Building Sustainability Podcast

This episode takes us a little away from our chosen niche, and looks at how we can create sustainability by getting out into nature, learning the plants and developing a deeper connection to the natural world.  I talk with Fern Freud about foraging. Fern is a passionate forager and loves everything it encompasses: food, history, folklore, anthropology, the natural environment. She grew up foraging...

Claire O'Neill is a director at 'A Greener Festival' a not-for-profit company, committed to helping events, festivals and venues around the world to become more sustainable and to reduce environmental impacts. As pioneers in event sustainability since the first research in 2005, AGF provide certification, training, expertise, and facilitate the exchange of best practice. A Greener F...

In the second of our birthday / lockdown triple bill... I have a conversation with Beth Williams, who is a 'Structural Engineer + Certified PassivHaus Designer. Passionate about diversity in construction, timber engineering and efficient, humble design' BETH WILLIAMS MEng (Hons), CEng MICE Beth graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2011 having studied Structural Engineering and A...

It's Building Sustainability's first birthday & most of the world is on lockdown... So this month sees a triple Building Sustainability podcast release to celebrate / occupy your mind. The first of this month's episodes is: Lucy Pedler - Architect & Director 'The Green Register' Lucy started both The Green Register (TGR) and her architectural practice in 2000 when...

This month we talk to Ben Moss from Bristol Wood Recycling Project (BWRP).  Ben set up the recycling project in 2004 with the aims of:  Recycling timber from the waste stream,  Promoting social inclusion,  Being self funding  Providing affordable timber to the community. This is an excellent project that benefits the community on many levels and gets the maximum use out of precious materials.  BWR...

In this month's 'Building Sustainability' podcast, we talk with Rob Hopkins. A massive thanks to Rob for being such a wonderful guest... even if Google Maps tried to sabotage our meeting! Rob Hopkins is a cofounder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network, and the author of The Power of Just Doing Stuff , The Transition Handbook , and The Transition Companion . In 2012, he w...

Flo Hamer lives in a tiny house, it measures 4.8m x 2.4m - It contains everything she needs - kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and lounge. It's a normal house, but tiny. For images check out her instagram - https://www.instagram.com/flostinyhouse/ Her house is a tiny house on wheels (THOW) meaning it's built on a trailer and it towable to new locations. Tiny houses have become quite the moveme...

Adrian Leaman from wholewoods.co.uk talks to us about his journey into the world of roundwood timber framing and green woodworking in general. We go off some wonderful tangents and end up with Adrian discussing his natural building gripes!  Topics covered include: Adrian's journey from hands on education, to desk job and back again How permaculture has affected Adrian's life Working on B...

In this month's Building Sustainability podcast we talk with Kiko Denzer. Kiko is perhaps best known as the author of ' Build Your Own Earth Oven' - https://tinyurl.com/2bu6xj7t (A book that made it into our favourite books list ).  The interview is a meandering discussion featuring such topics as: Spoon carving Natural Building Christopher Alexander Bill Coperthwaite .....And a who...

Natural builder, Bee Rowan talks to us about Ecococoon straw bale panels. These prefabricated panels are load bearing and highly insulating - the result is being able to build the entirety of your eco home in 2 days! We also talk about Bee's background, and how she ended up involved in straw bale building. Finally Bee talks about her work in Pakistan stabilising earth bricks with locally avai...

In this episode we talk to architect, Noel Isherwood. The discussion is largely based around Poundbury, which is the expansion of Dorchester. It was designed for humans and community, not cars. We talk about some of the ideas which made Poundbury ground breaking, elements that worked and what didn't and how it has been received by others. Click here for more information on Poundbury (includes...

This month sees us talking to Judith Thornton from Aberystwyth University.    Judith is looking at alternative natural insulators that can be grown. She has a particular interest in how we stop biodegradable materials biodegrading.   Judith was just involved in building the world's first miscanthus insulated house. The Miscanthus was baled up like a regular straw bale and the house was build...

In this episode of Building Sustainability I talk with Dave ‘The Bodger’ Cockroft about the hidden benefits of craft. We talk specifically about spoons and chairs of which Dave is an exceptionally talented maker. We start off with some tool chat, then find out what a ‘Bodger’ is and how the term has been changed over the year. There is a fair amount of spoon carving chat, as well as a lot about ch...

Emma Appleton has drawn up a list of 100 ways to make an anti capitalist building site. We discuss some of the issues that exist on current building sites and the larger effects, then we delve more deeply into Emma's list to better understand how we can create a more harmonious building culture. Links to Emma work Emma's Website - http://emmaappleton.co.uk/ Emma Appleton TEDx Talk - Buil...

One Planet Development is a welsh planning policy which enables those wishing to live off the land to buy agricultural land and build a house. Chris Vernon has not only just done this, but also runs the One Planet Council to give advice and assistance to those wanting to do the same.  In this episode we discuss: The One Planet Development policy, what it entails and how it's unique.  Chris&ap...

Jeffrey is joined by his colleague Joe Duirwyn to discuss how their company, Hartwyn, uses a unique student model to train future natural builders on their live builds. They discuss how Hartwyn's free training program benefits the students and finds a unique way to make the labour heavy natural building process more affordable. They also discuss the aims of the podcast and run through some of...