Zero Ambitions Podcast

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**

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.