To help mitigate climate change, the incremental approach to making homes and buildings less bad or 30% better than code is not going to work. We need aggressive, actionable solutions now. The Passive House standard (Passivhaus in German) is one of the world’s most aggressive, proven, voluntary approaches to radical energy reduction, assured indoor air quality, durability, and thermal comfort in the world today. This paper introduces and explores the Passive House standard design approach and requirements as well as demonstrates its application to new and retrofit projects in the North American context. This paper was originally published in ASHRAE Transactions.”