Sendero Verde, a 709-unit complex houses low-income and formerly homeless individuals. Completed in April, it’s the largest certified Passive House building in the United States, and its champions say it can serve as a model as cities and states seek to tackle both the housing crisis and the climate crisis.
Developers say Sendero Verde uses about half the energy of a comparable non-passive building thanks to insulation, sealing to prevent leakage, thick windows, and ventilation. The result: clean air, quiet interiors, and stable temperatures — even if the power goes out. Spurred by both government incentives and mandates to build greener, such projects offer comfortable, healthy environments to residents often most vulnerable to the effects of a warming planet.
Sendero Verde consists of two mid-rise buildings, completed in 2022, and a 34-story tower, completed in April. Other than the gas water heater, the buildings are powered by electricity, including the stoves in the kitchens. Gas stoves emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and have been shown to produce indoor air pollution, contributing to childhood respiratory problems. (Last year, New York became the first state in the nation to ban gas stoves in new buildings, following New York City in 2021.)
There are also community gardens, shared outdoor terraces with native plants, a fitness center, a playground, computer labs and multipurpose rooms. One of the buildings houses a charter school, with additional space reserved for retail and social services, such as occupational therapy and mental health care.
Sendero Verde, which means ?“green path” in Spanish, takes up an entire city block in East Harlem, a low-income, formerly redlined neighbourhood whose dearth of trees makes it significantly hotter than, say, the wealthier, leafier Upper East Side neighbourhood a few blocks south.
Those disparities put residents at a higher risk for heat-related illnesses and death. Black and Hispanic New Yorkers are more likely to die from heat stress compared to whites, according to city statistics.
In 2016, as part of a broader neighbourhood rezoning plan, the housing authorities called on developers to submit plans for sustainable, affordable housing on a city-owned lot, offering subsidies for the project.
Construction costs were about 6% to 8% more than a non–Passive House project, according to the developers, though costs have come down since then.
The federal Inflation Reduction Act includes rebates and tax credits that support many elements of passive construction — including for ventilation upgrades and electric appliances — and New York state and city both offer funding and incentives for energy-efficient buildings.
