Passivhaus and the London Plan.

The London Plan requires major development to follow the energy hierarchy: Be Lean, Be Clean, Be Green, Be Seen. Passivhaus is a strong answer to "Be Lean", the first and most heavily weighted step, because it cuts regulated energy demand through fabric and form before any plant is added. A building that starts from a Passivhaus fabric standard reaches the London Plan’s on-site carbon targets with less reliance on renewables and a smaller offset payment, and the performance is measured rather than modelled on paper.

Be Seen is the London Plan’s post-construction stage: major developments must report actual metered energy performance to the GLA for at least five years after occupation, through the Be Seen energy monitoring platform. It exists because designed performance and in-use performance often diverge. Our Pulse service is made for this. It monitors energy, comfort and air quality continuously, with the source recorded on every reading, so the Be Seen submission comes straight from monitoring the building is already doing.

Yes. Referable applications must submit a Whole Life-Cycle Carbon (WLC) assessment covering embodied and operational carbon across the building’s life. Passivhaus does not directly govern embodied carbon, but its very low operational demand improves the whole-life picture substantially, and a fabric-first approach tends to favour lower-carbon, durable construction. We coordinate the operational side of the WLC assessment through the PHPP model.

Policy SI 4 requires major development to demonstrate it has reduced overheating risk following the cooling hierarchy, with dynamic thermal modelling to CIBSE TM52 and TM59 for residential. High-density London schemes, especially student accommodation and tall residential, are where overheating is hardest to control. Passivhaus requires overheating to be assessed and limited at design stage as a matter of course, so we design to meet the London Plan test from the first model rather than fixing it at planning.

Yes. Mosart is Passivhaus designer on 2 Trafalgar Way in Canary Wharf, three towers of up to 46 storeys delivering 1,672 student bedrooms and 80 apartments, targeting Passivhaus certification and BREEAM Outstanding; certified at that scale it would be the largest Passivhaus development in Europe. We have also worked on Urbanest schemes in London. We understand both the standard and the specific demands of London planning at height and density.

Where a development cannot reach net-zero-carbon on site, the shortfall is met through a cash-in-lieu payment to the borough’s carbon offset fund, typically priced per tonne of CO2 over 30 years. Because Passivhaus cuts regulated energy demand so far at the Be Lean stage, the residual carbon that has to be offset is smaller, which can materially reduce the offset payment over a large scheme. We model this trade-off at feasibility so it informs the energy strategy rather than surprising the budget at planning.