Zero Ambitions Podcast

We had a chat with architect and building physicist, Gary Wilburn. He's the MD of EP Projects (the architectural wing of Energy Pro Group), and Chair of the Board of Trustees at the AECB. He's been a pioneer in sustainable construction, pushing innovation in sustainable architecture and design, incorporating building physics and whole-life value as an essential part of the process, across retrofit...

In this second of a two-part interview with Peter Rickaby, we discuss the challenges of how we upgrade the UK’s historic housing stock and the difficulties we face with our hard-to-treat properties. We talk about heat pumps and the additional energy we’ll need to electrify heating as well as low carbon heat networks and where it could and should be used in conjunction with reducing the energy dema...

Last week Jeff, Dan, Sara and Duncan met up with Dr Peter Rickaby to talk about all things retrofit. The conversation centred on PAS 2035 and the work that is going on to review the process over the coming year. However, as usual, we got so involved in the various different themes around retrofit that we made enough for two podcasts so this is part one with part two coming out on Thursday.

Great discussion with Yogini of the Passivhaus Trust, Dr Ken Gibb at Glasgow University and Chris Morgan of John Gilbert Architects on the retrofit of the sandstone tenement block in the Southside of Glasgow at Niddrie Road to EnerPHit standards. 

The AECB is a network of individuals, companies & organisations promoting sustainable building since 1989. With over 1800 members, their aim is to bring together tradespeople, architects, engineers, and builders interested in low carbon retrofit to train and promote best practices, bring about lasting and sustainable change within the construction Industry and push toward net-zero targets.   I...

The AECB is a network of individuals, companies & organisations promoting sustainable building since 1989. With over 1800 members their aim is to bring together tradespeople, architects, engineers, builders anyone interested in low carbon retrofit to train and promote best practices.  With the aim of bringing about lasting and sustainable change within the construction Industry and pushing tow...

Decarbonising the built environment is the greatest engineering challenge the UK has ever faced. We are now in an unprecedented period of transformation that requires innovation at speed and scale. The recent rebranding of Construction Scotland Innovation Centre to Built Environment – Smarter Transformation or BE-ST marked a strategic change in how we address the issues within the built environmen...

This week we’ve gone back to an episode of the podcast that we recorded in the Autumn of 2021 about the UK Energy Market with Professor Kevin Albertson.   The episode was made just after the Ofgem price cap increase in October.  We discussed the UK energy market and how it came about, and the opportunity for the Government to get involved, both in regulating and providing energy to try and mitigat...

Conversation with Chris Clarke, who is the Performance and Improvement Director at Scape Group. Scape is one of the UK's leading public sector procurement authority within construction and services. Scape is a leading provider of services that accelerate project delivery, embed value for money and create a positive procurement experience.

We met with Nathan Gambling of the Beta Teach platform and BetaTalk podcast. A champion for better heating systems, better training and education, renewables, and clean technology. We talked about the challenges and complexities associated with heating engineering, not just heat pumps, and the need to optimise our existing heating infrastructure in order to begin seriously reducing demand because...

After our scheduled guest postponed their appearance we took the opportunity to discuss an issue that's been a little bit fractious in the Zero Ambitions chat: should be building new homes at all? Heads up: it was an evening pod, some drink had been taken; apologies if the early reference to war in Ukraine sounds a bit glib, we aren't able to publish the pre-record chat was a little less centred o...

Heating problems: systemic issues around design, accessibility, and economics We talked about how poor system design inhibits accessibility (and optimisation), how the heating industry falls short in terms of diversity, and how difficult it is to find the right solutions, for all sorts of reasons.

Laura de Barra is an award winning author, illustrator, and property portfolio developer and has previously consulted on government schemes such as the Green Homes Grant around which she has some key observations.  What drew us to Laura was her efforts in trying to empower mainly renters to understand and maintain their homes by sharing tips, tricks and knowledge from how to rid your home of mould...

Tara Gbolade is an architect, passivhouse designer and cofounder of Gbolade Design Studio, a design-led, community centred practice, focused on sustainable design. She is a member of the Architect’s Declare steering group, sits on a number of design panels and co-founded the Paradigm Network, an organisation that champions black and asian representation in the built environment: https://www.paradi...

Caitriona Jordan from Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) spoke with us about the importance of training in supporting a just transition and shared some of CSIC's plans for accelerating the built environment’s transition to zero carbon.  Caitriona is Head of retrofit programmes, one of four interlinked programmes across which CSIC delivers impact, and her passion is in Low Carbon progra...

Episode #31 with Adrian Leaman & Bill Bordass . If you’ve started looking into building performance and post occupancy evaluation at all you’ll soon come across research and tools that Adrian Leaman and Bill Bordass have had a hand in.  Together they were involved in the creation of the BUS methodology, the Soft Landings framework, Probe, which later became Nabers, then Nabers UK and Display E...

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/government-launches-the-national-retrofitting-scheme/ https://www.gov.ie/en/biography/c5008-eamon-ryan/ https://www.seai.ie/

A great listen this week with a seasoned and experienced activist and politician. 20 years after an EU directive introduced energy performance certificates for buildings across Europe, Ciarán Cuffe explains why the directive is being recast to drive the push to net zero. 

"There is no path to meeting our climate targets that doesn't involve much more ambition [on buildings]. By the end of this decade, we need to see a million homes converted to zero-emission heating systems. We need to see a much bigger emphasis on energy efficiency.” Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings at the Scottish Government, sets out his decarbonisation vision on this week'...

There's no question that we must decarbonise our housing stock. But we believe there must be a comprehensive approach to demanding the reduction in the first place, and not just a focus on low carbon heating sources. As part of this approach, retrofit can deliver so many other benefits besides more efficient buildings. Healthier places for communities to thrive? Why wouldn't we want to do that? ht...

Lisa is one of the most experienced building performance consultants working in the UK. She has extensive knowledge of in-use building operation and management, building physics, low-energy services, and fabric design for new build and retrofits domestic and non-domestic buildings.  She takes an evidence-based approach to building performance and is an expert in built environment research, technic...

Putting our time and energy where our mouths are! Want to know more about taking action on making the changes we need to see around decarbonising our homes? Tune in and hear more about an exciting collaboration between the NEF and ACAN  Here are some links referred to in the episode https://greathomesupgrade.org/  https://www.householdsdeclare.org/ Join the campaign collaboration working group htt...

Reference is made some reports and articles in this episode, which we share here. Each Home Counts Review: https://www.eachhomecounts.com/  Housing Quality Network article: "Four key ingredients for sustainability in housing" by Jon Dtraaley https://hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion-things-can-only-get-greener-four-key-ingredients-for-sustainability-in-housing-5772

An interview with James Traynor of ECD Architects about retrofit, EnerPHit, Portsmouth's Wilmcote House project (the largest scale retrofit of its type, in its day), and James's fabulous book about EnerPHit.  https://www.ribabooks.com/enerphit-a-step-by-step-guide-to-low-energy-retrofit_9781859468197 https://ecda.co.uk/projects/wilmcote-house-2/

Bankers Without Boundaries (‘BwB’), an innovator in finance, is a not-for-profit powered by former investment bankers to assist high impact projects that benefit the environment and social good. BwB works with governments, institutions, cities, and foundations to mobilize capital advisory and research services. They apply financial concepts and structuring expertise to projects to align them with...