It was back in December that the Scottish Government agreed to progress legislation proposed by Scottish Labour MSP Alex Rowley that will, they said, “introduce new minimum environmental design standards for all new-build housing to meet the Passivhaus standard, or a Scottish equivalent, in order to improve energy efficiency and thermal performance”.

Net zero minister Patrick Harvie said at the time the government would fast-track the process of adopting the standard in law by using secondary legislation and bypassing the need to take a member’s bill through Holyrood.

Since then, while presumably consulting on what this agreed definition will look like, we've witnessed the beginning of changes at the very top of government which could yet have an impact on this Bill’s introduction.

So we thought it would be helpful to step back from the politics of Passivhaus to discuss the realities of meeting the standard in Scotland.

We’ve reached out to Dan Hyde and Jeff Colley of Zero Ambitions Podcast for advice, a podcast about sustainability, the built environment, and zero carbon goals. In 2003 Dan and Jeff co-founded an Irish sustainable building magazine, Construct Ireland, which was rebranded as Passive House Plus in 2012, and expanded into separate UK and Irish editions, with Jeff remaining at the helm as editor ever since.

We are also joined by someone who was faced with the reality of planning a Passivhaus programme and finding the money to do so. Andrew Kubski is the director of development and asset management at West of Scotland Housing Association, which has recently completed Scotland’s largest development of flats to meet the energy efficiency standard.

Jimmy Black has written a blog to accompany the episode, here:

https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/blacks-blog-passive-hooses-for-scotland

Kieran Findlay is the editor of Scottish Housing News. Jimmy Black is a former Dundee housing convener and housing justice campaigner.

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