At this eco-friendly apartment in Chester County, renters won’t have electric bills

One of the first indications that the newest apartment building at a master-planned community in Chester County is different is the self-watering green wall of plants in the lobby.

The lush living wall, bursting with shiny leaves, measures more than 8 feet by 8 feet and welcomes visitors to the 32-unit Passive House building at Hamilton at Eagleview, a residential piece of the mixed-use community in Exton.

More subtle but more important than the plant wall are the solar panels on the roof of the four-story building. Together with panels on a parking lot canopy, they’re expected to generate enough energy to eliminate electric bills for residents of the building’s one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments.

Passive House was constructed using passive building techniques, which include making a well-insulated structure that is airtight while providing fresh, filtered air and extracting stale air. Saving on energy costs is a major motivation for this type of construction, since less energy is needed to heat and cool buildings.

Passive House, which opened last month, is on track to be the first apartment community in Pennsylvania to be certified as a passive building where renewable energy will offset its predicted energy use. The apartment’s final certifications by Chicago-based nonprofit Phius, the leading certifier of passive building projects in North America, are pending.

“We think [Passive House] is a model for us,” said Bob Hankin, president and chief executive officer at Exton-based Hankin Group, the developer, owner, and manager of the apartments. “I really want to do a whole community like this.”

About 40% of the world’s energy-related carbon emissions are connected to the operation and construction of buildings. So improvements in the building industry could slow climate change.

“This is a step toward a solution,” Hankin said. “I think this is the future.”

When Lisa White, co-executive director of Phius, joined the company in 2012, passive building was “very niche” and dominated by environmentally minded owners of single-family homes, she said. It has since become more popular in multifamily buildings.

In 2023, Phius, formerly Passive House Institute US, certified a total of 1,459 units in 58 projects, the vast majority of which are residential. It has certified 1,585 units in 69 projects so far in 2024.

Officials at both Phius and the U.S. Green Building Council, the Washington-based nonprofit behind LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certifications, said they’re seeing an increasing commitment to sustainability in the building industry and that green building certifications have become more popular.

The U.S. Green Building Council is in the midst of launching its newest version of LEED standards more than two decades after its first. The organization says LEED v5 provides clear steps for constructing ultra-low-carbon buildings and “addresses significant sources of carbon emissions in buildings.”

Growth in green building has been spurred by local and federal government policies, from zoning and financing incentives to mandates in building codes to billions of dollars in assistance in the federal Inflation Reduction Act. Another reason for the trend is that “the industry is just pushing toward more high-performance buildings,” White said.

She said it’s important for property buyers and renters “to know they can ask for more” — not just features such as granite countertops but homes that are more comfortable and healthier. If consumers expect more, “it can drive the industry to move that way,” she said.

This week, thousands of developers, engineers, architects, building owners and managers, and other professionals that work with the built environment are meeting in Philadelphia for the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo.

Passive building has been bigger in the subsidized housing space than for market-rate buildings because of government funding and tax incentives. But Hankin said, “we’re trying to do it without the subsidy.”

Hankin Group’s Passive House would be one of few market-rate apartment communities in the country to attain Phius’ highest certification. Hankin said the apartments will prove passive building is a “moneymaking proposition.”

Apartments at Passive House have elements that are expected in eco-friendly living spaces, such as low-flow toilets, energy-efficient LED lightbulbs, and smart thermostats. Then there are elements that aren’t as standard.

The building’s facade is a mix of brick and what appears to be wood — but it’s really recycled rice hull siding made to look like wood. The parking lot has eight electric vehicle charging stations, powered by solar energy.

The apartments have energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, insulated triple-pane windows, and heat pump water heaters that provide nearly instant hot water and are four times more energy efficient than standard electric heaters.

The apartment’s kitchens have induction stoves, which heat faster while using less energy than gas and electric ones and without using fossil fuels. They also require cookware made of certain metals, so Hankin Group is giving residents pots and pans.

Tenants in most of the seven occupied apartments told management that they were attracted to Passive House because of its sustainability.

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And they’re willing to pay for it. The building’s one-bedroom apartments start at $2,273 per month, two-bedroom units start at $2,999, and three-bedroom units start at $4,120.

Even if people don’t care about saving on energy bills or reducing carbon emissions, “people probably care about health and about comfort,” White, at Phius, said. “Ultimately, [a passive building] is just a better building for the tenants. It’s more comfortable, quieter, healthier.”

Rhiannon Jacobsen, managing director for market transformation and development at the U.S. Green Building Council, said that during the pandemic, “people really understood and appreciated what indoor air quality could and should be.”

Passive buildings’ airtightness and high-performing windows and doors come with other perks besides air quality and energy savings, including another level of protection against pests and indoor temperatures that stay at safe levels during power outages.

And passive buildings fight back against two common complaints from tenants: hearing and smelling neighbors.

Hankin Group has followed other green building standards for decades, but passive building was new. The developer’s goal started with a challenge from local officials.

Uwchlan Township’s Board of Supervisors had passed a resolution in February 2019 to move toward clean and renewable energy. It joined other municipalities locally and across the country in signing on to the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign to transition to 100% clean energy.

So when Hankin Group, one of Uwchlan’s biggest builders, presented plans for more apartments a few years ago, township officials challenged the developer to make some of them sustainable.

“It’s something that we’re interested in — getting more developers to build more sustainable buildings in the township,” said Tara Giordano, Uwchlan’s building and zoning official. The township started with Hankin Group.

To certify buildings such as Passive House, Phius and the third-party building professionals it partners with review building designs, check in at construction sites, and do performance testing and final reviews after construction.

Jon Jensen, sustainability director at Mount Laurel-based MaGrann Associates, guides building professionals as they aim to build better-performing structures and pursue green building certifications. He worked with Hankin Group on Passive House.

“We function as a coach, cheerleader, and then at the end of the process, a referee [with certifiers] for developers who want their projects to be sustainable in some way,” Jensen said. “One of the core components of my mission as a professional is to help builders do a better job in a way they’d be happy to repeat.”

MaGrann Associates advises clients on everything from which building materials to use to where to caulk to which plants are appropriate for landscaping.

The company has worked with Hankin Group on projects with less strict green building standards. The developer’s teams “were a mixture of excited and concerned” about reaching for passive building certifications, Jensen said. He said Hankin Group approached the undertaking with a level of respect that helped the developer reach this point.

Passive building is not easy and takes more time and planning, Jensen said. Developers have tried and failed.

But passive building has a “major reputation for being a super higher-performing standard” compared to traditional building, he said.

Once a builder successfully completes a passive structure, subsequent projects come easier, and Jensen has seen clients elevate their standards once they try.

“I see passive housing as the end point for everyone I work with to be able to get to and execute,” he said.