The mainstream approach to sustainable design is business-as-usual architecture with some easy bolt-on “sustainable features.” Easy solutions like this are what got us into the current mess: buildings contributing 40% of our CO2 emissions as we enter the anthropocene. (Have you read my manifesto?) Designing to the passivhaus standard means accepting more constraints and this requires more effort; it’s not an easy solution. A rigorous process must be followed. However, the passivhaus standard is actually very simple with clear performance benchmarks that must be met. And the results are simple: no complex offsetting or complex carbon calculating is necessary.
Passivhaus buildings simply reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions, by design.
