A new all-electric and carbon-neutral housing development in New York state bans the use of fossil fuels to heat or water homes, cook food or dry clothes anywhere in the community.
The Catskill Project is located in the Catskill Mountains about two hours' drive from New York City and does not have any natural gas or other fossil fuel connections. Instead, heating and appliances run on electricity. Power is provided by on-site solar panels or through a subscription community solar farm, and each home is built to Passive House standards, which reduces the energy needed for heating and cooling.
The requirements mean the Catskills plan is at the forefront of the race to reduce climate-warming pollution from existing and new buildings, which account for about 50% of global warming pollution, according to the United Nations Environment Program 37% of emissions. Starting in 2026, New York will require most new buildings to be entirely electric.
“There is no reason to build housing that will further exacerbate climate problems,” said Catskill Project co-founder and first resident Greg Hale.
Yale Climate Connection spoke with Hale to learn more about the project.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Yale Climate Connection: When you began working on the Catskill Project, how did the environment influence the design?
Greg Hale: Seamlessly coexisting with the environment is one of our core principles. So I would say the land itself has a big impact on what we do. We chose this land because of its beauty. it has a lot [steep terrain] and large amounts of water, resulting in streams and waterfalls. We didn't necessarily choose it as the easiest website to develop, but [reinforced that] The overall ethos of the project is to live in harmony with the environment, especially in a carbon-neutral way.
Our first phase covers 90 acres. It has 11 parcels, and we located them close to community roads and set aside over 40 acres for conservation. The land has a recorded easement and is retained in perpetuity. We have great trails where you can sit and watch the falls.
YCC: I want to talk about the carbon neutrality part, but first, can you describe Passive Houses and some of the design features you incorporate into these homes?
Read: The Promise of Passive House Design
Hale: Passive House is a set of principles that aim to reduce the energy demand needed to heat and cool a home. So it's about orientation so that your glazing is more south facing [AKA more southern-facing windows] In climates where you are more concerned about heating, like we are in the Catskills. It involves insulating and air-sealing to create a very tight and well-protected enclosure so that you don't inadvertently heat the outside in the winter or cool it in the summer.
Triple glazed windows are a key element so that there are no drafts on the windows. Then this is very important [to integrate] Active ventilation systems, because once this very tight seal is established, without active ventilation, the indoor air environment can be unhealthy. Therefore, we have an energy recovery ventilator running 24/7, always bringing fresh air into the house and removing stale air. But the magic of this machine is that it actually captures heat energy and preconditions the incoming air before it is expelled. So, in the winter, instead of moving warm air out of the building, you capture the heat and precondition the incoming air so that your heating unit doesn't have to work as hard to achieve the same internal temperature.
YCC: Can you describe what these houses look like and whether they are obviously Passive Houses?
Hale: From the outside, you really can’t tell a Passive House. From the outside, it involves quality construction in all aspects. So we have a few different designs and I live in what we call a modern country style house, which is a modern looking house. The exterior is rough hemlock, so it will eventually fade in the sun and look a bit like a barn. It attempts to blend a rustic barn aesthetic with modern design. But we also have another design that is closer to the traditional farmhouse style. So we are trying to come up with several different designs to suit different aesthetic needs, but all of them will follow Passive House principles.
YCC: Can you tell me a little bit about renewable energy generation and the types of heating and cooling being used?
Hale: It’s carbon neutral – we’re fully electric. Our HOA does not allow the burning of fossil fuels anywhere in the community to heat or hot water your home, cook or dry your clothes. If you want to be carbon neutral, you need 100% clean electricity, and we do that by using on-site solar power [photovoltaics] – Our buyers have gone this route so far – Or you can choose to subscribe to a community solar scheme. This is not a onerous requirement as it is usually 5-10% cheaper than local utility companies. So we're connected to the local utility, but we're going to [generating enough] to offset our energy use – either through community solar or generating enough solar on site and hopefully utilizing battery storage as well.
YCC: How do Passive House design and carbon neutrality impact the livability of a space?
Hale: I think the livability here is very good. There is no draft in you. It's very quiet when you close all the windows, but all windows are also screened so you can live indoors and outdoors at the same time. And the maintenance cost is very low [home] – You’ll need to change the air filter a few times a year – but it’s a pleasant place to live.
YCC: Can you talk about some of the health benefits of living in a Passive House?
Hale: It is generally healthier to live in a place with less ventilation. It also has to do with the filtration you have on your ventilation system. You get fresh air 24/7 which is very important, we use Merv 13 filters so when you seal all the windows it's a great filtration system. For example, when wildfires broke out in Canada last year, the entire Northeast smelled like a campfire, and inside, we barely noticed the smoke. And then when you step outside, you're plunged into that weird orange haze we all experienced last year.
YCC: Speaking of which, as climate changes, what are the benefits of this whole approach in terms of mitigation and adaptation?
Hale: The entire approach is to reduce emissions in the built environment. There is no reason to build homes that will further exacerbate climate problems. So we look at it both operationally and materially.
We take great care in selecting materials with lower carbon content. So we limit concrete, we don’t use spray foam, we use plant insulation, and our countertops are compressed paper—these properties are amazing! So there are a lot of interesting choices you can make to address the carbon emitted when manufacturing materials and building buildings.
The idea of regenerative development is very important to us. A lot of the wood in the house came from our site—cherry ceilings, ash floors. When we clear trees for houses or infrastructure – when we have the right trees with millable sections – we strengthen them and send them to a local sawmill, which then makes them for us Tongue and groove paneling, or flooring, or baseboards. Essentially, we put materials that were taken from the site back into the house.
YCC: You mentioned that there is no reason why people should not build in a way that prevents harm to the climate. How replicable is this project? For those thinking about using this technology in other new homes, can you talk about the cost part?
Hale: Passive House standards apply to any building, not just single-family homes. [For] smaller [single-family homes] As such, there's a modest premium. Using triple pane windows costs more than using double pane windows. How many do you want to add? [extra] There are a few inches of insulation in the walls, so the material cost will be a little higher.
We use an off-site panel construction system, so our envelope is built by a company called Bensonwood at a facility in Keene, New Hampshire. So they built the panels, including the doors and windows, and then trucked them to our site. It's great to watch them gather. [the home] They used a crane and four crew members to bolt everything together and it was done in three to four days. And you have a weatherproof enclosure that meets Passive House air barrier testing. So it's definitely reproducible, but you need developer commitment to build it this way. You need to design for this outcome from the beginning to minimize incremental costs.
YCC: Can you tell me a little bit about the current number of homes and what draws people to this neighborhood?
Hale: Currently, we have built three houses. I stayed in one of them and we had two other families move in as well and they both seemed to be happy owners. We also have contracts to build two more this year (2024). Our first phase is 11 houses and then we have subdivided the land and will expand the community to 25 houses.
What draws people here? Well, we do a lot of work to find people who care about environmental responsibility. So it's a sense of – like people understand what we're trying to do, they want to live in the community that we're doing, and they're going to be with other people who share the same values.
YCC: You have been working on these issues for a long time. What makes you personally passionate about building to net-zero emissions?
Hale: I have considered myself an environmentalist since I was about 10 years old, when I went camping in the Adirondacks. And then that became more and more mainstream in my work life. I've spent my entire career in real estate, but I've been able to combine that with a commitment to fighting climate change.
Then I had a dream: to actually do our own development and lead the way. We don’t know of any other single-family home communities like ours—requiring Passive House construction, and being all-electric and targeting carbon neutrality—at least in the Northeast. So we think we are pioneers. We also know that 25 houses won't solve the climate problem, so we try to get out there and promote the way we do business. This isn't exactly a standard business school tactic, where you try to create a moat and prevent others from following you – the climate doesn't have time for that. So we attend conferences and hold open days at the International Passive House Open Day, and we always want to share what we are doing here and help others follow the same path. I believe climate change is the top issue of our time. If we don't solve this problem, many other issues won't matter.
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