PHCA Community Meeting | Passive House x Fire Hardened

By Passive House California , May 4, 2026 - Community Meeting, Featured Articles

The building industry is conducting two parallel conversations—Passive House and fire hardening, using different vocabularies to describe a fundamentally shared ethos. This talk argues that airtight envelopes, sealed penetrations, and continuous insulation architects have long detailed for Passive House performance are simultaneously accomplishing the work of fire hardening. Drawing on a retrofit underway in Pacific Palisades during the January 2025 fires and on new-construction prototypes developed for Altadena rebuilds, Marcos…

PHCA Community Meeting | Hidden Impacts of Plastic Building Products

By Passive House California , May 2, 2026 - Community Meeting, Featured Articles

Plastics are almost entirely derived from fossil fuels and generate pollution throughout their life cycle, including greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, toxic chemicals and microplastics that impact human health and the environment, and waste that lasts for centuries on land and in waterways. Many individuals and organizations are becoming increasingly concerned about plastic pollution, but most people don’t realize that the building and construction sector is the second…

PHCA Community Meeting | Complexities in Selecting Passive House Windows

By Passive House California , May 2, 2026 - Community Meeting, Featured Articles

The California energy code has very simple requirements that windows have to meet in order for a project to comply with the energy code. Certified Passive House buildings, on the other hand, have a much more nuanced approach to analyzing and specifying windows. This can present some difficulties for designers, architects, energy modelers, and builders. This presentation aims to demystify these requirements and provide clear guidance as to the best…

PHCA Community Meeting | Rebuilding Incentives for Sustainable Electric Homes: How this new program works with homeowners and builders to help those who need it most

By Passive House California , March 20, 2026 - Community Meeting, Featured Articles, News

Passive House California has a new partner in our effort to create a carbon-neutral, all renewable energy future! RISE Homes is a program mandated by the California Public Utilities Commission and funded by the state’s six investor-owned electric utilities to incentivize all-electric home rebuilding after natural disasters. Join us for our next Community Meeting, Tuesday, April 21st from noon-1 p.m. to learn about RISE Homes, a $50 million program designed to…

PHCA Community Meeting | What’s in a name? History and precedents to PassivHaus

By Passive House California , March 3, 2026 - Community Meeting

Have you ever encountered confusion when discussing PassivHaus? Or is it Passive House? And what about Passive Solar – what does that have to do with it?   What does a German Standard have to do with building in California? Let’s look back in history at the ideas and case studies that influenced the creation of the first Passive House standard.   Considering the American and Canadian context, we’ll untangle trends and…

PHCA Community Meeting | Passive House & Carbon-Storing Straw Panels

By Passive House California , January 20, 2026 - Community Meeting, News

Verdant Building Products is introducing a new generation of carbon-storing building materials. In this webinar, Anthony Dente will discuss his work in code and design development of bio-based building systems that have enabled broader adoption of materials such as straw-insulated panels. The presentation will feature a patented structural insulated panel with a straw-based insulation matrix that stores carbon while meeting the cost, thermal performance, and wall-thickness requirements of energy-efficient, conventional wood construction. The use of straw supports local, circular supply…

PHCA Community Meeting | “Fire-Wise Property Hardening: Life Safety, Insurance, and Passive Building Design”

By Passive House California , December 3, 2025 - Community Meeting, Featured Articles

Description Wildfire risk in the built environment is rapidly increasing, bringing serious implications for life safety, property protection, insurance availability, and modern building standards. Architects, designers, and building professionals can’t afford to wing it—evidence-based strategies are essential for reducing vulnerability at both the building and community scale. Learn how to spot and shut down critical ignition pathways. Understand how Predicted Fire Weather conditions and Early Alerts can be used to…

PHCA Community Meeting | Design the Future: 2025 Passive House Competition Winners Unveiled

By Passive House California , October 5, 2025 - Community Meeting, News

Description With the awards ceremony concluded on November 4th, we’ll take a closer look at the winning submissions, the near misses, and entries that qualify for the competition catalog. We’ll hear from competition participants, jurors, and others who contributed to the competition. The ultimate focus will be on the next steps: how can we leverage these great efforts and make Passive House resilience a reality in the Los Angeles rebuilding…

Passive House Certification Revealed | PHCA Community Meeting (October 21, 2025)

By Passive House California , October 4, 2025 - Community Meeting, News

PHCA Community Meeting October  21, 2025: This presentation provides an overview of certifying a Passive House building with the Passive House Institute. The process isn’t as complicated as you might think. However, there are essential requirements that must be met. This presentation covers those requirements and includes suggestions for making the process run as smoothly as possible. Learning Points the benefits of certification the client/architect/consultant/builder/certifier relationships the certification timeline certification…

PHCA Community Meeting | Renovation and Resilience: Lessons from a Panelized Deep Retrofit (September 16, 2025)

By Passive House California , September 1, 2025 - Community Meeting

Deep retrofits of existing buildings play a key role in meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction goals in North America and beyond. Currently no deep retrofit solution exists in North America that is readily deployable at the scale of the existing building stock. Challenges include structural integrity, contamination, and implementing upgrades without disrupting tenants. This presentation delivers takeaways from the REALIZE-CA projects supported by the California Energy Commission. In these low-rise…

PHCA Community Meeting | Design Competition Q&A (August 19, 2025)

By Passive House California , August 4, 2025 - Community Meeting

Designers, enthusiasts, and curious minds—submitters and non-submitters alike—this is for you! With just weeks left to submit to the California Rebuilds Passive House Design Competition, join us for an open Q&A session led by Ken Levenson, Executive Director of the Passive House Network. His extensive expertise in Passive House strategies will help steer the discussion. This is your chance to fine-tune your ideas and tackle any roadblocks head-on. Not submitting?…

PHCA Community Meeting | TRAUMA-INFORMED REBUILDING AND PASSIVE HOUSE FIRE RESILIENCE

By Passive House California , July 1, 2025 - Community Meeting

Joubert Homes rebuilt several homes in the Denver, Colorado area following the devastating Marshall Fire that occurred on December 30th, 2021. Working with these clients, Joubert discovered that the recent trauma of losing their homes informed an entirely different way of client interaction, and informed best practices that Joubert has brought to rebuilding efforts in Southern California. Applying the latest tools to create the safest and most resilient homes available,…