Greengauge Director and Passivhaus Certifier Paul Smith shares his thoughts on the 2026 International Passivhaus Conference in Essen.
I was in Essen recently for the International Passive House Conference 2026. Coal. Iron. Steel. The kind of place historically we from the North of England can relate to. This is my takeaway.
Look across the city and you see the north of England. Same industries. Same arc. Boom in the 1800s. Decline from the 1970s. Communities built around a pit, a furnace, a factory, then asked to keep calm and carry on once the pit, the furnace, the factory were gone.
Take the 1970s. They did not just close industries. They closed a way of life. And the houses those communities lived in were already tired. Cold. Damp. Cramped. And the new? Built fast, built cheap, small and cramped, as is the way in the UK.
Go back further. Suppose during the sweeping efforts of the 1950s and 1960s we had been able to build back Passivhaus. Not aspirationally. Actually. At scale. If successive governments and councils had had the knowledge and tools to invest, especially when the majority of the slums were smashed down, as Fred Dibnah would have looked on.
What would that have looked like?
It could have looked like homes that did not punish the people inside them. Energy bills that did not force a choice between heating and eating. Comfort, not a luxury, but a standard. Families sleeping warm. People not retreating to one room in winter. Damp not running down windows. Gales not blowing through the cracks, the cracks not being bunged up. Mould not clinging to every surface. Ventilation not restricted to broken, greased-up or insufficient extractor fans.
It could have looked like communities absorbing the loss of their livelihoods without also absorbing the loss of warmth, the loss of health, and the loss of dignity from their own front room.
The blow would not have been erased. But it could have been softened considerably.
We couldn’t do it then. The effort to build back was there, a vision and new ideas were there, but the Passivhaus standard as we know it today was not. The components did not exist. The extent of understanding did not exist.
But the thing is, we can do it now.
The Passivhaus Standard is thirty-five years old. The evidence is undeniable. We have the data. We have the buildings. We have the schools, the housing, the office blocks, the retrofits. Cairn in Ireland have shown what a developer can do at scale. BAM in Scotland have shown what a contractor can do on schools. Look them up if you have not already.
The caveat being — Passivhaus done properly. Not the principles bashed together without cohesion. Design. Construct. Certify. That is how to to ensure Passivhaus delivers what the standard promises.
Thirty-five years is enough time to settle a question. Smartphones did it in fifteen. LED lighting did it in ten. Adoption, when people understand and experience the benefit, is not slow.
Despite this, many houses still being built today whose occupants are still uncomfortable, still ill, still in fuel poverty. And that complacency and neglect is still growing.
So why is the uptake of Passivhaus slow? When Passivhaus is done in its true form it works. The method works. The cost stacks up. The examples are there.
The question lies with who decides. And the answer is: a lot of people. Clients. Designers. Contractors. Housing associations. Local authority commissioners. Ministers. Lenders. And each has a reason to wait, to soften, to say next time, next project, next budget.
That is the barrier. Not physics. But decision delay.
The more pertinent question is whether we communicate clearly enough for them to carry the argument out of it. So, we have to ask ourselves: do we have a communication problem?
Does our industry talk in a language no one outside understands or wants to get on board with? Acronyms. Jargon. Complexities. Do we have a habit of treating Passivhaus as an exclusive club, with members and gatekeepers and a vocabulary you have to earn?
Is it expensive? Exclusive? For other projects, on other sites, with other budgets? Is the tide turning fast enough? And if not, the Standard itself is not the reason.
The method is proven. Replicable. Available. Quality assured by design rather than hoped for by procurement.
So what is the work now? Is it still technical? Or is it how we communicate it, to get everyone on board?
The case made to housing associations in the language housing associations use. The case made to contractors in the language contractors use. The case made to occupants in the language we all should use, which is comfort, low bills, simplicity.
It’s simple. It’s robust. It’s attainable. Can we communicate better?
Once those decisions tip, the rest should follow. We said solar panels were too expensive. Too specialist. Not for everyone. Look at every roofline now. Momentum is the cheapest construction material we have. It costs nothing to start, and it gets harder to stand outside of the longer it runs
Passivhaus exists. The evidence exists. The scale exists. What is needed is clear.
Every new home. Every retrofit. Every school, every community centre, every office. Every decision, by every stakeholder, top to bottom.
Paul Smith is a Passivhaus Certifier and Director at Greengauge.
