Passive House Retrofits

One of the most urgent challenges in buildings today is how to affordably retrofit existing ones. Too much of our current building stock wastes energy and is unhealthy or uncomfortable to occupy, especially in low-income communities and communities of color. In order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the International Energy Agency's Net Zero by 2050 Roadmap urges a step jump in "zero-carbon-ready" retrofits to a rate of 30 million dwellings per year through 2030. Passive House retrofits provide a proven pathway to dramatically reduce the energy use and operation carbon emissions of existing buildings of all types. Both PHI and PHIUS offer retrofit certification pathways, and project teams around the world are tackling retrofits of everything from single-family brownstones to apartment towers.

Read, view, and listen to Passive House retrofit examples and insights in the articles, videos, and podcast interviews below.

NRCan Prefabricated Exterior Energy Retrofit (PEER) wall panel prototype