The Case for Passive Survivability

 Sara Gutterman talks with Lisa White, Co-Executive Director of Phius, about what buildings really cost the grid—and what they should deliver to the people inside them when conditions turn extreme. Together, they explore passive building, climate-specific performance, wildfire smoke protection, passive survivability, and why first cost fails to capture the true value of comfort, health, resilience, and long-term energy conservation. 

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SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hi, I'm Ronan. This week, we're looking at the forces reshaping housing. From Washington to Wall Street to the electric grid. And there's a lot to unpack. Congress recently passed the biggest federal housing package in decades. So, where are the new homes? The truth is, passing a law doesn't build a single house. The new 21st century Road to Housing Act includes reforms that could help increase housing supply by modernizing manufactured housing, streamlining permitting, expanding financing, and encouraging more affordable homes. But now the ball shifts to the Trump administration and HUD. HUD must write new regulations, update manufactured housing standards, launch pilot programs, and issue guidance that builders, lenders, and developers can actually use. Until that happens, many of the law's biggest promises remain just that. Promises. Here's why resilient homes matter more than ever. As a dangerous heat wave pushed electricity demand to the limit, the U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency order allowing the Southwest Power Pool to fire up backup generators across 17 states to help prevent blackouts. The order highlights a growing reality. Our electric grid is under increasing pressure from extreme weather, rising electricity demand, and aging infrastructure. For builders and homeowners, that makes tighter building envelopes, better insulation, efficient HVAC systems, and backup power resilience essentials. Because here's the reality: a resilient home doesn't just save energy, it buys you time. A tight, well-insulated home stays cooler longer during a summer outage and warmer longer during a winter storm. Add battery storage or backup power, and you've got another layer of protection when the grid is under stress. As power outages become more common, resilience may prove to be one of the most valuable features a home can offer. You know climate risk has gone mainstream and one of the world's biggest investment firms starts treating it like investment risk. Henry Fernandez, CEO of MSCI, the company behind many of the world's leading stock market indexes, says investors who ignore climate risk are ignoring a growing factor in asset values, and, in his words, only have themselves to blame. To prepare clients for that future, MSCI recently acquired climate risk analytics firm First Street, adding climate risk data on billions of properties to better understand how flooding, wildfire, extreme heat, and other physical climate risks could affect long-term value. Here's the takeaway. If Wall Street is pricing resilience, the housing industry can't afford to treat it as an upgrade. It needs to become part of every home's value proposition. As states compete to attract AI data centers with billions of dollars in tax incentives, Congress is asking a new question. Should taxpayers reward every data center or only the ones built to the highest environmental standards? New federal legislation would tie certain tax incentives to lead certification, encouraging developers to build facilities that use less energy, conserve water, and reduce environmental impacts. It's a notable shift in thinking. Instead of offering incentives simply to create jobs, the proposal says public dollars should also reward better performing buildings. Here's a trend every builder should be watching. Business leaders are warning that climate, not tariffs or geopolitics, may become the biggest supply chain disruption of the next decade. Speaking of Bloomberg's Sustainable Business Summit in Singapore, executives said extreme weather is forcing companies to rethink how they source materials, manage inventory, and protect operations. The next delay on your job site may have less to do with the factory and more to do with the forecast. As storms, floods, wildfires, and extreme heat disrupt manufacturing and transportation, resilience isn't just about building stronger homes. It's also about building stronger supply chains. Here's another housing trend worth watching. Across the country, cities are rewriting zoning codes to allow accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and other missing middle housing, all with one goal. Creating more homes within existing neighborhoods. But at the luxury end of the market, the opposite may be happening. According to Inman News, some affluent buyers are purchasing neighboring homes, not to rent or redevelop them, but to combine them into larger private compounds. As cities work to create more housing on existing lots, what happens if private wealth starts taking homes off the market instead? It's still a niche luxury trend, but it's one city planners and local officials may want to watch as they balance private property rights with the growing need for housing. What does a healthy home mean to today's buyers? It depends on how old they are. New cognition smart data research shows that while clean air, safe water, and non-toxic materials remain the top wellness priorities overall, younger generations are redefining what healthy living really means. Baby boomers prioritize physical health and aging well. Gen X places the highest value on emotional well-being. But millennials in Gen Z are changing the conversation. Nearly 70% of millennials and two-thirds of Gen Z say calm, quiet, and stress reduction are among their top priorities at home. They're also much more likely to value natural light, biophilic design, and a strong connection to nature. Here's a milestone in high-performance home building. Beezer Homes has become the first builder to win four major awards in a single year in the 2026 ResNet-Cresnet Cross-Border Builder Challenge, which recognizes North America's highest performing homes based on independently verified HERS ratings. Beezer earned President's Awards in both the North and South, the Low Score Production Award and the Net Zero Award with an outstanding HERS index of negative 48. Here's what makes that impressive. These aren't marketing claims, they're measured results. Every HERS rating is independently tested and verified, giving home buyers confidence that their home will deliver the energy efficiency, comfort, and performance it's designed to achieve. Building one high performance home is an accomplishment. Building thousands with verified performance shows that high performance construction has moved into the mainstream. What if carbon accounting isn't just about compliance? It's about creating business value. On the latest episode of the valuation metric, Sarah Gutterman sits down with Gravity co-founder Jay Ruckelshaus to unpack California's SB 253 carbon disclosure law. Why its reporting deadline was delayed, and why measuring emissions is quickly becoming as important as measuring financial performance. Catch the full conversation on the valuation metric. Here's a clip.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Just with the basics, as you said, California Senate Bill 253 requires large companies, really headquartered anywhere in the US, as long as they're doing some meaningful business in California and have overall a billion dollars in revenue per year to disclose every year their greenhouse gas emissions. And it's really the biggest, most important sustainability disclosure regulation in a generation in the US. And I think importantly for the CFO audience, is it kind of brings what used to be maybe more the province of marketing or kind of a nice CSR responsibility report that a company would put out once a year, really much more into language and terms that they'll be familiar with. There's an audit requirement that ramps up next year and essentially mandates companies' report emissions with the rigor with which they report financials.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Time for our editor's product pick of the week. With Summer in Full Swing, here's a siding collection built for coastal living. LP Building Solutions LP Smart Side Expert Finish Coastal Capsule features six seaside inspired colors, including Sand Dunes, the company's 2026 color of the year, all in a sleek, brush smooth finish. But it's more than just good looks. The siding is engineered to stand up to moisture, hail, and harsh coastal weather, making it a great fit for homes from North Carolina to Florida and across the Gulf Coast to Texas. Check out the link in our show notes to learn more. As homes become more energy efficient, one question matters more than ever. How do you keep the air inside healthy? Tighter building envelopes, evolving energy codes, wildfire smoke, humidity, allergens, and higher homeowner expectations have made ventilation one of the biggest challenges in high performance construction. That's why you won't want to miss Green Builder Media's free live webinar with Panasonic on Thursday, August 13th at 2 p.m. Eastern. You'll learn when an energy recovery ventilator is the right choice, when an exhaust-only system still makes sense, and how to design healthier, quieter, code-compliant homes in every climate. Registration is free. Reserve your spot using the link in our show notes. That's a wrap. Until next time, keep looking for the ideas that are changing the way we build and live.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

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