2 Hudson Valley Winners In 2024 DOE Housing Innovation Awards

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Daniel Colombini of Ossining and Zero Net Now of Esopus have been honored by the US Department of Energy with a Housing Innovation Award.

Just 24 awards in the nation were given out, including the two in New York.

Colombini won for his "Passive House" in Ossining, the first in Westchester to receive a LEED Platinum designation. The single-family three-bedroom house with an attached garage and about 3,500 square feet of living space offers a new model for sustainable, energy-efficient, and cost-effective residences. Colombini is a Principal at Goldman Copeland, the New York City-based consulting engineering firm.

Net Zero Now builds houses that can consume less energy than they produce when occupied by an average family. That's done "Using photovoltaic solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling, combined with super insulation (insulated concrete form walls, triple-pane glass) and heat recovery ventilation," they said on their website.

Since 2013, the DOE Housing Innovation Awards have honored the very best in innovation on the path to zero energy ready homes by recognizing forward-thinking builders delivering American homebuyers with a better homeowner experience. Housing Innovation Award winners are selected by an esteemed panel of judges selected by the Zero Energy Ready Home Program for their expertise in the high-performance building industry.

Grand Winners will be selected in five categories and honored at the HIA ceremony at the EEBA High Performance Home Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah., Oct. 1-3. For more information on the 2024 awards, click here.