Passivhaus roundtable to tackle school building challenges

A new roundtable focused on delivering high-performance, sustainable school buildings will launch at Education Business Live on 26 March at Old Billingsgate, London.

Hosted by Ann-Marie Fallon, Co-Director of the Passivhaus Trust, the one-hour interactive session will explore how the Passivhaus standard can help education projects respond to rising costs, increasing compliance requirements and persistent performance gaps.

High costs and additional compliance requirements are causing delays to education projects. Completed projects can have significant performance gaps around health, comfort, energy and carbon savings. However, by utilising Passivhaus as the base framework for environmental requirements, the nature of design and build contracts can result in a successful design.

Drawing on real-world industry examples, the session will explore practical strategies for overcoming delivery barriers. It will also consider how adopting the Passivhaus standard can strengthen climate resilience across school estates, ensuring buildings are fit for the future.

The discussion will focus on the practical conditions schools need in order to implement Passivhaus successfully, as well as the common barriers, tensions and pressure points that arise in live project settings. Participants will also examine where schools require greater support from multi-academy trusts, local authorities and the wider education system to enable effective delivery.

Designed to be highly interactive and grounded in lived experience, the session is aimed at those looking to move beyond sustainability ambitions and towards the successful delivery of high-performance design and build projects for pupils and staff. Attendees will leave with a shared understanding of the key implementation challenges and the enablers that can make a tangible difference to building performance and energy consumption.

Ann-Marie Fallon is a Co-Director at the Passivhaus Trust. She brings insights on Passivhaus projects across the UK, and how ramping up delivery is bringing Passivhaus from exemplar to default. She has spent a decade delivering Passivhaus Schools on the ground, and has been part of informing an outcomes-based funding model for schools in Scotland.

Register for Education Business LIVE for free to attend the roundtable.

^{Image shows Ann-Marie Fallon, Co-Director at the Passivhaus Trust}