All Episodes

The reluctant house builder: Greencore is building homes that challenge expectations of what a house can deliver, and the performance modelling in PHPP, with Ian Pritchett (Greencore Homes)

How sustainable is Futurebuild? The state of green building through the lens of the UK’s biggest event, with Martin Hurn (Futurebuild)

The messy business of social value: retrofit, procurement, and the built environment, with Michael McLaughlin (LHC Procurement Group)

Infrared surveys for retrofit: triage, validation, and accountability, with Lucy Lyons (Kestrix)

Musings on modelling performance and the impact of the Home Energy Model (HEM), with Baz Iyer (Vulcan) and Stephen Lloyd (Savills Earth)

Integrated asset management and the realpolitik of retrofit: building physics versus cost, with Anna Moore (Domna Group)

Post-occupancy evaluation in the built environment: validating the quality of fabric, the impact of retrofit works, and anticipating car crashes, with Tom Robins and Leigh Fairbrother (Switchee)

Delivering high-density, high-volume Passive House in Central London, with Attzaz Rashid (Barratt London) and Joel Callow (Beyond Carbon)

Reducing the cost of retrofit through collaboration and opportunism, with Rafe Bertram

Circularity, supply chains, and bringing a bio-based material to market, with Daniel Dinizo and Charmaine Cu-Unjieng (NaturLoop)

Greening homes and creating growth—the UK finance sector is seriously interested in green building, with Ian Bhullar and Ronnell Reffell (UK Finance)

Big plans for tackling non-residential retrofit, with Nick Taylor and Olga Khroustaleva (Building Atlas)

Prescription heating and experiments for a just transition, with Rose Chard (Energy Systems Catapult)

Impact, innovation, and investment: how VCs aren't a good fit for climatetech and the need for economic biodiversity, with Richard Muscat (Untangled)

Zero Bills Homes: a new building standard for residential construction? With Nigel Banks and Emma Fletcher (Octopus Energy)

Retrofit rescue: lessons learned from fixing a disastrous programme of works in Fishwick, with Filipe Amarante and Joanna Curtis (National Energy Action)

Moisture: the bane of all buildings (also breathability, sweatability, and vapour), with Valentina Marincioni (UCL) and Toby Cambray (Greengauge)

Battery storage, lancing boilers, and decentralised energy grids: a Decent way to manage your electricity, with Tom Cox and Sally Sattary (Decent Energy)

Translating retrofit for normal people, with retrofit influencer Judith Leary Joyce (Eco Home Retrofit)

Embodied carbon and how sustainable is MMC? With Richard O'Hegarty (RKD, UCD) and Oliver Kinnane (UCD)

Can we meet the skills gap the way we currently deliver training and what is the purpose of education? With Nathan Gambling (BetaTalk and BetaTeach)

There is methodology for defining what ‘net zero carbon’ means for buildings in the UK and it looks great, with Jess Hrivnak (RIBA), Jane Anderson (ConstructionLCA), and Julie Godefroy (CIBSE)

A 'global' standard for residential retrofit? With Paul Bagust (RICS Head of Property Standards), Steven Lees (RICS Senior Specialist - Residential Survey), and Robert Toomey (RICS Senior Public Affairs Officer)

Can we address the decarbonisation of homes by focusing on health? With Jenny Danson (Healthy Homes Hub)

Innovating and maturing: Loco Home Retrofit is an "emerging" retrofit one-stop-shop, with co-founder Chris Carus

Eliminate construction waste – Loop Your Spare instead: circular thinking and platform technology that reduces the cost of construction for everyone, with Jay Stuart

Speeding up external wall insulation installation and preparing a retrofit start-up for scale, with Max Bloomfield (VundaHaus) and Alex Whitcroft (KIN; VundaHaus)

Experiments in low-carbon retrofit for a high-status building (with a basement), with Natalie Black (Enbee Architecture + Design) and Toby McLean (Allt Environmental Structural Engineers)

Why we need to tell better stories about the built environment, with Liz Male (LMC)

Don't Waste Buildings, which means retrofitting them and building them better. With Leanne Tritton (Ing Media), Will Hurst (Architect's Journal), and Richard Nelson (Abyss Global)

Performance guarantees, measuring what works, and EPC reform, with Steven Heath (Knauf Insulation)

Sustainability, sufficiency, and sequestration – the language we use and what it means, with Lloyd Alter

Developers can build sustainably and at scale, if they want to. With Nicola Cronin and Stephen O'Shea (Cairn Homes Plc)

How can we embed sustainable design into the construction process? With Mhairi Grant (Paper Igloo)

Why is making UK homes more efficient so difficult? Leyla Boulton (Green Conservation; Financial Times)

What can we do about waste in construction? Diversion from landfill isn't enough and there's money to be made. With Chris Clarke (SCAPE)

Net zero neighbourhoods and financing change, with Cat Magill (Living Places)

Running a successful retrofit one-stop-shop isn't easy but it can be done, with Caroline Ashe Brady (KORE Retrofit)

The challenging life of a retrofit coordinator: problems with process, products, and performance, with returning champion Lisa Pasquale

What should we do to get more women into retrofit? Well, we should get behind 'Her Retrofit Space', with Ellora Coupe (Her Own Space and now Her Retrofit Space)

Building better performance: raising construction standards on site and in education, with Joseph Little (TUD)

Retrofit as a movement for social change (there's more to it all than fabric and finance), with Dan Hill (Dark Matter Labs)

Place-based hybrid finance to rebuild Ukraine and catalyse better building standards everywhere, with Iva Merheim Eyre (SMARTER4EU)

Peter Rickaby returns to ZAP: a lot of words about energy, retrofit, and natural building materials, all the way from South Africa

The UK has a weird relationship with heat pumps: under appreciated influencers, wild pricing, and bad vibes. With Andrew Sissons (Nesta)

Building with straw on a continental scale and experiencing retrofit as a resident. With Cypren Edmunds (European Straw Building Association)

The energy performance of buildings matters, to me and EU and everyone we know, with Ciarán Cuffe (MEP)

A new way to measure performance, negative energy use, and learning from disaster zones, with Kate Crawford (KLH Sustainability)

Designing for deconstruction using natural building materials. With Chloe Donovan (Natural Building Systems)

Monitoring will make your buildings be worth more money, Utopi has proved it, with Falk Bleyl (CTO at Utopi)

“Use less stuff”: embodied carbon, value chains and the potential for change in the Declaration de Chaillot. With Lloyd Alter (Carbon Upfront), Kelly Alvarez Doran (Ha/f Climate Design), and Will Arnold (The Institution of Structural Engineers)

What do we do about ‘the office’? A retrofit challenge we don't speak about enough. With Harry Browne and Séamus Guidera (RKD)

Fundamental problems in building design and how we manage thermal comfort, with Susan Roaf (Heriot-Watt; ICARB)

Fabric fifth: rethinking the hierarchy of retrofit, with Nigel Banks (Octopus Energy)

Retrofit: "We need to tackle low hanging fruit first", so what does that mean? With Fionn Stevenson

Natural materials, healthier homes, and the culture of sustainable building, with Will Kirkman (Ecomerchant)

Engineering low-impact buildings and advice from self build, with Tara Fraser (Build Collective)

Shady business #2: shading for housing in a changing climate, with Tom Dollard (Pollard Thomas Edwards)

A view from COP28, and relearning how to be an architect for after the Oil Age, with Kelly Alvarez Doran (Half Climate Design; Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow)

Conservation-led retrofit and energy efficiency for working buildings, with with Heidi Hopper-Duffy and David Hughes (Iarnród Éireann)

The cost of sustainability, accounting for language, and the taxonomy, with Archie O'Donnell (KOSMOS)

PH+ Revisited: that archive building in Hereford, the one that uses passive house preservation, with Nick Grant and Alan Clarke

How to normalise low-energy heating without radiators: an overnight success story that's fifteen years in the making, with Ethan Wadsworth (ThermaSkirt)

PH+ revisited: Seeing the wood for the trees (part two), with Andy Simmonds (AECB) and Lenny Antonelli (PH+)

PH+ revisited: Seeing the wood for the trees (part one), with Andy Simmonds (AECB) and Lenny Antonelli (PH+)

Shady business #1 – overheating, and Camden: we should think about solar gain all year round, with Zoe De Grussa (BBSA)

POE and its value to retrofit, and what does a Head of Sustainability do? With Loreana Padron (ECD Architects)

Standards and specifications, and why they don't always work like we want them to, with Sarah Price, the author of PAS2035/2030 (Retrofitting dwellings for improved energy efficiency)

Roadmaps for fuel poverty and retrofit: we know what needs to be done so why can’t we do it? With Tania Jennings (Chair of the Association of Local Energy Officers, London)

Driving change in building design and the things that inspire you to do better, with Cedric Burgers (Burgers Architecture)

Biogenic building, whole life carbon, and natural fibre insulation. With Sam Baumber (IndiNature)

Can you have a zero carbon building? The answer is “no”. With John Butler (Sustainable Build Consultancy; CAT)

Construction's embodied carbon problem: how do we incentivise retrofit over 'demolish and rebuild', with Joseph Kilroy (CIOB)

Getting real about energy research and making heat pumps chic, with Mike Fell (UCL; pump:chic)

Stranded assets, financing sustainability, and carbon as a risk factor, with Alexandra Hedesiu (EnerSave Capital)

Thermal comfort in building design: thinking ahead and taking lessons from East Africa, with Huda Elsherif (calfordsedan) and Andy Simmonds (AECB)

A schism in building standards: promoting passive house and high performance building in the USA, with Zack Semke (Passive House Accelerator)

Building a place for women in retrofit, with Ellora Coupe (Her Own Space)

The benefits of energy efficient building are much more than energy efficiency, with Marion Jammet (Irish Green Building Council)

Retail perspectives on retrofit and high performance building, with Andy Mitchell (Green Building Store)

Get your heat from the streets: Kensa Utilities' plans for geothermal district heating, with Lisa Treseder (Kensa Utilities)

Scaling high performance buildings AKA EnerPHit is no more expensive than retrofit, with Mel Reynolds

Viability of heat networks: why consider them, where's best, and what do you need to make one work? With Dave Pearson (Star Refrigeration)

PH+ revisited: Let's get decarbonisation done, with Toby Cambray (UCL, Greengauge Building Energy Consultants)

Finance is the easy part: place-based innovation can catalyse mass-scale retrofit, with Rufus Grantham (Living Places)

Regional energy, local heat, and mass decarbonisation: a new model on the River Clyde, with Duncan Smith and Richard Orr (River Clyde Homes)

Fabric second, not fabric first: impact, heritage, retrofit, and strategy, with Kit Knowles (Ecospheric)

PH+ revisited: 'Cold Truths' about heating and energy in Britain, with Kate de Selincourt

Air quality matters: health, ventilation, and (obviously) retrofit, with Simon Jones (Air Quality Matters)

The Buildings Action Coalition: collective action to accelerate progress in all areas of the built environment, with Scott Foster and Barbara-Ann Murphy

Influencing retrofit policy and the things you need to make it work, with Gillian Campbell (Policy Lead at Existing Homes Alliance Scotland)

How do we build better? Advice and training for low energy building, with Peter Warm and Sally Godber (Warm and Coaction)

A structural engineer who 'gets' green building: managing risk, climate, and the future, with Beth Williams (Build Collective)

An outsider's view on green building in UK and Ireland, AKA 'Lloyd loves wood now', with Lloyd Alter (Upfront Carbon; Passive House Accelerator)

Meeting the skills gap: one-stop-shop training, an Irish approach to education, with Lis O'Brien and Benny McDonagh (TUS)

Architects don't need to solve every problem with a building, with Charlie Luxton

Retrofit - Who do you trust? With Dr. Peter Rickaby

How should we calculate carbon and how long should a building last? With Dr Oliver Kinnane and Dr Richard O'Hegarty of University College Dublin

MMC is value engineering that should benefit everyone, with Emma Elston and Amandeep Singh Kalra of Be First Regeneration

Informed architects will want to do more: convincing clients to do better and Michelin stars for building performance, with James Woodall (Sustainability Lead at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)