Zero Ambitions Podcast

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.**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**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 

This was a much more political conversation than usual, but don't be put off. Robin McAlpine is an experienced political strategist and founder of the Scottish think tank, Common Weal. We mainly wanted to speak with Robin about their Green New Deal, a fully-costed programme of action, explaining how life in Scotland will need to change in order to reverse environmental harm and social failure. We covered a lot too, so it's a long one which we've split into two parts. (It's also 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.We really enjoyed Robin's company and hope you do too.**SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**Join the AECB Join ACANAdvertise or subscribe with Passive House Plus (UK edition here)Speak to Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications (Everything is User Experience)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We also discussed exporting traditional Scots wellness expertise to China, and a few thoughts on the various qualities of Buckfast, the tonic wine that is Devon's primary export to Scotland. That all felt a bit too far off topic to keep in the main body, so we've tacked it on after the closing theme tune. (FYI, it's the most sweary bit too.)Links to other things that we mentionedCommon Weal websiteCommon Weal t-shirts La Haine, "so far, so good" clip Do watch the whole film though, La Haine

This week we spoke to Immy Kaur of Civic Square and Jack Minchella of Dark Matter labs about the upcoming Retrofit Reimagined festival, who is taking part, why it's happening, and how you can get involved and attend. For more details check the following links:bit.ly/RetrofitReimagined22https://civicsquare.cc/https://www.architectscan.org/https://darkmatterlabs.org/Team

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 and new build projects at all sorts of size and scale. EP Projects websitePlease join the AECB, it's excellent value.Retrofit Reimagined festival, 13-16 July, at various locations across Birmingham.

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 demand for our homes. And procurement – are the contracts here that we need to deliver retrofit at scale and what do we need from our procurement managers to do so.

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. In this podcast, we speak to Andy Simmonds CEO of the AECB retrofit standard, CarbonLite, and the Low Energy Buildings Database (LEBD), PH Ribbon and embodied carbon and loads more. 

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 toward net-zero targets

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 environment and climate change. In this episode, we speak to Stephen Good and Douglas Morrison about the plans the organisation have and the work they are doing around low carbon learning.