000) does research at Passive House Institute on the thermal properties of buildings and its components, especially design of windows and ventilation systems and combined systems with heat pump for air conditioning, heating, cooling, dehumidification and DHW preparation. He advises architects engineers and construction contractors on passive house design for new build and retrofits. Much of his scientific work – and the Institute’s − has been published on www.passipedia.org , to provide wider access to reliable data on temperature, energy consumption, thermal flows, etc. for energy efficient design of buildings.

Former farmer, owner operator of Tree Construction. The company was founded in 2007, and made the decision in 2017 to focus solely on building Passive Certified Buildings using natural building assemblies. As a red-seal Journeyman carpenter, who pursued a masters in sustainable design through the Boston Architectural, we aim to further the industry standard for construction techniques and encompass energy-plus buildings. A builder with a conscience and an entrepreneur looking to make a difference, let us change the way we build and educate others to build for our children’s children.

Alexandra Kaplan is a Project Manager at the Hudson Companies. Hudson is one of the leading residential developers in New York City of affordable, workforce and market-rate housing. Alex is responsible for all aspects of the development process on a wide variety of projects including La Central, a large-scale affordable housing development in the Bronx, the House at Cornell Tech, a Passive House building on Roosevelt Island, and several other mixed-income developments across the five boroughs. Prior to joining Hudson, Alex held positions at the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Jonathan Rose Companies. A common thread in all of her work is a commitment to promoting equitable urban development. Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Bryn Mawr College and a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ryan Cassidy is the Director of Sustainability & Construction for RiseBoro Community Partnership, where he manages the design and construction of a robust affordable housing pipeline. Ryan has developed and monitored the construction of over 100 buildings. His experience ranges from two-family home ownership programs to large multi-family complexes with retail and community facility components. He supervised the construction of the first multi-family affordable Passive Houses in NYC and is currently renovating existing buildings to the Passive House standard. Ryan is a PHIUS Certified Passive House Consultant.

Tom Shircliff is an entrepreneur and executive with broad experience in Fortune 500 management, small business and venture capital-funded startups including local, regional and national roles. Since co-founding Intelligent Buildings, LLC he has become a recognized expert in the field of commercial real estate consulting and risk management including acceptance into the “Counselors of Real Estate”.

Since 2004, Intelligent Buildings has been a leader in commercial real estate smart building consulting and managed services. They have worked on billions of dollars of iconic new developments and their active customers have over 6 billion square feet of portfolio

Timothy McDonald is a registered architect and Certified Passive House Consultant, Builder and founding principal of Onion Flats, an award winning development/design/build collective centered in Philadelphia. He earned his Masters of Architectural History and Theory from McGill University and his BArch from Penn State, and has been teaching, practicing and lecturing widely for over 20 years. The firm’s focus on community development, multidisciplinary thinking and making, high-performance building technologies and alternative construction methodologies has won them many national and international awards including the 2016 and 2018 Green Building United’s Ground Breaker Award, the 2014 International Passive House Award, the 2010 ULI Global Award of Excellence, and the Emerging Voices Award by the Architectural League of New York in 2008. Through his research and practice, Tim, along with his partners at Onion Flats, has developed, designed and built some of the first LEED Gold and Platinum projects in the country and the First Certified Passive House, Net-Zero-Energy-Capable project in Pennsylvania.

Emma Osmundsen BSc (Hons) Pg Dip (Arch Conserv) MA MRICS Emma is a Chartered Building Surveyor with over 25 years of development experience in the public, private and charitable sector. UK pioneer of Low Carbon, Healthy and Climate-ready buildings and leading developer of the International Passivhaus Standard. Managing Director of Exeter City Living Ltd, the ‘Profit for Purpose’ Development Company of Exeter City Council. Responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of developments spanning residential, commercial and leisure. Emma has been developing Certified Passivhaus buildings for the last 12 years, many of them UK firsts, including the first multi-residential passivhaus development in 2010, first Extra-Care Older person’s passivhaus village and the first passivhaus leisure centre. Her current development portfolio spans over 1,000 new passivhaus homes across Exeter. Non Exec Director and Trustee of the UK Passivhaus Trust and Constructing Excellence South West.

Beth Eckenrode is co-author of the recently published book, The Power of Existing Buildings — Save Money, Improve Health and Reduce Environmental Impacts. She is co-founder of AUROS Group and is a certified RESET AP with Regenerative Ecological Social & Economic Targets. She is a Fitwel Ambassador with Centers for Active Design’s Fitwel Certification Program and is a Strategic Advisor to the North American Passive House Network.

Ryan currently serves as a Senior Project Engineer. Ryan has designed
mechanical systems for a wide variety of projects, including multi-family residential, new development and high-rise, gyms, recording studios, restaurants, retail, tenant fit-out and institutional. He has a strong involvement in Passive House design, and has designed the mechanical systems for several high-and low-rise multi-family Passive House projects in New York City, such as 211 West 29th Street and 511 East 86th Street. Ryan is a Certified Passive House Designer and currently serves on the New York Passive House board of directors.

James Lin serves as an Associate Partner at JB&B and leads the firm’s residential community of practice. He has been involved in the design and development of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems
across multiple project types, including residential, hospitality, commercial office, data centers, healthcare facilities and laboratories, and is an avid advocate for Passive House design concepts, such as airtightness, on otherwise non-Passive House projects. Some of Jimmy’s high-profile residential projects include 35 Hudson Yards, 111 West 57th Street and 1212 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and 9 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn. He is a Licensed Professional Engineer, LEED Accredited Professional, and Certified Passive House Designer.

Climate change IS the most important issue for this country, and also the world, to address moving into the future. It is my goal to bring as much of this future into the present through the transformation of our energy infrastructure to become both sustainable and more resilient. As a 22 year-old senior undergrad student at Stockton University, my studies towards a Bachelors of Science in Sustainability with a concentration in Energy have given me the background to enter the field of sustainable energy with a solidified background in applied engineering, policy, and energy design. Lastly, I believe human ingenuity through the codification of creativity and intellect is at the forefront of the world’s energy transformation; having been a creator through my music since my first days as a teenager, I have witnessed the power of creativity and am looking to apply this to energy design moving forward.

Graham works across a wide spectrum of RDH’s service areas and is directly involved with building enclosure consulting, existing building investigation work, and research related to building materials and building enclosures across North America. Graham is directly involved with the majority of RDH’s mass timber and high-rise wood building projects and instrumental in leading industry research, guideline development, risk management, and façade development for these new wood buildings. His publications related to mass timber and tall wood has included the Guide for Designing Energy-Efficient Building Enclosures, the Building Enclosure Design Guide for Wood Frame Buildings, Mass Timber Building Enclosure Design Guide, Building Enclosure Chapters within the CLT and NLT Handbooks and the Guide for Tall Wood Buildings.

Victor Malerba Jr. is a Vice President and Project Manager at Arquitectonica. He received his master’s degree in architecture from Sci-Arc in 2004 and bachelor’s degree from NYIT in 2002. He has over 16+ years’ experience as a practicing architect. Focusing on building design technologies and construction. Victor has worked on a variety of project typologies from Mixed-use, Healthcare, Education, Multifamily Residential and Hospitality. His focus on BIM technologies and holistic building design, has helped grow the New York Offices’ full-service division with several completed projects over the past 8 years. Specializing in taking projects from conception to completion allows him the opportunity to explore traditional and new methods of building technologies from; BIM to passiv haus design and construction. He continues to build on his experience and knowledge with even more full-service projects in the NY Office pipeline.

Stas Zakrzewski AIA, CPHD Stas Zakrzewski [stash zak chef ski] is a principal at ZH Architects located in NYC. ZH’s work focuses on integrating sustainable practices into its current body of modern and design driven work. ZH has recently completed several certified passive house projects in New York City including a three story single family retrofit, a five story adaptive reuse condominium project and most recently a twenty-four story 80/20 affordable housing residential high-rise in Manhattan. Research and development is a key part of the firm’s mission. In 2016, ZH was awarded a grant from the US Forest Service Wood Innovations Grant to study the benefits of combining the construction techniques of Mass Timber and Passive House. ZH has designed a number of Mass Timber projects, exploring the benefits of prefabrication, healthy buildings and high performance enclosures. ZH continuously explores new products and construction techniques and frequently collaborates with product manufacturers in the development of new systems. Stas is a member of the AIA’s Committee for the Environment, Vice President of NYPH and has represented NYPH at the Energy Code Advisory Committee at the NYC Department of Buildings. Stas was selected in January to be an Advisory Board Member for NYC’s Climate Mobilization Act and will be acting as co-chair for the Multifamily working group.

Patrick O’Shei serves as the Director of Market Development at NYSERDA. Patrick is responsible for ensuring the success of the design and execution of market strategies under the Clean Energy Fund in the following areas: existing Commercial Buildings, Building Codes and New Construction in all markets, Products, Standards and Quality Assurance, Digital Solutions, and Information Products and Brokering. Previously Patrick served as the Director of Performance Management and Market Standards where he directed the following functions: Reporting and Data Quality, Evaluation and Market Characterization as well as Standards and Quality Assurance.

Jessica Grove-Smith joined the research team at the Passive House Institute (PHI) in 2008. As a physicist, her responsibilities include stationary and dynamic energy demand modelling and climate data for energy calculations. The application of the Passive House concept in different climate zones and for indoor swimming pools have also been a main focus area of her work, as well as contributions to renewable primary energy (PER) assessment method. Jessica frequently participates in conferences internationally and acts as the Passive House Institute’s representative for North America.

Zack Semke is VP of Marketing with Zola Windows and Director of Passive House Accelerator. He promotes innovation in buildings to propel the clean energy transition. Zack co-founded and co-chairs Shift Zero (a zero net carbon building alliance) and is a member of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps. He earned his BA from Stanford University, majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in Human Ecology. Since then he’s worked as a policy advocate for progressive regional planning, a developer and leader of nonprofit community organizations, a taiko (Japanese drum) musician, and, for the last decade, an evangelist for Passive House and Zero Carbon construction.

Jessica Grove-Smith joined the research team at the Passive House Institute (PHI) in 2008. As a physicist, her responsibilities include stationary and dynamic energy demand modelling and climate data for energy calculations. The application of the Passive House concept in different climate zones and for indoor swimming pools have also been a main focus area of her work, as well as contributions to renewable primary energy (PER) assessment method. Jessica frequently participates in conferences internationally and acts as the Passive House Institute’s representative for North America.

Andrew Lee directs the Zero Carbon and Zero Energy certification programs at the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). His work at ILFI centers on program development, technical guidance and hosting industry convenings to catalyze a shift towards a carbon-positive building sector. Recently, Andrew developed a partnership between ILFI and Passive House International to recognize built projects with industry-leading energy efficiency and zero emissions. In previous roles over the last two decades, Andrew served as a senior green building consultant to Fortune 500 companies, a technical advisor to cities incentivizing Living Buildings, and a facilitation partner for member organizations such as the World Green Building Council and the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance.