101: So You Want to Be a Developer? Notes to My Past Self | PHA Live!

What does it really take to succeed as a high-performance developer in today’s volatile market? In this candid, no-fluff master class, Jesse Hunt pulls back the curtain on the realities of Passive House development—sharing hard-won lessons from the field and the essential minimum skills you need to survive and thrive.

This session goes beyond theory to explore how real projects get financed, built, protected from value erosion, and brought across the finish line. Through the lens of the Clutch City Passive case study, you’ll see exactly where projects succeed, where they fail, and how to stack the deck in your favor.

You will learn how to master the Phius destination and avoid costly value engineering pitfalls, identify the Core 4 most critical relationships in successful development, cultivate the mindset required to stack wins against chaotic market forces, and navigate the full path from planning to project completion through a real-world Passive House development case study.

You will learn:

1. Define and articulate the core requirements and design principles of the Phius certification standard as they apply to a developer’s financial and technical decision-making process.

2. Analyze the risks of value engineering in high-performance construction and apply strategies for using the Phius standard as a tool to protect project quality and budget control.

3. Identify the essential team structure and soft skills—such as Extreme Ownership and network building—required to successfully deliver a complex Passive House project, using the Clutch City Passive development as a detailed case study.

Jesse Hunt is the Founder of Emergent Development, a real estate and consulting company focused on high-performance, triple-bottom-line projects. With a background spanning building science, sustainability, and hands-on construction across the U.S. and abroad, Jesse brings a rare blend of technical depth and real-world development experience to this session.

This free presentation will take place on Wednesday, December 10th at 9am PT / 12pm ET and will be followed by a lively Q+A session. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from an industry leader and engage with the PHA community. See you there!