Call For Speakers

The Passive House Canada Conference Call for Speakers is Now Open

Members of our community are invited to submit presentation proposals for our annual conference, taking place both online and in-person at the Hamilton Convention Centre, May 8-10, 2023.

Deadline for submissions: Wednesday, February 15th, 2023 at 5:00 PM PST / 8:00 PM EST

Passive House is rapidly transforming the building sector. From novel techniques and materials to federal green building policies and municipal standards, Passive House has evolved beyond its niche space to become the internationally recognized high performance building standard of today.

This year’s Annual Conference will consider the evolutions and innovations of Passive House design and construction, contemporaneously and into the future. In addition to featuring the numerous evolutions in buildings and standards through Passive House design and construction within a crowded green building market, this conference will also spotlight efforts to bolster the wider building sector across Canada and internationally by driving investment and collaborations, targeting embodied carbon, increasing climate resilience, leveraging policy and regulation, and spurring on prefabrication and manufacturing sectors of Canada.

Track One: Passive House Successes and Future Opportunities

In a crowded and “greenwashed” housing market, Passive House stands out as the standard that delivers verified outcomes. This track will focus on the success stories, partnerships and innovations in Passive House that are enabling widespread adoption and increasing government and consumer interest in low-energy, high performance and net zero building practices.

Track Two: Passive House Influences on Policy and Practice: Legacy and Futurity

How are governments, environmental and building sector stakeholders adopting Passive House or equivalent green building standards to create effective policies, low-income housing, and long-term affordability in the face of a generation-defining housing and affordability crunch? This track will focus on leading policies and practices, and what we can do to ensure resilient, low carbon buildings are adopted quickly and successfully – and what can be done to overcome barriers along the way.

Track Three: Passive House and Beyond

Passive House is a key tool in the broader market shift towards healthier, more sustainable buildings. Combined with other efforts, we can more effectively and more significantly reduce emissions in the building sector. This track will showcase innovations in investment in high performance buildings, measurement and verification, embodied carbon, and information technology.

  • Subject Areas
    Track One: Passive House Successes and Future Opportunities
    1. Buildings & Communities / Case Studies
      1. Part 3 Buildings Successes & Challenges
      2. Part 9 Buildings Successes & Challenges
      3. Retrofits Successes & Challenges
    2. Usage of Effective Tools
      1. DesignPH
      2. Advanced PHPP
      3. BIM2PH, PassivLink, Etc.
      4. Hygrothermal modeling (Wufi Pro)
      5. Thermal Bridge Modeling (Flixo, etc)
    Track Two: Passive House Influences on Policy and Practice: Legacy and Futurity
    1. Market Transformation with:
      1. Policy
      2. Social Housing
      3. Government partnership
      4. Client engagement
      5. Jurisdictional building code development (i.e., BC Step Code, Toronto Green Standard)
      6. Just Transition
      7. Global trends
    2. Effective Process with:
      1. Developers
      2. Real Estate Assessors
      3. Building Codes Officials/ Authorities
    3. Financing: Overcoming cost barriers
      1. Real estate assessors and lending institutions
      2. Government Incentives and financial programs
      3. Private sector incentives and financial programs
    Track Three: Passive House and Beyond
    1. Climate adaptability
      1. Carbon neutrality
      2. Carbon mitigation and adaptation
      3. Climate Resilience
      4. Life Cycle constructability, health and wellness
      5. Embodied Carbon
      6. Electrification
    2. Monitoring, Commissioning, Occupant Experiences & Social Impacts
    3. Health & wellness (including air quality and ventilation)
    4. Technical
      1. Innovative Envelopes (detailing, airtightness, thermal bridging)
      2. Innovative MEP (PER,DHW, Ventilation)
      3. Innovative Procurement & Delivery (Integrative Processes, On-site management)
    5. Other (Please Specify)
  • Format

    Proposals should refrain from focusing on a particular product and preference will be given to projects that are already under construction.

    The delivery style should fit within one of the following options:

    1. Panel discussion with Audience Engagement
    2. Instructional workshop
    3. Roundtable discussion
    4. Lecture
    5. Other (please specify)
  • Evaluation Process

    The program committee will be reviewing all submissions and proposals will be evaluated based on:

    • Clarity of the submission
    • Relevance to the theme and subject area
    • Clear outline of the learning objectives

    Speaker proposals should be submitted directly through the submission form below. You will be asked to include:

    • Title of the session
    • Executive summary 100 words or less
    • Highlight the type of presentation proposed (lecture, panel, peer-to-peer, etc)
    • Provide 3 Learning Objectives
    • Select theme category (from selected list)
    • Identify Target Audience (check box)
    • Description: Brief itinerary of the session, content to cover
    • Has or will this session be given at a different conference?
    • Highlight previous speaking experience
    • Contact: Include affiliation and email address of all presenters and if applicable, include a moderator if required

    All proposals will be reviewed by the members of the program committee and will be scored based on their ability to meet the above criteria.

  • Submission Agreement

    By submitting this proposal, all submitters and potential speakers agree to:

    1. Hold an active Passive House Canada membership at the time of submission and during the conference.
    2. Ensure that all presentations are from an education perspective and that product specific content or self-promotion will not be included in presentations.
    3. The actual time allotted for a presentation will be confirmed during the acceptance process.
    4. Presentations may be pre-recorded, delivered live and/or captured and made available to participants online.
    5. Session submitter may not propose speakers without the knowledge and permission of the proposed speaker(s).

    We recommend that you save your work in a separate document, prior to entering it in the form below. If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact [email protected]