Zero Ambitions Podcast

Jeff and Dan
  • 5.0 (2)
  • DOCUMENTARY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
Zero Ambitions Podcast

Zero Ambitions is a consultancy and weekly podcast about sustainability and the built environment. We find interesting and experienced guests who know what they're talking about, usually to discuss how we navigate the complexity of decarbonisation and sustainability in the built environment and its many related sectors. The success of the podcast has seen it grow into a consultancy, Zero Ambitions Partners. The consultancy works with blue chip clients, public sector institutions, and niche-market innovators that operate in the built environment, advising about the development and delivery of sustainability strategy and how it should be communicated. Hosted by Jeff Colley (Passive House Plus), Dan Hyde (Everything is User Experience) and Alex Blondin (Everything is User Experience).

  1. MAR 25

    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)

    For this episode we were joined by Nathan Gambling. For those that are new to him, he's heating engineer of some repute, a renowned educator, and a fellow podcaster.  The episode revolves around the nature of education and learning, the skills gap—specifically focusing on heat pump and retrofit education—and a post that Nathan put up a few weeks ago about an educational experiment he tried out that led to us thinking about the purpose of education. In essence, the episode is about how people learn and how this should shape our approach to meeting the skills gap. Nathan is a great communicator and you should check his podcast. Notes from the show Nathan Gambling on LinkedInBetaTalk - The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating PodcastNathan's recent LinkedIn post about his teaching experiment Nathan's old LinkedIn repost about that weird arrangement of radiators That Gatsby report we talk about: Closing the Retrofit GapBetaTalk episode: How boiler engineers transition to heat pumps **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff and Dan about Zero Ambitions Partners (the consultancy) for help with positioning and communications strategy, customer/user research and engagement strategy, carbon calculations and EPDs – we're up to all sortsSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd Alter's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    1h 12m

  2. MAR 11

    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 Jodefroy (CIBSE)

    This time around we're talking about the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (UKNZCBS) with three of its architects: Jess Hrivnak (RIBA), Jane Anderson (ConstructionLCA), and Julie Jodefroy (CIBSE). The UKNZCBS is the first cross-industry standard for net zero carbon-aligned buildings, albeit in a pilot form. The standard has been developed to enable stakeholders to prove whether a building aligns with the UK’s carbon and energy budgets by providing a single, agreed methodology for defining what ‘net zero carbon’ means for buildings in the UK. This probably won't be the only episode we'll produce on the subject and we'll be watching its progress with great interest.  Notes from the show The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard websiteThe UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard on LinkedInJess Hrivnak on LinkedInJane Anderson on LinkedIn Julie Godefroy on LinkedInA Passive House Plus article about UKNZCBSA story about the greenest Sainsbury's ever **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff and Dan about Zero Ambitions Partners (the consultancy) for help with positioning and communications strategy, customer/user research and engagement strategy, carbon calculations and EPDs – we're up to all sortsSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd Alter's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    43 min
  3. 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)

    FEB 18

    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)

    Last year the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) released its residential retrofit standard. Given that they're one of the construction industry's oldest, largest, and most influential institutions this felt significant. Importantly, the RICS organisation has a global footprint, so it has the potential to influence good behaviour far and wide. We're also hopeful in light of the success of the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment standard. That is in terms of its apparent impact, adoption, and reach. In order to get into the subject a bit more we invited Paul Bagust (Head of Property Standards), Steven Lees (Senior Specialist - Residential Survey), and Robert Toomey (Senior Public Affairs Officer) to join us to talk about the standard and the impact they want to see it have. Notes from the show Paul Bagust on LinkedInSteven Lees on LinkedIn Robert Toomey on LinkedInThe old Passive House Plus article about the Preston retrofit catastrophe that Jeff mentionsThe RICS consumer guide to energy will be here once it's published (one for the listeners of the future) The website for Scotland's Green Home Festival – details for 2025 are incoming **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff and Dan about Zero Ambitions Partners (the consultancy) for help with positioning and communications strategy, customer/user research and engagement strategy, carbon calculations and EPDs – we're up to all sortsSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd Alter's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    1h 23m

  4. FEB 4

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

    Can we address the decarbonisation of homes by focusing on health? That's the mission that Jenny Danson has set for herself in establishing Healthy Homes Hub, and it's a question that manages to subvert Betteridge's Law of headlines, too.  Healthy Homes Hub is a network, built around an online platform, that's dedicated to transforming the way people experience social housing, and its environmental impact, by creating healthier housing environments. Comprising a series of eight dedicated hubs that cover everything from policy and finance, to retrofit and air quality, the platform enable easy access to important information, insights, and thought leadership. Jenny has over 25 years of experience in social housing, as a supplier and client-side, driving innovation, delivery and improving lives so she knows what she's talking about. The project was borne of a frustration with seeing time and effort wasted as people across the sector carry out the same kinds of work, repeatedly, starting from scratch when they could share resources and pool experience. In a sector where capacity is in short supply this time could be easily put to better use. We talk through the challenges faced by the sector and how a focus on people and health can be used to drive us towards delivering on decarbonisation targets, but train our attention on outcomes for the people living in the 'building assets' not just the performance of the fabric and technology that comprises their home. While it's explicitly aimed at the social housing sector, the platform offers a wealth of information resources and sharing of experience that could be useful far beyond the provision of social housing. Notes from the show The Healthy Homes Hub websiteJenny on LinkedIn Healthy Homes Hub on LinkedInOperational excellence in social housing - a roundtable readout Those ventilation papers that Jeff mentioned Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality in Part F 2006 Homes (BD 2702) by S. McKay, D. Ross, I. Mawditt, and S. Kirk (2010)Occupant Interactions and Effectiveness of Natural Ventilation Strategies in Contemporary New Housing in Scotland, UK by Tim Sharpe, Paul Farren, Stirling Howieson, Paul Tuohy, Jonathan McQuillan **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    1h 6m

  5. JAN 21

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

    Joining us on Zero Ambitions this week is Chris Carus co-founder of Loco Home Retrofit, a Glasgow-based 'emerging one-step shop'. Loco Home Retrofit is a retrofit operation that's most interesting for its approach to developing a viable retrofit offer, focused on building trust in communities and with its supply chain as a means to catalysing the decarbonisation of our homes (or at least Glasgow's homes).  And now, they're hiring, seeking to fill three positions (below) so if you know of anyone suitable please share the ads: Marketing and community engagement manager Technical manager Innovation programme managerAs much as anything else, we love how they think about the retrofit challenge. Their considered approach to building a proposition and a method is what has really sold us, possibly because it resonates with our UX-focused approach to everything, but mainly because it seems to make sense. Notes from the show The Loco Home Retrofit websiteChris on LinkedIn Loco Home Retrofit on LinkedInAll three job ads, againChris's interview with BE-ST after winning the Gamechanger award at the Accelerate to Zero Awards 2023Designing an ‘optimal’ domestic retrofit programme by Aaron Gillich et al (2017) – The paper Chris couldn't remember the name forLoco Home Retrofit's 2023/24 impact report detailing their innovation efforts to dateResearch Report - The right time for heat pumps in retrofit (Alan Clarke for Passive House Trust) – the other paper that Chris and Jeff reference **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    1h 8m

  6. JAN 7

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

    The first episode of January 2025 marks the long overdue, first appearance of Jay Stuart, a long-time friend and colleague of Jeff and a firm fixture of the green building scene in Ireland.  Jay joined us to talk about his latest project: Loop Your Spare. It’s a SaaS platform designed to match 'spare' construction materials with projects that need them on other sites before they have a chance to be classified as waste.  It’s a concept that could largely eliminate the concept of waste and minimise the need for recycling in construction by enabling materials to remain in their highest-value states, thus retaining their value and mitigating the need to put them through all of the (ultimately destructive) processes involved in recycling.  While we’re looking to Ireland in this specific case the issues are universal and the solutions should be able to cross borders with relative ease. It’s really an episode about smart thinking, with specific reference to a bunch of the projects Jay has worked on in the past and what’s coming up in the future. We've wanted to get Jay on for ages because he’s an innovative and unconventional thinker who simplifies complex challenges in accessible and unexpected ways. He’s also massively experienced, having lectured at University College Dublin’s School of Architecture, worked with leading Irish construction businesses like Ecofix and D/RES, and worked as a government advisor to name just a few things. Also, it’s an episode that continues the conversations from last year’s episodes with Chris Clarke and Don’t Waste Buildings and their calls to do something about egregious construction waste in the UK. Notes from the show The Loop Your Spare website Jay Stuart on LinkedIn Loop Your Spare on LinkedInEmail Loop Your Spare here **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    1h 13m

  7. 12/10/2024

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

    What's it like trying to scale a retrofit start-up? This episode welcomes Max Bloomfield and Alex Whitcroft, two of the folks from VundaHaus, to talk about their product, its ongoing design and development, and their preparations to scale the business as they raise funds from investors. VundaHaus designs and manufactures a rapid-fit insulation solution for external wall insulation (EWI) of residential homes. It's a a sophisticated off-site, MMC, insulation jigsaw that’s been developed to make the logistics of installation much easier than traditional EWI. There's more to the story but you can listen to that on the episode. Notes from the show The VundaHaus website The KIN website Max Bloomfield on LinkedIn; email Max hereAlex Whitcroft on LinkedIn; email Alex hereThe TransformER project  **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    1h 11m

  8. 11/26/2024

    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)

    This week's episode is all about the lessons learned in carrying out a low-carbon retrofit. Natalie Black (Enbee Architecture + Design) and Toby McLean (Allt Environmental Structural Engineers) joined us to talk through their experiments and experiences on the renovation of a derelict house in Muswell Hill, London that was shortlisted for the Architects Journal Retrofit and Reuse awards this year. This is a project that could easily be misrepresented as a Grand Designs-style endeavour that's only representative of what you can do if you've got loads of capital and capacity, but that wouldn't be fair. This project should really be seen as an example of what you can achieve when you've got loads of capital and the capacity to experiment. The lessons learned here aren't going to solve the housing crisis but they can contribute to resolving the climate crisis, and this is what's motivating our guests. Like many of our listeners, Natalie and Toby are built environment professionals who have become increasingly driven to change how they work by the dawning realisation that the climate crisis is upon us. We also discuss whether you can actually have a low-carbon basement. Links for the PhD applications are below too. Notes from the show Natalie Black on LinkedIn The Muswell Hill low-carbon houseThe Enbee Architecture + Design websiteThe Allt Environmental Structural Engineers' websiteNatalie's LinkedIn post about low-carbon basementsEnbee's 12-minute diary film about the Muswell Hill projectEnbee's short film (under 2 mins) about the Muswell Hill projectNatalie's blog about her work PhD #1 - Balancing Supply and Demand: Developing a Net Zero Energy Framework for Difficult-to-Retrofit Buildings in NottinghamshireNottingham Trent University deadline 8th Dec, start Apr 2025, Led by: Dr Orla Williams (UoN), Co-Supervisors: Dr Kate Simpson (NTU) and Prof Richard Bull (NTU); Community Supervisor(s): Phil Berrill (Nottinghamshire County Council), Chris Beattie (Inspire) PhD #2 - Sustainable Construction UK: Investigating the UK construction industry’s culture in relation to meeting long-term social, economic and environmental goalsNottingham Trent University, deadline 14th Feb, start Sep 2025, led by Prof Gavin Killip and Dr Ani Raiden PhD #3 - Re-imagining energy retrofit and home adaptation to deliver safe and resilient homes during interconnected energy, health, housing and climate crisesNottingham Trent University, deadline 14th Feb, start Sep 2025, led by myself with Dr Penelope Siebert and Prof Rowena Hill **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. Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

    1h 23m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Zero Ambitions is a consultancy and weekly podcast about sustainability and the built environment. We find interesting and experienced guests who know what they're talking about, usually to discuss how we navigate the complexity of decarbonisation and sustainability in the built environment and its many related sectors. The success of the podcast has seen it grow into a consultancy, Zero Ambitions Partners. The consultancy works with blue chip clients, public sector institutions, and niche-market innovators that operate in the built environment, advising about the development and delivery of sustainability strategy and how it should be communicated. Hosted by Jeff Colley (Passive House Plus), Dan Hyde (Everything is User Experience) and Alex Blondin (Everything is User Experience).

Information

  • Creator
    Jeff and Dan
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    176
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Zero Ambitions 2024
  • Show Website
    Zero Ambitions Podcast

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