Joe Haskett has been certified by the Passive House Institute U.S. as Rhode Island's first CPHC (Certified Passive House Consultant)

So what does this mean? When a building is designed, or retrofitted, to the Passive House standard, it requires roughly 90% less energy to heat and cool when compared to a typical proposed or existing building, according to the Passive House Institute U.S. A strict set of performance-based metrics and calculations are used to evaluate the systems that function within a passive house including the building's insulation (aka the "shell"), air ventilation, heating and cooling, heat loss and solar gain from windows, to name a few examples. The goal is to drastically reduce energy consumption, improve indoor air quality and increase occupant comfort.

And Passive House design techniques aren't only for houses...these tools can be applied to a wide range of building types: mixed-use, multi-family residential, civic buildings, and whole communities. For example, the district Bahnstadt in Heidelberg Germany is being touted as Europe's largest urban development utilizing Passive House standards. Whether an individual house or a design for a new community, we're excited that Joe is bringing the next generation of sustainable building science leadership to Union Studio. Congratulations Joe!