An 8-week, fully-funded Built Environment Leadership program

The Passivhaus Incubator helps policy makers, asset owners, client-side teams, and decision makers understand how Passivhaus can inform policy, procurement, project briefs, asset strategy, and long-term performance.

Apply Now for 2026 →

Is This Program for You?

The incubator is designed for people who influence how buildings are planned, funded, procured, delivered, or managed.

Note: This program is not suitable for single-dwelling residential clients.

You should apply if you…

  • Have 10+ years of experience and have a track record of implementing new ideas and influencing outcomes.

  • Have a genuine interest in the betterment of the Australian built environment.

  • Help shape building briefs, policy, procurement or asset decisions.

  • Manage or advise on large scale residential, public, or commercial buildings.

This program is especially relevant for…

What You’ll Take Away

You’ll build practical knowledge and a clearer lens for applying Passivhaus thinking across organisations, projects, and portfolios.

Knowledge to Lead Building Performance Conversations

Build a clear understanding of high-performance buildings across global and Australian market contexts. Learn why the gap between code-compliant and Passivhaus poses risks for health, comfort, resilience, and long-term asset value — and discover the tools to close it.

A Better Lens for Project Risk

Explore how Passivhaus affects procurement, contracts, cost planning, consultant engagement, certification timing, and project delivery. Gain the ability to hold your own in technical conversations, and know the right questions to ask at every project stage.

A Strategic View of Your Existing Assets

You will develop a practical understanding of how high-performance retrofit strategies apply to existing portfolios. For example, how to assess assets, sequence upgrades, manage tenant and stakeholder impact, and build a credible pathway from where your buildings are today to where they need to be.

The Ability to Drive Change Inside Your Organisation

The final weeks of the program are dedicated to internal advocacy, organisational change, and practical implementation. This finale gives you the language, the framing, and the strategy to bring new ideas to the table and make them stick.

A Peer Network for the Next Decade and Beyond

You will share the program with a competitive cohort of senior professionals drawn from across government, housing, development, construction, asset management, and infrastructure. Thus building a network of leaders who share a common language and ambition for the built environment.

How the Program Works

The Incubator is designed for people who want to understand, apply, and advocate for Passivhaus inside organisations, projects, policies, and portfolios.

It is not a replacement for CPHD or CPHT certification, but a strategic program for client-side and decision-making roles.

Online Learning Sessions

Weekly expert-led sessions held online from 12:00 - 1:30pm AEST with time for Q&A and discussion.

Case Studies

Examples showing how Passivhaus performs across community, health, policy, and retrofit contexts.

Site Tours

In-person opportunities to see Passivhaus applied in completed buildings.

Cohort Connection

Networking touchpoints designed to help you share ideas and brining learnings back to your organisations.

The 8-Week Incubator Journey

Over eight weeks, the Passivhaus Incubator moves from core building-performance through to certification, procurement, policy, retrofit and internal advocacy.

It’s all about helping you understand what Passivhaus is and how to bring it into real projects, organisations and portfolios.

Foundations & Building Performance
Weeks 1-3

  • The program begins with a clear introduction to what defines a Passivhaus, why the standard matters, and how it applies in real buildings.

    You’ll explore:

    • The five core principles of Passivhaus and what they are designed to achieve

    • How Passivhaus criteria compare with current Australian code

    • The basics of comfort, energy balance, insulation, R-values, U-values and continuous thermal envelopes

    The Friday case study will be announced soon.

  • Week 2 takes a deeper look at three critical elements of high-performance buildings: airtightness, ventilation and thermal bridge-free design.

    You’ll explore:

    • Why insulation alone is not enough to achieve strong building performance

    • How airtightness and ventilation work together in a healthy, efficient building

    • Common design and construction issues that can lead to thermal bridges, air leakage, condensation, mould and poor indoor air quality

    The Friday health case study compares a code-built home with a Passivhaus home, looking at the relationship between indoor air quality and occupant health.

    The session draws on symptom tracking, weather data, indoor air quality monitoring and building biology insights to show how building performance can affect wellbeing.

  • This week focuses on the role of windows, energy use, and building services in achieving Passivhaus performance.

    You’ll explore:

    • Why windows and frames are so important to managing heat transfer

    • How orientation, shading, installation and passive solar design affect performance

    • How energy demand and services are considered within the Passivhaus approach

    There is no Friday session for this week.

Certification, Delivery & Project Risk
Weeks 4-5

  • Week 4 introduces the different Passivhaus classifications, certification pathways and quality assurance processes.

    You’ll explore:

    • The different Passivhaus classifications, including the EnerPHit retrofit standard

    • When to engage consultants and certifiers in the design process

    • How PHPP is used to support Passivhaus certification

    The Saturday site tours give you the opportunity to see Passivhaus principles applied in real buildings and connect the online learning to physical project outcomes.

  • Week 5 shifts into the delivery side of Passivhaus projects, focusing on procurement, contracts, cost planning, finance and risk.

    This session is designed to help you understand how early project decisions can influence cost, delivery and performance outcomes.

    It’ll cover both the contractual and commercial sides of Passivhaus delivery, including procurement methodology, project risk, cost components specific to Passivhaus construction and practical strategies for avoiding cost overruns.

    You’ll explore:

    • Best-practice procurement principles for Passivhaus projects

    • Contract considerations, scope inclusions, risk profiles and consultant roles

    • Cost components, cost planning, risk management and strategies for avoiding project challenges

Policy, Market Context & Retrofit
Weeks 6-7

  • Week 6 places Passivhaus within a broader market and policy context.

    It’ll cover international examples, Australian market conditions and the policy settings that can help accelerate high-performance building adoption.

    You’ll explore:

    • Global policy frameworks and implementation examples

    • The Australian market context and barriers to wider adoption

    • How policy, regulation and market signals can support Passivhaus growth

    The Friday case study examines the Massachusetts mandates for Passivhaus Certification of certain buildings — including its development, implementation, challenges and outcomes.

    It offers a practical example of policy-led market transformation and how Passivhaus adoption can grow when policy settings support higher-performance buildings.

  • Week 7 focuses on applying Passivhaus principles to existing buildings.

    You’ll explore:

    • Staged retrofit approaches and retrofit certification processes

    • Cost considerations, practical implementation challenges and suitable building types

    • Policy issues, strata challenges and support mechanisms needed to scale retrofit in Australia

    The Friday session brings these ideas into real-world application through retrofit case studies and performance data.

    Discover how retrofit strategies perform beyond theory, including what can be measured, what can be improved and what lessons can be applied to future projects or asset portfolios.

Advocacy & Implementation
Week 8

  • The final week focuses on implementation, internal advocacy and organisational change.

    You’ll explore:

    • How to advocate for Passivhaus principles inside your organisation

    • How to bring new concepts into project briefs, procurement conversations and asset strategies

    • Practical next steps for applying the program’s learnings to your own work

    The program concludes with Friday celebratory drinks, giving your cohort an opportunity to connect, reflect on the eight-week journey and continue conversations beyond the formal sessions.

2026 Program Presenters

  • Kieran Leong

    Director, DesignInc Melbourne

  • Linden Thorley

    Director, Linden Thorley Architects

  • To Be Announced

  • To Be Announced

2026 Support Members

  • Jessica Kismet

    Technical Manager, Climasure

  • Torquil Canning

    Passivhaus Designer, Torquil Canning Home

  • John Beurle

    Principal, Passive House Services

  • Andy Marlow

    Director, Envirotecture

Past Incubator Participants

  • "Thank you so much for this incredibly interesting incubator program! Extremely valuable"

    Niko Stacher
    Senior Manager, Sustainability APAC (Hilton)

  • "An amazing learning experience! I look forward to keeping connected with the Passivhaus community."

    Kate McKeand
    Senior Policy Officer (DEECA)

  • "It has been such a good programme!"

    James Pearson
    Director - National Sustainability Manager (CBRE-DEXUS)

  • "Thanks for providing this fantastic program it has been amazing learning experience!"

    Bronwyn Englaro
    Senior Sustainability Officer (Randwick City Council)

Special Thanks

While the content has since been adapted and updated, this program was originally developed by Passivhaus enthusiast, and previous APA Chair, Kate Nason, Senior Sustainability Advisor at Frasers Property.

Kate donated the intellectual property of the 8-hour program to the Association to support the growth of Passivhaus in Australia.

If it were not for thoughtful and caring volunteers, like Kate, APA would not have the resource pool it has to draw upon.