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)

Retrofit, risk, and reward: how energy efficiency is set to increasingly affect the value of property, with John Baguley (Director of Technical, Risk and Compliance, Countrywide Surveying Services)

Unsustainable ambition and the absence of content

Learning from our mistakes? Looking back at ten retrofits, ten years later, with retrofit pioneer Marion Baeli (PDP, Passivhaus Trust)

Systems design for passive houses, radon research as a proxy for ventilation, and some further education. With Dr. Barry MCarron (PHAI, CREST)

Passive house can lead to more than just houses: community engagement, control pathologies. and propagating systemic change. With Helena Fitzgerald (Department of Economics at the University of Limerick)

Unconventional approaches to space heating: infra red, ceramics, and the necessity for good design. With John Morehead (Wain Morehead Architects)

EPCs are just a ritual (pt. 2): what could we be doing in order to do better, with Adrian Leaman and Bill Bordass (UsableBuildings.co.uk)

EPCs are just a ritual (pt. 1): fundamental flaws in how we assess energy performance and how we got here, with Adrian Leaman and Bill Bordass (UsableBuildings.co.uk)

Retrofit, energy ratings, and improving Europe's energy performance, with Ciarán Cuffe MEP

Passive house doesn't cost more to build, with Dr. Shane Colclough (UCD, Ulster University, Passive House Association of Ireland)

Industrialising retrofit: how do you say Energiesprong and what's it all about? With Ele and Emily from Energiesprong UK.

Reflections of a Treehugger: talking green building with Lloyd Alter

What motivates retrofitters? With retrofit researcher Dr Kate Simpson (Imperial College)

Lazy thinking and unsustainable myths: how expensive is low-carbon construction? A conversation with the authors of 'Building for 2050: low cost, low carbon homes' Alison Crompton (AECOM) and Tom Dollard (Pollard Thomas Edwards)

More bridges than the River Clyde: unpicking the quality of a retrofit and RIP Paul Doran

Hybrid heating: a place for fossil fuels alongside renewables? (Stephen Kelly, OYA Energy)

'Incompetence still reigns supreme' in energy ratings: DPE certification, EPCs, BERs, and a little bit of ESG

New year, old us: looking back on 20 years in green building (Passive House Plus, Construct Ireland, and Everything is User Experience)

Talking turkey: the perils of life in a passive house, with Ross Cremin (Cremin Surveying)

Revealing opportunity with thermal imaging, a chat with Stewart Little of IRT Surveys

The man who said 'heat pumps are not the answer', with Ryan Philp (Daikin)

Meeting Muyiwa Oki, talking impact and sustainability with RIBA's incoming president

Leading sustainability in Scottish architecture, with Chris Stewart, President of RIAS

BE-ST Fest 2022 - Ep05 - Funding the decarbonisation of the build environment, with Eddie McAvinchey (Scottish National Investment Bank)

BE-ST Fest 2022 - Ep04 - Disrupting the industry to achieve net zero, with Christina Gaiger (former RIAS President)

BE-ST Fest 2022 - Ep03 - A contractor's perspective on the challenges holding back procurement, with Jennifer Phin (A.C. Whyte & Co.)

BE-ST Fest 2022 - Ep02 - Aiming for sustainability at speed and scale?

BE-ST Fest 2022 - Ep01 - Net zero needs more ambition, with Chris Stark (CEO of the Climate Change Committee) and Stephen Good (BE-ST)

BE-ST Fest 2022 (a short intro to our ZAP mini series)

Getting sustainability into new-build housing, with Robbie McGrath, Head of Sustainability at D/RES Properties

Burnout, bureaucracy, Energiesprong and Ealing (part two), with Tania Jennings Principal Domestic Energy Officer at Ealing Council

Burnout, bureaucracy, Energiesprong and Ealing (part one), with Tania Jennings Principal Domestic Energy Officer at Ealing Council

Hydrogen, Alex's passivshed, a practical approach to retrofit, and some social housing chat

‘Dream house’ sustainability and environmental activism in Hollywood with Ed Begley Jr (Better Call Saul, St Elsewhere, Six Feet Under)

Retrofitting for heritage, as well as the future with Dr Marina Topouzi (Environmental Change Institute) and Nigel Griffiths (Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance)

Talking Carbon with a Tier One Contractor, a Conversation with Allan Smith, Low Carbon Manager for Morrison Construction

Part 2 - Housing Policy with Gavin Smart & Callum Chomczuk of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)

Bonus Episode - United Nations Centres of Excellence for High Performance Buildings with Scott Foster & Jenna Crammer

Part 1 - Housing Policy with Gavin Smart & Callum Chomczuk of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)

BONUS EP #2 ZAP x CIH from Scotland's Festival of Housing 2022 - the UK private rental sector

BONUS EP #1 ZAP x CIH from Scotland's Festival of Housing 2022 - the right to a home

Re-up: The Politics of Change and a Real Green New Deal (part 2), with Robin McAlpine of Common Weal

Retrofit, procurement, contracting, and preparing for the future: a conversation with Jennifer Phin from A.C. Whyte

The state of retrofit – with Russell Smith of Parity Projects and Retrofit works

Retrofit Reimagined mash up, with Charlotte Bailey of Civic Square

A contractor's right to reply, but without any contractors, just Dan, Duncan, Jeff, and Sara

Overheating: design and build for heatwaves and a warming world, with Nick Grant, Alan Clarke, and Kate de Selincourt

The Politics of Change and a Real Green New Deal (part 2), with Robin McAlpine of Common Weal

The Politics of Change and a Real Green New Deal (part 1), with Robin McAlpine of Common Weal

Retrofit Reimagined with Immy Kaur of Civic Square and Jack Minchella of Dark Matter Labs

Commercial sustainability, doing it right and making it pay, with Gary Wilburn (EP Projects', AECB)

Dr Peter Rickaby (part 2) on Retrofit, Heat Pumps, EPCs, PAS 2035, LADs, Climate Change, and everything in-between

Dr Peter Rickaby (part 1) on Retrofit, Heat Pumps, EPCs, PAS 2035, LADs, Climate Change, and everything in-between

EnerPhit in Action with John Gilbert Architects, Dr Ken Gibb, and Yogini Patel of The Passivhaus Trust

The CarbonLite Retrofit Standard (part 2) and a database for Low Energy Buildings, with Andy Simmonds of the AECB

The CarbonLite Retrofit Standard (part 1) and a database for Low Energy Buildings, with Andy Simmonds of the AECB

Built Environment - Smarter Transformation (BE-ST), with Stephen Good and Douglas Morrison

Reissue #1 The UK Energy Market with Professor Kevin Albertson (ep #3)

Collective Purchasing with Chris Clarke at Scape Group - The power of procurement frameworks to change the dynamic

BetaTalk meets Zero Ambitions: we need to do better with our heating, and for our heating engineers

ZAP's Good Friday late-night roundtable: should we be building new homes at all?

Central heating problems: systemic issues in design, accessibility, and economics

Helping Retrofit Reach a Wider Audience, with author and influencer Laura de Barra

Social Justice in Retrofit, with Tara Gbolade and Marianne Heaslip

Training for a just transition, with Caitriona Jordan of BE-ST

How We Actually Use Buildings, with Adrian Leaman and Bill Bordass (usablebuildings.co.uk)

Ireland's National Retrofitting Scheme, with Eamon Ryan (TD)

Driving the EU to Net Zero, with Ciarán Cuffe MEP

Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings Patrick Harvie - "No Pathway to tackling Climate Change without More Ambition"

Demand reduction, heat networks and healing our homes

What makes for a successful retrofit? Evaluating what really matters with Lisa Pasquale

Campaigning for Retrofit with ACAN and the NEF

Putting People Front and Centre with Jon Daley of Magenta Living Housing Association

EnerPHit at Scale with James Traynor of ECD Architects

Financing Retrofit with Rufus Grantham of Bankers without Boundaries (BwB)

Putting Retrofit Publications into Action with Barbara Lantschner

Embodied Carbon and the COP26 House

Fuel Poverty and a Just Transition with Alex Warren of The Wise Group

Smart Homes and the Internet of Things with Dane Ralston of IoPT

Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) with Sara Edmonds

The Value of Communicating Well, with Dan and Alex from Everything is User Experience

West Dunbartonshire District Heating and the Queens Quay Project with Morten Duedahl

Climate Change and Democracy with Kevin Albertson

Low Carbon Heat Networks and Clean Air with Dave Pearson

Financing Retrofit at Scale, Green Neighbourhoods as a Service - Rufus Grantham at Bankers Without Boundaries

Climate Change and the Decade of Disruption with Kevin Albertson Professor of Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University

Build Once for the Future - President of the RIAS Christina Gaiger

Redefining Productivity with Kevin Albertson Professor of Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University

The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) with Dr Jan Rosenow

CoP26 C& The Race to Zero with Bex Porter the Built Environment Lead in the High Level Champions Team

Danish District Heating with Morten Jordt Duedahl at the Danish Board of District Heating

Passivhaus - Setting the Standard with Michael Jones at City of York Council

The Anthropocene Architecture School with Scott McAulay

The UK Energy Market with Professor Kevin Albertson

The Retrofit Challenge and PAS 2035 with Dr Peter Rickaby

CoP 26 - Climate Change and the Built Environment - United Nations Centre of Excellence with Scott Foster and Jenna Cramer