Amy Tankard worked in Unitec’s HR team for three years before recently moving to focus on advocating for Passive House in Aotearoa. She is the CEO of the Passive House Institute New Zealand, Te Tōpūtanga o te Whare Korou ki Aotearoa (PHINZ) and is also overseeing the build of her family home to Passive House standard.
Amy is still connected with Unitec, through guest lecturing for our Trades and Building and Construction Schools on the benefits of building to Passive House standard and recently returning to the HR team to help for a few weeks. She shares her passion with us, along with a current campaign we can all get behind…
“What are the important things that make your life comfortable, healthy and happy?
Would it be living in a home where you’re not shivering by a fire at night so you save power costs? Or where your child isn’t coughing from the mould in their bedroom or the condensation down their windows in the morning? Or would it be walking into a school or workplace in winter and staying comfortable all day so you can concentrate on more important things? In this community, would it be taken for granted that everyone naturally had access to that comfort and health?
Passive House is a proven and rigorous standard that results in highly energy-efficient and healthy buildings, which have huge benefits for the health and wellbeing of the occupants, and for climate change mitigation. Passive House buildings maintain a constant temperature range all year with minimal heating or cooling required, and are designed to minimise damp and mould and optimise indoor air quality.
Kāinga Ora are now starting to build homes targeting Passive House certification, most notably Ngā Kāinga Anamata, (“homes of the future”) is a project aimed at driving carbon emission reduction in New Zealand’s construction industry.
But there is so much more to be done to raise awareness and knowledge for the public and the government, and to educate the building industry on how to design and build to this standard. PHINZ is on this mission to educate, and were recently selected along with a collection of other worthy charities, to participate in the Generosity Generator Givealittle crowdfunding campaign.
Please support this mahi by visiting and sharing the campaign page, and donating to this important cause https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/educate-everyone-about-passive-house”