#83 - Andrew Sutton: The Long Game: Quality, Risk, and Scaling Sustainable Housing

Send us a textSimon Jones sits down with Andrew Sutton, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at SERO, to explore the challenges and opportunities in retrofitting UK housing stock and how these parallel the challenges in ventilation and air quality.• Current retrofit efforts suffer from political cycles creating boom-bust patterns that make scaling difficult• Approximately half of a typical £35,000 retrofit cost is already in planned maintenance budgets• We need to move from product-based specifications to outcome-based approaches focusing on healthy environments, affordability, and carbon reduction• Data-driven building monitoring is transforming how we evaluate success, creating feedback loops that drive quality improvements• We should reframe retrofit as normal home improvement rather than a specialist activity• Bringing in private finance, particularly pension funds seeking long-term returns, can help smooth out funding cycles• New business models can share savings between residents and landlords, generating income streams for further improvements• By aggregating electrical generation and storage capabilities across housing portfolios, homes can function as distributed power stations• Construction often responds well to clear requirements when they know they'll be measured and held accountable• SERO focuses on creating pathways for homes that map steps to achieve net-zero carbon, healthy, affordable living environmentsAndrew Sutton LinkedInSERO Support the showCheck out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with. Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group The One Take Podcast is brought to you in partnership with. SafeTraces & InBiot All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.