Passive houses as affiliative objects: Investment calculations, energy modelling, and collaboration strategies of Swedish housing companies

Abstract

The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector has had only limited success so far. In Sweden, the uptake of highly energy efficient buildings such as passive houses has been very patchy, although some regions perform much better than others. This article investigates the interlinkage of organizational structures of housing companies with techno-material characteristics of such buildings, as one of the factors of this uneven development. Empirically, the paper studies two passive house companies in their regional settings in Sweden. The results show that technological characteristics of passive houses co-develop with organizational changes in housing companies such as new types of economic investment calculations, business models, project planning and energy modelling tools. The organizational re-making of housing companies can be seen as a crucial step in the transition to a sustainable housing sector.