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Catawba College, a private liberal arts institution in North Carolina, has become one of only 13 colleges in the United States to be certified carbon neutral. Through a long-term partnership with RMI, the college is implementing a District Energy and Modernization (DEM) project that integrates geoexchange systems, solar energy, and high-performance building standards to eliminate fossil fuel dependence and address deferred maintenance.

This insight brief introduces 'hours of safety' as a metric to quantify how long a building envelope can maintain safe indoor temperatures during power outages in extreme cold. Using simulations of five building types in Duluth, Minnesota, the research demonstrates that high-performance envelopes, such as those meeting Passive House standards, significantly extend the time residents can safely shelter in place compared to older or code-compliant homes.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Commons is a multi-family retrofit development in Washington, D.C., designed as the first Passive House of its kind in the U.S. to provide affordable housing for low-income and formerly homeless families while drastically reducing energy costs.

This case study details the planned zero-carbon deep energy retrofit of Hano Homes, a 20-apartment affordable housing property in Boston, MA. The project aims to achieve Phius certification by implementing a superinsulated exterior shell, transitioning to all-electric mechanical systems, and installing a rooftop solar array to reach net-zero energy operations.