Filomena Beshara

I am drawn to this board opportunity because I want to contribute at a strategic level to accelerating Passivhaus adoption in Australia. This conviction is deeply personal as much as it is professional.

When I moved to Australia from a much colder climate, I was struck by something I had not expected: the buildings here simply do not perform. What should have been a warmer, more comfortable existence became the opposite. I found myself fighting the cold in ways I never had back home, in buildings that, for all their appearance, functioned more like glorified tents. It became clear to me that the warm climate had become a convenient excuse to avoid building well, and that many Australians, through no fault of their own, had never experienced what genuine thermal comfort in a well-designed building actually feels like. That is precisely why organisations like the APA matter so much, and why I want to be part of driving that change.

Passivhaus represents the most rigorous and evidence-based standard for building performance available today, and it is one I have invested in professionally through my Certified Passivhaus Consultant credential. I believe the built environment sector is at a critical inflection point.

The gap between where mainstream construction practice sits and where it needs to be on energy performance is significant, and the APA plays a vital role in closing it.

Filomena Beshara
Development Manager - ESG and Innovation Lead
Freecity