Zero Ambitions Podcast

We've a slightly different episode for you this week. Our guest is Ellora Coupe who we think has a big part to play in the retrofit space without performing one of its traditional roles.Ellora is the founder of Her Own Space, a platform that provides a women-only space to share knowledge, insight, support, and help in all things to do with renovation.It's an incredibly engaged community that has an awful lot to offer the whole industry if we're open to paying attention and offering some support. We're very enthused.Also, you can donate money to Her Own Space here.Notes from the showEllora on LinkedInThe Her Own Space websiteThe Her Own Space Facebook groupThat Guardian air pollution mapThe Task Her website**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencyFollow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCEmail Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

It was about time we had someone from the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) join us on the podcast. So Jeff invited Marion Jammet, the IGBC's Head of Policy and Advocacy, to join us to talk though a recent white paper they published in conjunction with the Institute of International and European Affairs.The paper is titled: Reviewing the Co-benefits of Energy Efficiency in an Irish context and it's well worth a look for all of our listeners. While its focus is on the situation in Ireland specifically, it's relevant to all of us. The themes, problems, and solutions discussed in the document are broadly the same wherever you are, even if the details and the politics differ.You can find the paper here.Notes from the showMarion Jammet on LinkedInThe IGBC websiteReviewing the Co-benefits of Energy Efficiency in an Irish context**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencyFollow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCEmail Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

We often talk about the notion of selling high performance building to people but we rarely seem to talk with people who actually deal with the customers. In an effort to fill this gap we were joined by Andy Mitchell, MD at Green Building Store, a long-established retailer of all the things a high-performance building might require, and a passive house specialist.We start with ventilation before meandering our way through customer needs, the value of design, passive house, window sills, retrofit, and all the sort of things you might expect from us by now.Notes from the showAndy on LinkedInGreen Building Store website**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencyFollow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCEmail Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

More heat-related chat this week. We're with Lisa Treseder of Kensa Utilities joined us. She’s the string-puller behind Kensa’s Heat the Streets project the success of which has garnered national coverage because of its innovation and its success so far (which is now up for an award).Heat the Streets is a pioneering project in which Kensa sought to provide a Cornish village, that wasn’t on the gas grid, with its own grid infrastructure using a geothermal heat network and heat pumps.So, we talked about how the project got started, the challenges of decarbonisation, what they learned about user behaviour, where they see opportunity in the space, what's motivating Kensa, and what they plan to do next There are loads in there for anyone who's thinking about heating decarbonisation and community-based solutions. What's particularly heartening is that this has worked here and shows plenty of potential to work elsewhere too. Vote Kensa for the EHPA's People's Choice Awards And, sign up for more information with Kensa's newsletter.Notes from the showLisa on LinkedInKensa's Heat the streets websiteA webinar about the subject: Low cost, clean heating for new build developments Sign up for Kensa's newsletterKensa Utilities' website**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencyFollow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCEmail Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

'EnerPHit need not be any more expensive than retrofit': those are the words that we put into the mouth of this week's guest Mel Reynolds. He stood by them, even if they weren't his own, but advisedly. It's not necessarily easy, but it can be done, and it can be scaled up.Mel took us through his experience in working on high-performance buildings, learning passive house principles, undertaking his own new builds, and applying everything he's learned to carry out EnerPHit-standard retrofit. The standards and good practices that he's learned have been incorporated as common sense standards to uphold whatever project he's working on, and he's made it work. The long and short of the conversation is that good planning and design will improve your impact (comfort and carbon) without necessarily increasing construction costs.Notes from the showMel's writing in Passive Hous PlusMel on TwitterThe Mews House, in the Irish TimesThe Mews Hous on Instagram**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencyFollow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCEmail Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Returning champion, Dave Pearson of Star Refrigeration joins us to talk about the viability of heat networks. There loads we can learn from Dave's experience, so keep a notepad handy.Rather than talk in the abstract, we discussed the conditions that make them viable, why anyone should consider one, and how we can make them happen.Notes from the showDave Pearson on LinkedInThe Star Refrigeration websiteAn example of Dave's blunt and incisive candour on LinkedInThe 'Fairopoly' website and animationShould I Bake and the Baking Forcast Twitter feed (I won't call it X, it's like when Peter Mandleson rebranded the Post Office as Consignia, remember that?)  The new Passive House Plus, featuring the River Clyde Homes project in which Dave and Star are involved**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencyFollow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCEmail Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION** 

Lauding an alternative viewpoint to always aiming for the loftiest standards, in this PH+ Revisited Lloyd is championing Toby Cambray's Insulate Britain-inspired article, from February 2022: Let's get decarbonisation done. It's an article about taking a differently-considered approach to domestic decarbonisation strategy and one that Lloyd has referenced frequently because of its refreshingly pragmatic look at prioritising our action. Should we favour deep, whole-house retrofits as per traditional Passivhaus dogma, or should we push for the installation of heat pumps and do just enough retrofit to make it all work?You can read what Lloyd has written about 'heatpumpification' in response to Toby's article on Treehugger but this feels like sufficient summary for here:"He breaks my spellchecker by verbing heat pumps, writing that while you could just install heat pumps, "this does not however mean that it’s a good idea to put a heat pump in a building with poor fabric efficiency. Although there are cases where other constraints mean we have little choice, ultimately we need to both (mostly) Insulate Britain and (mostly) Heatpumpify Britain." Heatpumpify and heatpumpification have been added to my dictionary".Retrofit is a part of the climate discourse that can often feel dominated by a puritan attitude towards fabric-first approaches and the heresy that Toby presents feels like a  practical philosophy that balances high-performance building with an awareness of embodied carbon.We also make sure that Richard Lowes gets his credit for authoring this new verb: to "heatpumpify" a home or building.And, when we get around to learning iMovie, there might be a little bit of video on our Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page, so give us a follow there if you can.Notes from the showLet's get decarbonisation done, from Passive House Plus (February 2022)Toby Cambray on LinkedInGreengauge Building Energy ConsultantsLloyd's Treehugger piece in response to Toby's article**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencyFollow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCEmail Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Joined by returning champion, Rufus Grantham, we're talking about using community and place-based approaches to catalysing large-scale retrofit. To this end he's set up a new consultancy Living Places and he'll tell you all about it this week.We're not pretending it's actually easy, but if you create the opportunity the finance will follow, and setting up the opportunity is a lot harder than finding money that wants to be put to 'work'.We cover everything we can in the time we have: net zero neighbourhoods, innovative finance in lieu of debt, social benefit opportunities, supply chains, and touch on the limited (or limiting) role of green mortgages.We're really looking forward to seeing what happens with this one.Notes from the episodeRufus on LinkedInThe official website for Living Places**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencySubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCListen to Accelerate to Zero, Sara's podcast produced at BE-ST, on Apple or Spotify Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Welcome home Duncan Smith! And, we're pleased to introduce Richard Orr, Head of Asset and Regeneration at River Clyde Homes.We've been alluding to the things that Duncan is up in his new role as Head of Energy & Sustainability, so we were delighted when he said he'd come back to tell us all about his new life in Greenock.The work they're doing should be as significant for private developers as it is for the social housing sector. It's a big strategic project, providing better homes for their tenants, and better living for a whole community on the River Clyde. They're being very ambitious and they're well aware that they won't meet all of their lofty aspirations, but what they're achieving already feels pretty significant. Approaching asset development and renewal with a long-term vision that is addressing: fuel poverty, demand reduction, localised energy generation and distribution, community wealth building, and even a carbon offsetting scheme that could really make a difference. Notes from the episodeRiver Clyde HomesThe Passive House Plus article about this inspiring project'Back to the Future': the Green Building, built in 1994 in Dublin's Temple Bar Vertical farming on Brass Eye IndiNature - Natural fibre construction insulation The Politics of Change and a Real Green New Deal (part 1), with Robin McAlpine of Common WealThe Politics of Change and a Real Green New Deal (part 2), with Robin McAlpine of Common Weal**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencySubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCListen to Accelerate to Zero, Sara's podcast produced at BE-ST, on Apple or Spotify Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Kit Knowles is a sustainability consultant whose pioneering practice, Ecospheric, is forging its own path, concerned with making the greatest impact, getting things done, and big backer of research so they can learn how to do better.This week’s episode can be summarised as being about “the inherent conservation of energy principles associated with a building” i.e. design before fabric, and doing the work on paper before you get close to construction. Hence, ‘fabric second, not fabric first’.His firm, Ecospheric, is an award-winning consultancy that supports planners, architects, and developers in designing and delivering pioneering eco developments that save carbon and drive technological change. There’s every chance that you’ll have encountered his work before, particularly the renowned Zetland Passive House in Manchester.We touch on a bit of everything but there’s loads more to see to check the Ecospheric website.Notes from the episodeEcospheric's websiteZetland Road in Passive House Plus: The deepest greenest retrofit ever?Ecospheric on Twitter (or X as it's known now, apparently)**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.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencySubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCListen to Accelerate to Zero, Sara's podcast produced at BE-ST, on Apple or Spotify Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**