Building a ZERO Carbon Future, Together!

Phius Co-Founder and Executive Director Katrin Klingenberg wrote this week’s blog post in advance of her “Zero Energy and the Future of Phius” webinar on Sept. 14. It covers a variety of topics related to Phius’ work and the expanded vision of the organization.

“The west is on fire, and the east is drowning.”

Those attention-grabbing words were the first thing I heard when I turned on my TV the other day.

“The levees held, but the power grid folded”

That was a headline from the day after hurricane Ida swept across Louisiana. Most of the state was left without power; temperatures in the aftermath were predicted to rise into the 100s, all after a ton of rain and flooding. The combination of high temperatures and humidity is life-threatening — on top of all the other hardships brought on by the storm.

And then there was the Texas winter with the grid folding and people and pipes freezing in homes…

The urgency is clear. At our most recent Phius board retreat there was consensus: we are in dire straits climate-wise — it is now or never.

Since its inception, Phius’ vision has had a North Star: to create a carbon-neutral, healthy, safe, and just future for everyone by mitigating the climate crisis. And our mission is to do just that by making passive house and building standards mainstream.

The vision was extended to using passive house and building principles as the basis for all zero-energy and carbon designs. We added the Phius Source Zero certification program in 2012. Net zero is a good first step, but we need to revise the framework. In practice, net zero isn’t enough. 

The conclusion we at Phius have reached — following the thought leadership of our Senior Scientist Graham Wright — is that we need to aim to reach absolute zero in short order to avert the ultimate climate crisis. And that is absolute zero as per the original definition of zero – the absence of a measurable quantity.

A New Brand

We are upping our game on multiple levels in order to emphasize our renewed commitment to solving the ZERO-carbon puzzle for buildings. 

We started by reimagining the Phius brand. We are updating its look and making products and messages more relatable without sacrificing what we are known for: scientific rigor, precision, quality assurance, proven guidance, and performance. We are also unifying and expanding our suite of certifications for buildings, products and professionals. We are upping the ante on benefits to our professional members under the Phius Alliance leadership and yes, we are creating exceptionally cool swag to encourage everyone to join our tribe and make it our lifestyle together! Together, our community is creating momentum in the market — and having fun with it!

We also re-organized ourselves internally in more efficient ways over the last year, invested in a new website and a CRM, architecture. And we doubled our staff — to aim for greater, faster and increasingly exponential impact and service for our stakeholders. 

In addition, we are making dedicated efforts to reach out to communities beyond the building industry, to explain why what we do matters to everyone. Renters and owners all have a stake in what we do, and we are all one or the other. We want to give everyone an opportunity to get involved. It is up to all of us now! Join us!

Expanded Vision

Over the last decade, Phius has become the global leader in defining cost-effective and climate-optimized, passive house and building standards. Phius certified projects are now coming in at little or no cost premium compared to conventional buildings. Phius also leads in professional training, certification, and workforce development. We also provide an element critical to mainstream adoption: Quality assurance and risk management.

The building sector accounts for 40 percent of carbon emissions, and is key to achieving emissions reduction goals. Passive house and building principles have been, and will continue to be, CORE to our efforts. In that spirit, the formerly known PHIUS+ building certifications have been renamed and expanded. 

PHIUS+ will now be referred to as Phius CORE (before renewables) and PHIUS+ Source Zero will now be Phius ZERO (based on CORE), and will extend to netting out emissions on an annual basis. New passive house and building retrofit certifications are in the offing as well. Phius CORE REVIVE and Phius ZERO REVIVE, as well as a new commercial building certification called Phius CORE COMM and Phius ZERO COMM will be introduced in 2022. 

Phius certifications have grown exponentially around the continent in recent years. Policy progress nationwide has been impressive to say the least. We are in Tarrytown, New York, for PhiusCon 2021 (formerly North American Passive House Conference) to celebrate the leadership of New York State/NYSERDA in formulating an aggressive climate action plan — a process which Phius helped inform. Other states, such as Massachusetts, have modeled their plans after New York’s. Phius’ pre- and fully certified unit count in Massachusetts over the last few years alone is impressive.

The Phius Alliance has expanded nationally, and the global network continues to grow. Phius projects have now been completed or are under way in many countries with varying climate zones. The Phius professional training has been translated into Japanese and has been taught this year successfully in Japan by Phius partner PHIJP.

The last decade was focused on figuring out the building part of the decarbonization equation (mission accomplished — solving for climate, cost, comfort). Now it’s time to expand beyond the building itself. We see Phius buildings as valuable capacitors of the new, renewable grid. They are low-load buildings that have the ability to load-shift and shed, which is immensely beneficial to the optimization of the overall grid design and resilience. 

Phius has begun to assess and measure the benefits of low-load buildings for the overall grid design, including micro and nano grid models. We call this initiative Phius GEB (Phius Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings) led by our Associate Director Lisa White. A pilot for a microgrid Phius community certification is underway. Buildings plug into the grid, and new opportunities for synergies and resilience arise. Design for the best result does not stop at the building envelope or lot line. 

Our new teal-colored logo symbolizes this expanded vision. It is a closed loop symbolizing whole systems design on all levels, aiming at harvesting adjacent system synergies: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” The color teal represents clarity of thought, rejuvenation, open communication and integrity. 

Same Phius

While Phius will be steadily expanding its zero-carbon framework beyond its hallmark passive house and building standards, we will maintain our core competencies of aiding in design, building, policy writing and quality assurance. We are working to solidify and upgrade our foundational programs. Certification staff has doubled and processes are being refined. We are working on getting even better at what we already do well!

The Phius focus has evolved to the broader task of decarbonization. We’ll do so with the same scientific rigor and attention to detail as before. Our goal is the next level of systems optimization so we as a society can make real-time ZERO carbon (not just net) a reality soon!

We hope you’ll join us and continue to trust us to pave the way for the future of decarbonization strategies. There is still lots to do, so let’s get to it!