Phius Senior Policy Analyst Isaac Elnecave provides a recap from the recent PH Mass Symposium and Phius Policy Specialist Zoe Rader offers a recap of other appearances and achievements of the Phius policy team in 2025.
The last 12 months have been plenty busy for the policy team at Phius! From several conferences, happy hours, and other events, to getting Phius written into various policy types such as incentives, codes, and QAPs, to beginning to track active Phius projects tied to active Phius policies, we had a productive year.
Most recently, we attended the annual PH Massachusetts Symposium. Below is our report from the event, written by Phius Senior Policy Analyst Isaac Elnecave, followed by a year-end wrap-up of the Phius Policy team’s activities and accomplishments.
Courtesy of Phius Senior Policy Analyst Isaac Elnecave
PH Mass held its annual symposium on Dec. 9, which had the theme of "Raising Standards, Lowering Costs." It is the second symposium to be held after the promulgation of the Opt-In Specialized Code (which requires meeting Phius or another “passive house” standard for residential buildings over 12,000 square feet). Consequently, interest in passive building construction is growing rapidly (in Massachusetts alone, there are 300 projects in the pipeline). This was evidenced by the fact that 300 people attended the Symposium (and it could have been more as the location had an occupancy limit of 300). Attendees ranged from people who had been working on Phius projects for years to those hearing about it for the first time.
Presentation topics included: avoiding cost overruns, minimizing both risks and costs, navigating the various options with respect to complying with the Opt-in Specialized code, and achieving certification in the shortest amount of time, among others. These presentations showed that Phius is moving from a niche standard used by few people to a more broad based standard that, with any luck, will soon become among the dominant modes of construction in the state. And as always, the side conversations in between panel discussions were incredibly useful.
Presentations were made by architects, construction companies and energy rating companies of varying sizes. It is important that many of the firms have already completed multiple projects, and so brought deep experience and knowledge to their presentations. We expect that with the continuing upward trajectory in Phius projects that next year's Symposium will be even bigger.
Visit the PH Mass website to download the presentations.
Courtesy of Phius Policy Specialist Zoe Rader
Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) Conference
The ultimate goal of the policy team at Phius is to turn policies into projects. There isn’t much impact in getting a Phius policy written if it doesn’t mean that professionals aren’t taking advantage of those policies. Therefore, as a team, we have begun a closer tracking of which Phius projects are utilizing funding from Phius policies.
As of December of this year, we have nearly 120 projects tied to Phius policies. As we continue researching new and existing projects alike, we can only expect for that number to grow.
Though we anticipate continuing our efforts into implementing more Phius policies, we also want to strategize on how to generate more projects from existing policies; we aim to build upon the foundation we have already set.
We are grateful for the passionate Phius community members who make these policy successes possible, and we look forward to many more in 2026!