Zero Ambitions Podcast

Last year before CoP26, we spoke to Scott Foster, the Director of Sustainable Energy and Jenna Crammer at the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh. This year between the 21st and 23rd of September, the U.S. will host the first ever Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh. The three-day event will feature a high-level plenary, topical roundtable with energy and science ministers from 31 countries, CEOs and experts, side events, technology demonstrations, and other activities. As the High-Performance Buildings Initiative – Centres of Excellence will feature throughout the summit, we thought we would rerelease the episode we did last year.

A great discussion with Gavin, the Chief Executive of the CIH, and Callum, who is the National Director in Scotland. We had a fascinating conversation that covered a wide range of housing policies, including new builds, retrofits, the private rented sector and loads. This is the first of a two-parter, with the second out Thursday the 22nd of Septebmer.

This Zero Ambitions bonus episode is the second part of our CIH collaboration, produced a Scotland's Housing Festival 2022. Again, we're joined by Callum Chomczuk (National director, CIH Scotland) following the 'Four nations - one PRS system' session. That session introduced PRS reps from across the UK presenting their take on the priorities and challenges faced by the PRS housing system, particularly looking at post-devolution divergence across the regions.We were joined by:Alice Simpson | Board member, CIH ScotlandProfessor Ken Gibb | Director, UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE)Daryl McIntosh | Policy manager, Property MarkDouglas Haig | Board member, CIH Cymru and non executive Janet Hunter | CEO, Housing RightsMany thanks to our speakers and all the guys at the CIH who helped us out on the day.The CIH podcast can be found on the CIH website, Spotify, and the usual other apps. **SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

We don't have a standard Zero Ambitions episode this week so we're putting out this bonus episode that we recorded back in May. We are joined by Callum Chomczuk (National director, CIH Scotland) following the festival's opening session "The right to a home". It is the first of a collaborative two-parter we produced a the Chartered Institute of Housing's Glasgow Conference, Scotland's Housing Festival 2022. At this session our speakers talked about why human rights and dignity must be at the heart of our housing policy, as well as the notion that having a stable, secure home is central to every aspect of our health, wellbeing, educational attainment. We were joined by:Gavin Smart | CEO, Chartered Institute of HousingDr Elaine Webster | Director, Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law, and Senior Lecturer at Strathclyde Law SchoolFanchea Kelly | Chief executive, Blackwood Homes and CareMike Dailly | Solicitor advocate and principal solicitor, Govan Law CentreMany thanks to our speakers and all the guys at the CIH who helped us out on the day.The CIH podcast can be found on the CIH website, Spotify, and the usual other apps. **SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

First, thanks for the heads-up, Joe!Part two of our chat with Robin McAlpine is an experienced political strategist and founder of the Scottish think tank, Common Weal. (Again. it's a little profane at points, so be warned if you have kids about.)Over the two episodes, we discuss the political landscape, the actual economics of change, how power is exercised in order to activate and inhibit change, and what plans to achieve a zero-impact society might actually look like.Links to other things that we mentionedCommon Weal websiteCommon Weal's Green New Deal for ScotlandCommon Weal t-shirts La Haine, "so far, so good" clip Do watch the whole film though, La Haine Tales from the Mall, by Ewan Morrison **SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Last week we met with 'friend of the show; Jennifer Phin, MD of A.C. Whyte & Co., a firm with decades of experience delivering energy efficiency through retrofit measuresAs part of our ongoing conversation about the challenges around retrofit, she has a lot to offer the discourse. Our discussion included the role of procurement in delivering successful retrofit, the need for greater client-side literacy (to appraise cost vs value), and the desperate need for a stronger education strategy across the board, from building up the body of specialised personnel that the industry needs, to the sorts of education that benefit the occupants, post installation of measures. All common themes, underpinned by a long-term, coal-face contractor's experience. You'll find A.C. Whyte & Co online and on LinkedIn, but we definitely recommend checking the Skills Academy video.**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

This week Dan and Sara had the chance to speak with retrofit pioneer Russell Smith, of Parity Projects and Retrofit Works. As a long-marcher in the retrofit space, we talked about the challenges of being a first-mover in the retrofit industry, the perennial problems it faces, and the necessity for significant culture change at all levels. This also included a discussion of the impact that localisation and fostering of collaboration could have on catalysing the development of a much larger retrofit industry. In the light of governmental inertia and the traditionally competitive instincts of the construction sector, collaboration actually offers a viable route to all the players delivering the best possible quality, and importantly, earning more money. Proper collaboration has the potential to deliver the sort of retrofit industry that homeowners, local authorities, and social housing entities really need.Some links to Russell's workhttps://parityprojects.comhttps://retrofitworks.co.ukhttps://cosyhomesoxfordshire.org**OUR OWN SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**(We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs)Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Speak to Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

In this episode, Sara speaks to Charlotte Bailey from Civic Square.Sara spoke to Charlotte about how we value approaches to problem solving in the built environment, going beyond technical responses into considering the importance of building trust and community, as well as the slow work of organising. All key facets of her role as Dream Matter Story Teller at Civic Square.Throughout the episode we have included a collection of short interviews from participants and audience members at the festival.Our vox pop lineup includes: Immy, from People Powered Retrofit; Toqueer, from Friends of the Earth Birmingham; Aba, from St Martins Church; David, from Canopy Housing; Cat, from Dark Matter Labs; James, from Rixon Architecture; Bobby, from ACAN; Sam, a local project manager; Sophie, from Carbon Coop; Sarah, from Nettle Fold, and; Scott from Anthropocene Architecture School.To find out more about the event check the following links. If you need any more context, check our episode with Immy Kaur of the same organisation and Jack Minchella of Dark Matter Labs, published in the lead-up to the Retrofit Reimagined festival.The speaker lineup from the Retrofit Reimagined festivalVideo recordings from the days (YouTube):1. Systemic Challenges and Opportunities2. Existing and Emerging Practice**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**(We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs)Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Speak to Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

This week we didn't have a guest, just Dan, Duncan, Jeff, and Sara. But we still managed to record two hours of chatter. We won't subject you to it all. This episode started out by discussing the right of reply that contractors are probably due on Zero Ambitions (they come in for a lot of stick), and we also talked about the difficulties in maintaining standards from design through to delivery, the way culture needs to change, and a bunch of other stuff. Dan refers to a bit coming after the end theme, it's been postponed for now. There was a lot more to the conversation, much of which we'll put out another episode. We ended up talking about the hot weather (boring by now, surely), and discussed whether we sometimes get a little too political, rather than just talking about sustainability and the built environment. We'll drop it as a bonus episode sometime soon.**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**(We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs)Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Speak to Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

With much of Europe in literal meltdown, we wanted to talk about another kind of overheating – natural, but very much carbon-assisted, overheating.  We took some time to pick the brains of three bona fide experts, passive house consultants Nick Grant, Alan Clarke, and sustainable building journalist Kate de Selincourt. All three have been frequent contributors to industry technical guidance from the AECB, the Passivhaus Trust, and even our very own Passive House Plus magazine.We talked about strategies to prevent or limit overheating right now, a little about the physics of why we feel hot, and how to design new builds and retrofit to reduce the risk of overheating in a warming world.Nick and Alan have had a hand in some of the UK's most significant passive house projects, covering all shapes, sizes, and typologies – from schools to apartments, private homes, and even climate-sensitive archive buildings. Kate, meanwhile, is arguably the most forensic journalist covering the minutiae of low-energy building in the UK, with a long track record of seminal articles for Passive House Plus. **SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**(We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs)Join the AECB Join ACANSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Speak to Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**