Carbon Clarity

What if switching to a heat pump didn’t mean a hefty upfront cost, a stressful installation, or a breakdown at 11pm in January that’s somehow your problem to sort? What if you just paid for warmth — a guaranteed, comfortable home — for a predictable monthly fee, with a low carbon system designed, run, and maintained by someone who actually has skin in the game? That’s the promise of Heat as a Serv...

Episode 22: 3 Things I'd Tell Every Organisation Kickstarting Their Net Zero Journey Most organisations have someone responsible for net zero. Far fewer have someone genuinely accountable for it. And that gap — between good intentions and actual emissions reductions — is where years get lost. In this solo episode, host Kev Cooling steps back from the interview format to share the three things...

The Rule Book That Could Transform UK Construction. Until recently, anybody could say their building was net zero — and define what that meant in their own terms. The UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard was created to change that. In this episode, Kev is joined by two people who know it inside out: Will Arnold, Head of Sustainable Materials at the Useful Simple Trust and the standard's techn...

The gap between media noise and boardroom action has never been bigger. In this episode of Carbon Clarity, I'm joined by Will Symons, Deloitte's Asia Pacific Sustainability Leader, for a conversation that cuts through the headlines. We cover:  🌏 Why China's climate commitments matter more than you think  🔄 The shift from marketing departments to CFO desks  🤖 How AI could be clima...

When you hear about half-billion-pound heat network projects, you probably think: carbon savings, right?  But what if I told you these massive energy infrastructure schemes are also creating apprenticeships, building local supply chains, and bringing serious inward investment to cities?  Kit Gillibrand from Hermetica Black has spent over a decade turning complex energy projects into reality – from...

We talk about sustainability strategies all day long... but why do so few of them actually work on the ground? I sat down with Mark Hingston from Cushman & Wakefield to explore one of the industry's biggest challenges: the gap between what we say we'll do and what actually happens in asset management. We dive into: ✓ Why corporate sustainability plans fail at the operational level  ✓...

Following a busy summer and various happenings at the Hut22 HQ, I'm flying solo in this episode of Carbon Clarity! Instead of a guest, I'm bringing you three book recommendations, all of which made me think differently about climate change. If you want to know which books to read to make you think differently too, check out the episode! Things mentioned in the show: There is no planet B...

In one possible transition to low carbon heat we might spend millions on individual heat pumps for every home and building... but what if there's a smarter way to heat entire areas of our towns and cities? In this episode, I'm talking to Andrew Cripps from Vital Energy about heat networks - the technology that's been quietly heating more of our cities than you might realise for deca...

We spend weeks perfecting tender documents for projects we might not even win, but how much time do we spend learning from the buildings we actually build? Spoiler alert: almost none.  In this wide-ranging conversation, I discuss with Joe-Jack Williams from Bywater how the construction industry has developed a serious case of selective blindness when it comes to post-occupancy evaluation – and why...

We all know we need to cut carbon emissions... but what about the carbon that's already out there? I recently sat down with Garrett Boudinot, founder of Vy-Carb, and he shared a really powerful perspective. He says it's not just about fixing the leaky tap – it's also about mopping up all the water that's already spilled! Mitigation, reducing our emissions, is absolutely non-neg...

What do electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, and satellites all have in common? They rely on a complex, often invisible web of elements – rare earths and critical minerals – pulled from the ground, refined across borders, and essential to our transition to a net-zero carbon future. But here’s the catch – the term “critical” isn’t as clear-cut as it sounds. It depends on who you ask, wher...

In this episode, I'm joined by the incredible Brian Eversham, CEO of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire WIldlife Trust and absolute nature guru!  We discuss the critical state of nature in the UK in the context of being one of the most nature depleted places on the planet. We talk about the specific impacts of climate change and how agriculture is a major factor in wildlife dec...

The rise of Artificial Intelligence is changing our world, but at what cost? AI searches consume significantly more energy than standard online queries, and the data centres powering this revolution are transforming into the heavy industry of our age. But how do these energy-hungry giants impact our planet and communities? In this episode, we talk to Anna Dowson, Senior Director of Sustainability...

In this episode, I'm joined by Nigel Banks, Technical Director at Octopus Energy; now the UK's largest energy supplier. We get into all manner of energy and carbon related chat including how Octopus can afford to guarantee that customers on their Zero Bills tariff won't pay anything for energy for an extraordinary 10 years, why moving data centres and other energy hungry industry to...

Six months into the Carbon Clarity podcast journey and time for a recap! I'm thrilled to be joined once again by Andrew Chamberlain, MD of Elevated who takes over the question master duties for this episode where we talk about the pod so far, previous guests and the conversations with them. We also talk about where global events leave the carbon agenda right now, how we can still react positi...

The existing buildings challenge. In this episode, I'm joined by Sam McCabe, architect and PassivHaus Designer to discuss the oft repeated fact that 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built and the challenge of how we align them with a Net Zero future. We have a teensy pop at Project Managers who don't give enough time for feasibility work. And architects who...

In this episode, I'm excited to be joined by Tom Wigg, Senior Advisor, Net Zero Carbon Buildings at the UK Green Building Council to talk all things NZC Buildings Standard. If you're in any way connected to the built environment industry in the UK, you'll have no doubt heard about this new standard, created through the unprecedented collaboration of 9 professional and industry bodie...

Risk. It's a language every business should understand but do organisations have climate risk in their lexicon? In this episode I'm joined by founder of Bemari Consulting, Marina Bradford to talk about some of the myths that organisations fall foul of and which mean they aren't as prepared as they should be for a range of climate risks. Find out what's meant by physical and tra...

This time I'm super excited to be joined by Anna Sturtivant, a sustainability practitioner with experience in consulting, central government and now a Sustainability Manager at the BBC. I was really interested to dig into the particular challenges facing large and complex organisations when it comes to creating traction for carbon reduction activity - we discuss the importance of relationship...

In this episode I'm thrilled to be joined by my old colleague, Cat Hirst. A sustainability lifer, Cat published her book 'A Regenerative Mindset' last year to cement her place as one of the growing band of expert practitioners who believe sustainability as we know it isn't enough to bring the world back into balance. In this fascinating episode, we explore what it means for a b...

In this episode, I chat to Elina Grigoriou owner and Design and Sustainability Director of Grigoriou Interiors, and the chair of the new Ska Rating board. We explore some great new research, recently published, on the up-front carbon in Cat B fit-outs - an often poorly represented and therefore frequently ignored part of a building's overall carbon impact. We talk about Elina's upbringin...

In this episode I chat to Andrew Chamberlain, MD of Elevated and specialist in non-profit business management. We get into a discussion about the role of membership associations in supporting their members on climate action - we cover the role of signposting, not trying to solve the whole problem, and how framing their role in the conversation can support members. If you're a membership assoc...

In this episode I chat to Kenneth Van den Bergh, CEO and co-founder of the online carbon accounting platform Carbon+Alt+Delete. We talk about the platform's altruistic backstory, the BIG carbon reporting problem facing every company and the exciting stuff the guys have planned for the future. If you want to continue the conversation, comment or review! Website:  https://www.hut22.co.uk Linked...