It's time to have your say on Scotland's Passivhaus equivalent

Open until Friday 16 October, this is an important moment for everyone involved in shaping the future of building standards in Scotland. It is a real opportunity for the industry to help influence what comes next.

At AHR, we welcome the consultation not just as a sponsor of the Passivhaus Trust, but as an active member and regular contributor to its work. We meet regularly with the trust, share technical insight and contribute practical experience from live projects across multiple sectors. That ongoing involvement means we understand both the ambition behind higher performance standards and the practical detail needed to make them work on real projects.

We believe this matters. National policy needs to be informed by people delivering buildings every day, across schools, community centres, residential schemes and industrial parks, as well as other sectors where performance, cost, wellbeing and long-term value all need to be carefully balanced.

Why this review matters

The proposed policy would introduce a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard for all new domestic and non-domestic buildings. Its aim is to improve energy performance, support better compliance and create healthier indoor environments.

That has clear environmental and social benefits: 

• Tackling fuel poverty: Heating costs remain one of the main drivers of fuel poverty. Better insulated, low-energy buildings can help people live more comfortably while reducing energy bills, supporting Scotland’s ambition to reduce fuel poverty to under five per cent by 2040.
   
• Supporting communities and children: Buildings that are designed to perform reliably, with good ventilation and healthy indoor air quality, can have a meaningful impact on everyday life. From homes and schools to community settings, these standards can support better health, wellbeing and learning.
   
• Driving net zero carbon targets: Reducing energy demand in new buildings will also reduce emissions linked to operational use, helping Scotland move towards its net zero carbon target by 2045.

What is being decided in stage 2?

Following the stage 1 consultation, which introduced the requirement for design and construction compliance statements, stage 2 focuses on the technical delivery of the standard.

The consultation is looking for views on:

• Performance targets: Setting the specific energy demand targets for new buildings compared to the 2023 standards.
• Compliance methodologies: Exploring how targets are calculated, including the potential recognition of the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) as an alternative compliance method.
• Indoor environmental quality: Assessing proposals around ventilation, indoor air quality and comfortably mitigating overheating.
• The compliance process: Defining how design and construction compliance statements will work in practice to bridge the performance gap between design intent and finished build.

Our expertise and commitment

We are well placed to contribute to this debate because we’re already helping clients deliver low-carbon, healthy and future-ready buildings across the UK.

Our experience is not limited to one building type or one route to compliance. That breadth gives us a practical understanding of how high-performance standards need to respond to different building uses, client priorities and funding pressures.

We also bring direct Passivhaus experience. Our portfolio includes certified Passivhaus projects, including the world’s largest Passivhaus-certified education building, and we have a growing team of Passivhaus-certified designers across our UK offices. Just as importantly, we understand how to turn technical ambition into buildable, commercially grounded solutions that work on-site and perform in use.

That combination of policy awareness, technical expertise and hands-on delivery experience is why AHR has a credible and valuable voice in this market.

How to respond

If you work in design, delivery, asset management or building operation, this consultation is your opportunity to help shape a standard that will affect projects across Scotland for years to come.

We would strongly encourage you to take part before the . The more informed, practical and wide-ranging the response, the better the outcome is likely to be for clients, communities and the built environment as a whole.

 You can review the consultation documents and submit your response on the Scottish Government’s consultation hub here