Who We Are

Passive House Accelerator LLC is a catalyst for zero carbon building. We cultivate a collaborative platform for sharing innovation and thought leadership in Passive House design and construction. We convene practitioners, institutions, manufacturers, and anyone concerned about buildings and climate change to dive into the details of creating better buildings. We work to accelerate both solution-making and solution-makers in the zero carbon building movement. We’re nondenominational, so whether you’re interested in PHI, Phius, net zero, Living Building, LEED, or just better building practice, we're glad you’re here. Please explore, learn, and engage!

Passive House Accelerator was founded in 2019 by New York-based architect Michael Ingui. In fall 2019, Michael brought on Zack Semke as Passive House Accelerator's Director. Shortly thereafter, Passive House Buildings Magazine merged with Passive House Accelerator, and Mary James became Passive House Accelerator's Director of Publications.

In April 2020, just as the first COVID lockdowns were going into effect, Vancouver-based Monte Paulsen and Shaun St-Amour approached Passive House Accelerator about producing the virtual Passive House socials that the two had just launched. This evolved into the Project Showcase edition of Passive House Accelerator LIVE!, held every 1st and 3rd Wednesday. A few weeks later, New Zealand-based Matthew Cutler-Welsh proposed that the Accelerator launch a podcast, and Matthew and Zack became co-hosts of what is now the Passive House Podcast. Meanwhile, Mark Wille and Kevin Brennan both suggested that the Accelerator present programming focused on contractors and tradespeople, and the Construction Tech program was born, with Mark, Kevin, and Shaun joined by co-host Shannon Pendleton (held every 2nd and 4th Wednesday at Passive House Accelerator LIVE!).

Meanwhile, the industry's most innovative manufacturers and suppliers have stepped up to underwrite our work. We are deeply grateful for their confidence and generous support.

The throughline of the Accelerator's young history is this: we are a place for Passive House and zero carbon building people and organizations to come together, share lessons learned, dream up cool new ideas, and try them out. While the challenge of climate change is daunting and time is short, we are driven by an optimism and conviction that a rapid and equitable transformation to zero carbon buildings can happen when we share and learn from one another and when we all row in the same general direction. We hope you'll join us on the good ship Passive House!