In 2015, the UN set 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be reached by 2030. The Passive House Standard plays a direct role in achieving many of these global aims for the built environment.
In order to identify how Passive House contributes to the SDGs, the International Passive House Association derived a list of relevant and recurring themes by reviewing the targets and indicators of the individual SDGs, summarised into 8 categories:
- Health and wellbeing
- Economic and job creation
- Social housing and energy poverty
- Resilient and innovative buildings
- Sustainable consumption and production
- International cooperation
- Climate change protection and accountability
Using these categories, 10 applicable SDGs were carefully selected from the original list of 17 where relevant targets or indicators show Passive House meaningfully influencing the particular SDG. These are:
SDG 1 – End poverty in all its forms
SDG 3 – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
SDG 4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote learning opportunities for all
SDG 7 – Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all
SDG 8 – Promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth and productive employment for all
SDG 9 – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation
SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable
SDG 12 – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
SDG 13 – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
SDG17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
Conclusions drawn: If both the public and the private sector increase their implementation of the Passive House Standard, the results on a larger scale can lead to a substantial reduction of the total building-related carbon emissions, meet development targets including health and wellbeing, climate action, affordable and clean energy, and responsible consumption and production among others.
In a period when policymakers and the private sector are making decisions about the direction their building guidelines and business development will go, it is important to highlight the way the Passive House Standard can lead to better health, social, economic, and environmental outcomes. The SDGs are an ideal backdrop to illustrate where the Passive House Standard fits into global aims.
Please feel free to share the credited graphic above which sets this information out in a clear fashion, and you can read more detail on Passipedia here Passive House and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Connecting an international building standard with global aims [ ] (passipedia.org)