Passive House Podcast

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Meghan Lewis, Program Director at the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), ahead of CLF's three-hour Materials programming block at Reimagine Buildings ’26: The Solutions on November 6. Meghan walks through CLF’s Embodied Carbon State Policy Playbook, highlighting states leading the way on policy and the challenges of turning legislat...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Jane Sidebottom, 2026 president of Women in HVACR and founder and owner of AMK Consulting . Jane describes the “new collar” women coming into HVAC from waitressing, retail, and nursing, many of them looking for stable pay and schedules that work with raising a family.  She shares what employers can do to keep women in the indust...

In this bonus episode of the Passive House Podcast, Michael Ingui is live on the expo floor of the ZEB Summit in Dublin, Michael chats with attendees about what's scaling Passive House in their world. Guests explain how Passive House reached 7% of residential output in the Republic of Ireland, what post-occupancy data shows for Scottish social housing, and why Cairn Homes uses AeroBarrier to prote...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Michael Ingui talks with Tomás O'Leary of the mosart Group about scaling Passive House across massive residential developments in Ireland and the UK. Fresh off a tour of Cairn Homes' Passive House neighborhood outside Dublin, Tomás shares the approach behind delivering certified Passive House at scale — from early benchmarking and training contractors...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Michael Ingui talks with Josh Dorfman, co-founder of Plantd and host of the Supercool podcast. Josh and Michael dig into some of the most exciting solutions Josh has covered on Supercool and discuss the growing recognition among lenders and insurers that high-performance buildings are simply lower-risk investments. https://www.plantdmaterials.com/ http...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Ace McArleton and Jacob Deva Racusin, co-founders of New Frameworks. Ace and Jacob share how their paths through natural building and site-based straw bale construction led them to develop panelized straw wall systems, and reflect on the industry's need to break down silos between design, fabrication, and construction.  Ace and...

In this bonus episode of the Passive House Podcast, Zack Semke talks with Katrin Klingenberg, co-founder and co-executive director of Phius, about the origins of the organization to today's growing national movement. The conversation  looks ahead to PhiusCon 2026 in Phoenix, October 8-10. Attend PhiusCon: https://phius1.zohobackstage.com/PhiusCon2026 Join us on the Reimagine Buildings Collective:...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Michael Jemtrud, professor of architecture at McGill University and chair in Architecture, Energy, and Environment, about his interdisciplinary research lab's work bridging design education and offsite construction. Michael discusses McGill's Reconstruct program and the development of tools to close the "over the wall" gap betwe...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Mary James and Jay Fox talk with Tom King, founder and CEO of TKF, about his all-in-one factory-built HVAC and hot water system, the Hydropod. Tom traces the company's origins, highlighting  NYSERDA-funded pilot projects at Syracuse University and a low-to-moderate income housing community in Phoenix, New York. The conversation covers the practical rea...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Rob Leonard, a longtime builder and prefabrication specialist who helped develop the BuildSmart panel system and now leads PHIUS's Trades Training Program. Rob traces his path from decades in the field to pioneering panelized construction. Rob also shares what's next for industrialized offsite construction, from micro-factories...

In this bonus episode of the Passive House Podcast, Brent Davidson and Brynn Cooksey discuss what’s changed in the heat-pump world, what architects, engineers, and contractors need to understand, and where the industry still needs to improve. They preview the U.S. Heat Pump Summit and why bringing the right people together could be key to getting heat pumps right at scale.   The conversation also...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Evan Greulich, project architect and manager at Quinn Evans, about his work bringing high-performance building strategies to affordable housing and, increasingly, to schools. Evan and Ilka chat about The Hammond at Greenmount Park, a new 109-unit affordable housing project in Baltimore and John Burroughs Elementary School in Was...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with John Loercher, Passive House consultant, architect, and longtime Phius instructor with Northeast Projects. The conversation covers how the Phius standard has evolved since 2015 as well as growing industry attention to embodied carbon, hygrothermal modeling, and materials like straw bale construction. John also reflects on his ye...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Mary James is joined by UK-based architects Dominic O'Riordan and Alan Budden, both Passive House designers who opened their homes for the UK's Passive House Open Days during a record-breaking heat wave. Dominic and Alan discuss how their buildings performed under extreme heat, the shading strategies they wish they'd fought harder for at planning stage...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Matthew Cutler Welsh talks with Johann Betz, founder of Christchurch-based Offsite Design Ltd and a board member of OffsiteNZ. Johann's work focuses on helping designers, manufacturers, and builders deliver high-performance timber buildings through design-for-manufacture-and-assembly (DfMA) and offsite construction principles.  The conversation traces...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, we speak with Sven Maxa, founder and co-director of Melbourne-based Maxa Design, an award-winning practice specialising in high-performance, sustainable homes and Passive House design. A Certified Passive House Designer, Sven has been at the forefront of energy-efficient residential design in Australia for more than two decades, helping demonstrate tha...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Jay Fox talks with Nakita Reed, Senior Director for Preservation Operations at the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Nakita discusses her new role bridging preservation, equity, and sustainability, the Action Fund's work funding projects like conserving Black modernism and stewarding sites such as Nina Simone's childhood home, and the ong...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Matthew Cutler Welsh talks with Andy Marlow, director at Envirotecture and Passive House Design and Construct, for a recap of Thrive 2026 in Melbourne. Andy shares his take on the growing presence of volume builders and even a retirement living provider at the conference, the ongoing challenge of scaling prefabrication despite its clear advantages, and...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Michelle Apigian, Managing Principal and ESG Director at ICON Architecture, about the moment that changed how she thinks about building design, Icon's path to becoming a high-performance practice in Massachusetts, and the unique challenges of bringing Passive House principles to occupied and existing buildings. Michelle also sha...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Jay Fox talks with Mikhail Haramati, NRDC's state industrial decarbonization lead, about her path from California energy efficiency programs and policy work at UC Berkeley and LBNL, through the California Energy Commission and NYSERDA, to her current focus on embodied carbon in building materials. They discuss the scale of the problem (cement and concr...

In this Episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy shares on-the-ground interviews from Green Building United’s Sustainability Symposium in Philadelphia, highlighting regional policy, incentives, and high-performance affordable housing work. Ilka chats first with  Rich Freeh  and  Emily Pugliese  of Green Building United about Pennsylvania’s divided political landscape, lagging energy code...

This episode of the Passive House Podcast was recorded during the Passive House Network conference in New Haven, Connecticut, hosted at the first certified Passive House hotel in the U.S. Hotel Marcel. Ilka Cassidy chatted with Ken Levenson about the theme “Profit by Experience” and Architect of Hotel Marcel Bruce Becker. Ilka also talked to other attendees like Timothy Lock, Beth Campbell, Karen...

Passive House design and construction is a team sport. It requires effective strategies and cooperation, but also precision in the field and the ability to tweak and recalibrate systems once the building is complete. A robust envelope may be the superpower of Passive House construction, allowing for downsized mechanical systems, electrification, and reduced stress on the energy grid, but these ben...

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Mary James and Ilka Cassidy speak with Joel Callow, building physicist and founding director of UK consultancy Beyond Carbon, about scaling certified Passive House delivery in London. Callow explains the firm’s focus on whole life carbon, compact building forms, overheating avoidance, and early-stage design input, and notes the team has grown to 12 peo...

In this episode of the Passive House Accelerator Podcast, Ilka Cassidy chats with Marty Josten and Ashley Wisse of New Ecology. Marty and Ashley describe the nonprofit’s 26-year mission to preserve and improve affordable housing through sustainability, building performance, health, and resiliency, using a hybrid fee-for-service and grant-funded model. They discuss evolving embodied-carbon requirem...