Deborah Byrne, CEng, MIEI, CPHD

The Passive House Standard is the most efficient building standard in the world, and Deborah, as a Passive House Designer (PHD) and the current Chair of Passive House Canada, promotes its use everywhere she can. She’s instigated, collaborated, and overseen the design and development of over 1,000,000 sq. ft. of Passive House Design at KMAI, and through her training and advocacy work, has influenced many others to commit to the PHD Standard for all future projects.

Deborah has spent the last 3 years overseeing the design and construction of two large scale MURBs, both of which will be certified to the Passive House Standard, provide increased health and comfort, be pandemic and climate resilient, and will require over 80% less heat or cooling than code buildings.

Deborah works to make PH accessible for everyone. For example, the recently completed, and Clean 50 2022 Top Project award-winning Putman Family YWCA Passive House was constructed for a cost premium of only 2% above code construction – but that premium should be repaid through lower operating costs in less than 2 years, should the building be operated as designed. And then pay dividends for the next 100 years – freeing up operational savings to help to finance the building, or even better, to help finance future projects to support Women-Led Families.