Te Tōpūtanga o te Whare Korou ki Aotearoa, the Passive House Institute New Zealand (PHINZ) enthusiastically welcomes acclaimed author, educator, and architect, Lloyd Alter to Aotearoa New Zealand this week ahead of his keynote at the Passive House Conference in Wellington, 14-15 September.

Lloyd Alter’s keynote presentation is titled “Passive House and the Problem of Upfront Carbon”

After 50 years of worrying about energy consumption, we now recognize that our real problem is carbon emissions. After decades of designing to reduce operating energy and emissions, we now must deal with upfront carbon emissions. This presents real challenges for the Passive House world; we now have to rethink what we build, what we build out of, and how much we build. Efficiency matters, but so does sufficiency.

Lloyd Alter has been an architect, real estate developer, prefab housing entrepreneur, and writer. He teaches Sustainable Design at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has contributed to many publications, including The Guardian, Green Building Advisor, Corporate Knights and Azure Magazines, and was a contributor and editor at Treehugger.com for 15 years. Lloyd is the author of “Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle” from New Society Publishers. His new book, “The Story of Upfront Carbon”, describes “how a life of just enough offers a way out of the climate crisis.” has just been released.

He was recently a keynote speaker at the International Passive House Conference in Innsbruck, Austria, about “The Case for Retrofit” and spoke at the Buildings and Climate Global Forum in Paris about strategies for sufficiency. He currently writes a popular Substack newsletter, Carbon Upfront!

The 2024 Passive House conference, now an annual fixture in Aotearoa New Zealand, has broadened the focus from just Passive House to the wider context of the Climate Emergency and the role buildings have to play in addressing it. As well as the key note from Lloyd Alter who will attend in person, there are three other international keynotes delivered virtually.

Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, IPCC vice-chair, professor of Environmental Sciences at Central European University and author of many publications, including the important “Advances Toward a Net-Zero Global Building Sector”. Diana visited Aotearoa New Zealand in 2018 to present a conference keynote and appeared on RNZ to discuss how buildings contribute to climate change. She will be presenting an update on climate change and how buildings, especially Passive House buildings are part of the necessary solutions.

Jessica Grove-Smith, joint managing director and senior scientist of the Passive House Institute in Darmstadt, Germany. Jessica will share latest news and developments from the Passive House Institute (PHI), the International Passive House Association (iPHA), as well as trends from the global Passive House community. Hear about projects, components, policy development and learn about e.g. the new certification scheme EnerPHit Unit for quicker single apartment retrofits.

Sarah Lewis, research, policy and education director of the Passivhaus Trust UK will deliver a keynote on “Scottish Passivhaus Equivalent for All” She will explore Scotland’s journey towards implementing a national Passivhaus equivalent standard for all buildings. She’ll delve into the proposed legislation, highlighting its strengths and areas for improvement, and discuss how Scotland reached this point. She’ll also share actionable policy takeaways for our region, offering valuable insights on crafting legislation that genuinely aligns with Passivhaus, ensuring high performance, sustainability, and long-term benefits for both the environment and occupants.

There is also an exceptional lineup of local speakers from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia across the two days of the conference. Including researchers, policy-makers, educators, scientists, architects, and builders. Full details can be found on the conference webpage: https://passivehouse.nz/events/upcoming-events/passive-house-conference-24/