Best Our Mep Life Podcasts (2024)

1
Running a successful retrofit one-stop-shop isn't easy but it can be done, with Caroline Ashe Brady (KORE Retrofit) 1:16:22

12d ago1:16:22

1:16:22

This week's guest is Caroline Ashe Brady of KORE Retrofit in Ireland, one of the objectively successful one-stop-shop retrofit providers to have emerged over the past few years. Caroline is a business leader who we’re a proper fan of, so apologies in advance for our ‘so Caroline please tell us, why are you so great’ style questioning. That said, yo…

1
Hermanos Koumori: Hi-Tech Nomads, Mexican Culture and Post Running High 1:23:17

22d ago1:23:17

1:23:17

On episode 93 of the podcast, I'm back with Hermanos Koumori founders Alex Leon and Alex Sandler, as well as Emiliano Hernandez. We dive into how Alex and Alex met, the beginnings of the brand and how it evolved into running. The has a unique design aesthetic and is rare in that it's brought Mexican running culture to the global stage. They share o…

1
The challenging life of a retrofit coordinator: problems with process, products, and performance, with returning champion Lisa Pasquale 1:13:50

26d ago1:13:50

1:13:50

Returning champion Lisa Ann Pasquale rejoins us on Zero Ambitions to talk about dogs and retrofit. Mainly retrofit though. Informed by Lisa's experiences as a retrofit coordinator, technical lead at RetrofitWorks, and Technical Manager at The Retrofit Academy she knows an awful lot about the challenges faced by retrofit practitioners. Windows, vent…

1
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) 1:29:10

1M ago1:29:10

1:29:10

Returning champion Ellora Coupe joins us to talk about the recent report that Her Own Space has published about the place of women in the retrofit sector, which is heartening, insightful, and damning in equal measure. A great piece of work that everyone interested in the sector should heed. Perhaps more importantly, she's with us to promote the inc…

1
Building better performance: raising construction standards on site and in education, with Joseph Little (TUD) 1:22:39

1M ago1:22:39

1:22:39

This week we're going by Joseph Little, Head of Construction & Building Performance in the School of Architecture, Building and Environment at TU Dublin. He joined us to talk about the journey he's been on leading the MSc in Building Performance over the last seven years, but we got into a lot more. Joseph has been deeply involved in the promotion …

1
Retrofit as a movement for social change (there's more to it all than fabric and finance), with Dan Hill (Dark Matter Labs) 1:13:09

2M ago1:13:09

1:13:09

This week we're thinking about retrofit differently with Dan Hill from Dark Matter Labs (DML). Or rather, we're talking about retrofit's potential to become a movement for social change. In reality, retrofit is about much more than fabric and economics, it's about people and how they live. With that in mind we should be thinking much more about eng…

1
Place-based hybrid finance to rebuild Ukraine and catalyse better building standards everywhere, with Iva Merheim Eyre (SMARTER4EU) 1:11:08

2M ago1:11:08

1:11:08

This week we're joined by Iva Merheim Eyre from SMARTER4EU to talk about her recently published report the Catalogue of Good Practices, a document that details a variety of place-based hybrid finance models that have been used to rebuild and renovate homes in locations as wide-ranging as the postwar Balkan states to London's own Westminster. This i…

1
Peter Rickaby returns to ZAP: a lot of words about energy, retrofit, and natural building materials, all the way from South Africa 1:20:52

2M ago1:20:52

1:20:52

Jeff and Dan are joined by Dr. Peter Rickaby again. We were due a catch up so we recorded the conversation because he's always interesting. Peter should need little introduction, so we'll just say he's our favourite retrofit expert (sorry everyone else) and our most frequent guest on the show. He's only returned to the pod, not to the UK. In princi…

1
The UK has a weird relationship with heat pumps: under appreciated influencers, wild pricing, and bad vibes. With Andrew Sissons (Nesta) 1:21:03

2M ago1:21:03

1:21:03

This week we're joined by Nesta's Deputy Mission Director, Andrew Sissons, to discuss his take on why the UK has such a weird relationship with heat pumps. It was inspired by an excellent Twitter thread on the subject that gained quite a bit of attention the other week. We talk through it all so you might as well listen, or just take a look at the …

1
Building with straw on a continental scale and experiencing retrofit as a resident. With Cypren Edmunds (European Straw Building Association) 1:16:34

2M ago1:16:34

1:16:34

The other week we had a chance to have a conversation with Cypren Edmunds, President of the European Straw Building Association about building with straw, experiences in retrofit, and the meandering path that led him to the green building trade. For us, it was a really interesting chat because we got to talk about how he got into greed building via…

1
The energy performance of buildings matters, to me and EU and everyone you know, with Ciarán Cuffe (MEP) 51:04

3M ago51:04

51:04

The Recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is now enshrined in EU law, which has big implications for the built environment everywhere. Even the South East of England. To mark the occasion and get the lowdown on what this all means, we invited friend of the show Ciarán Cuffe back on to talk about it. For those who might not remember, he's…

1
A new way to measure performance, negative energy use, and learning from disaster zones, with Kate Crawford (KLH Sustainability) 1:17:08

3M ago1:17:08

1:17:08

Kate Crawford is a building nerd who is obsessed with measuring performance. She's currently, Technical Director at KLH Sustainability, a multidisciplinary consultancy working in the built environment. Kate has a very interesting background in terms of her experience and she's now working on a very fascinating project in which she's researching and…

1
Designing for deconstruction using natural building materials. With Chloe Donovan (Natural Building Systems) 1:12:39

3M ago1:12:39

1:12:39

This week we're talking about modular construction and Natural Building Systems with MD Chloe Donovan. Chloe is a really interesting character with a fascinating product that she's bringing to market. Unusually, she's a farmer who got into building and then found herself as an entrepreneur in the febrile world of modular building and MMC. We talk a…

1
Monitoring will make your buildings be worth more money, Utopi has proved it, with Falk Bleyl (CTO at Utopi) 1:20:21

3M ago1:20:21

1:20:21

Up next we're speaking with Falk Bleyl, CTO at Utopi, about their sensor-based data platform technology. He describes it as an ESG platform which is true but it massively underplays the true value of what their product offers. Heads up, normally, we'll at least try to couch the conversation within a broader context but in this episode, we've barely…

1
“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 ... 1:16:05

4M ago1:16:05

1:16:05

Lloyd has been in Paris. He came back very enthused and excited by his experience there and wanted to communicate why to our listeners. “In the face of the climate emergency, a swift transition of the buildings sector is a direct requirement to achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement”. Approximately, 1,400 people from 70 countries gathered in …

1
What do we do about ‘the office’? A retrofit challenge we don't speak about enough. With Harry Browne and Séamus Guidera (RKD) 1:20:03

4M ago1:20:03

1:20:03

This week we got into an area of retrofit that feels neglected: commercial space. It's a subject we definitely touch upon but never really get into , so in order to remedy that we're getting stuck in. First up is a conversation with architects Harry Browne and Séamus Guidera of RKD Dublin who came recommended to us by friend of the show Richard O'H…

1
Fundamental problems in building design and how we manage thermal comfort, with Susan Roaf (Heriot-Watt; ICARB) 1:33:08

4M ago1:33:08

1:33:08

We are delighted to bring you a conversation with Professor Emeritus Susan Roaf, of Heriot-Watt University this week to talk about a bunch of fundamental problems in building design and the management of thermal comfort. She is a wonderful guest and we're looking forward to having her back. Originally, we planned to talk about her article COP 28: N…

1
Fabric fifth: rethinking the hierarchy of retrofit, with Nigel Banks (Octopus Energy) 1:10:20

4M ago1:10:20

1:10:20

This week we're joined by Nigel Banks, Technical Director - Zero Bills & Low Carbon Homes at Octopus Energy. Nigel joined us to discuss his recent article: Fabric Fifth, a slightly polemical riposte to fabric-first dogma, and an interesting philosophy for retrofit. As it turned out, it’s an apposite follow-up to last week's episode with Fionn Steve…

1
Retrofit: "We need to tackle low hanging fruit first", so what does that mean? With Fionn Stevenson 1:28:14

5M ago1:28:14

1:28:14

We were blessed to enjoy a great conversation about retrofit and what we should consider our priorities, with the vastly experienced retrofit firebrand Fionn Stevenson. It was a challenging, surprising, and free-wheeling conversation spurred by a call to action she made on LinkedIn some time ago, in which she decried fabric-first approaches and dec…

1
Natural materials, healthier homes, and the culture of sustainable building, with Will Kirkman (Ecomerchant) 1:16:15

5M ago1:16:15

1:16:15

We enjoyed the company of Ecomerchant’s Will Kirkman a business that's specialised in sustainable and natural building materials for the building trade and consumers. We mainly rambled our way around the culture of building in the UK, how embodied carbon has always been on the Ecomerchant agenda and the impact that sustainable and natural building …

1
Engineering low-impact buildings and advice from self build, with Tara Fraser (Build Collective) 1:00:16

5M ago1:00:16

1:00:16

This week is all about the challenges of low-impact building in the sphere of self build with Tara Fraser, a chartered civil and structural engineer, and a director of Build Collective in Bristol. On the recommendation of former guest (and Tara's colleague) Beth Williams, we recently had a chat with her about a self-build project she worked on that…

1
Sean Hotchkiss: Reconnecting, Exploring the Mother-wound and Lineage of menswork 1:44:02

5M ago1:44:02

1:44:02

On this episode I reconnect with Sean Hotchkiss, as we started Into the Well together back in 2019. Over the years we've been on parallel journeys, finding similar wisdom and teachings along the way. We dive into these experiences, the nuances of menswork, the neglected but important Mother-wound exploration and share some laughs around our follies…

1
Shady business #2: shading for housing in a changing climate, with Tom Dollard (Pollard Thomas Edwards) 1:28:59

5M ago1:28:59

1:28:59

Part two of our series on shading, this time with a return appearance from Tom Dollard of Pollard Thomas Edwards who joined us in January 2023 to talk about lazy thinking. Ostensibly, this time we met to talk about the Good Homes Alliance design guide for shading, as a follow-up to December's episode with Zoe De Grussa. On reflection we realised th…

1
Sam Parsons: A Mind Reset, Outrunning Fear and Olympic Goals 1:21:56

5M ago1:21:56

1:21:56

The first guest of season 3 is Sam Parsons. Co-founder and creative force behind Tinman Elite, professional runner and Olympic hopeful. Sam comes on and shares about some of the fears and challenges of 2023, how he's shifting his mindset and going all-in for 2024 and his dreams. We also dive into the creative process of Tinman Elite, designing prod…

1
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) 1:21:36

6M ago1:21:36

1:21:36

With us this week is new friend, Kelly Alvarez Doran, via an introduction from Lloyd to talk about his experiences at COP28 and his carbon reduction consultancy Ha/f Climate Design that's challenged itself to reduce Canadian construction's emissions by half. We get sidetracked almost immediately while we talk about Kelly's background as an architec…

1
I'm Back, MEP Programs for 2024 and Gene Keys Intro 38:28

6M ago38:28

38:28

After a few months off, I'm back to podcasting. I'm sharing some of my plans for MEP in 2024 including a Running Practice workshop and the MEP Race Team. I also share some experience with Gene Keys and some of my takeaways from working with this amazing tool. I'm excited to be back and share new episodes regularly moving fowards. --- Support this p…

1
Conservation-led retrofit and energy efficiency for working buildings, with with Heidi Hopper-Duffy and David Hughes (Iarnród Éireann) 57:32

6M ago57:32

57:32

This one is about conservation-led retrofit and the retrofit of commercial (or institutional) building stock. We were invited to see a recent Iarnród Éireann (Irish Railway) retrofit project and meet with Heidi Hopper-Duffy (Environmental & Sustainability Manager) and its architect David Hughes (Senior Conservation Architect & Energy Specialist). O…

1
The cost of sustainability, accounting for language, and the taxonomy, with Archie O'Donnell (KOSMOS) 57:42

6M ago57:42

57:42

The first of our Dublin field recordings is with Archie O'Donnell a long-time face green building in Ireland, a fella who Jeff has a lot of time for, and someone Alex and I hadn't met yet. It was a good call. Originally trained as an architect, Archie has worked his way through the industry, recently joining Danish/Irish consultancy KOSMOS, so ther…

1
PH+ Revisited: that archive building in Hereford, the one that uses passive house preservation, with Nick Grant and Alan Clarke 56:05

6M ago56:05

56:05

This week we have Lloyd's latest Passive House Plus Revisited, a conversation with passive house heads Alan Clarke and Nick Grant about the passive house archive project that left Lloyd so smitten when he visited it last summer. That we’re discussing archive systems shouldn’t put folk off - the point is about thinking differently, about what the ch…

1
How to normalise low-energy heating without radiators: an overnight success story that's fifteen years in the making, with Ethan Wadsworth (ThermaSkirt) 1:09:19

6M ago1:09:19

1:09:19

Happy new year! This week's episode brings you a conversation with Ethan Wadsworth of DiscreteHeat the manufacturers of our new favourite energy efficient (non-radiator and non underfloor) based heating system ThermaSkirt. We're not there to bang on about a product we like, what we found interesting about this one is that it’s an overnight, award-w…

1
PH+ revisited: Seeing the wood for the trees (part two), with Andy Simmonds (AECB) and Lenny Antonelli (PH+) 58:54

7M ago58:54

58:54

Happy post-Christmas day, hope you made it through OK. Today we have part two of the latest Passive House Plus revisited, looking at Lloyd Alter's favourite article of 2021: Seeing the wood for the trees - Placing ecology at the heart of construction. Again, we're joined by authors Lenny Antonelli and Andy Simmonds talking about mass timber, embodi…

1
PH+ revisited: Seeing the wood for the trees (part one), with Andy Simmonds (AECB) and Lenny Antonelli (PH+) 1:05:27

7M ago1:05:27

1:05:27

Merry Christmas! This week we have a Passive House Plus revisited two-parter for you, led by our occasional co-host Lloyd Alter, looking at his favourite article of 2021: Seeing the wood for the trees - Placing ecology at the heart of construction. We're joined by authors Lenny Antonelli and Andy Simmonds and the conversation wheels around, coverin…

1
Shady business #1 – overheating, and Camden: we should think about solar gain all year round, with Zoe De Grussa (BBSA) 1:16:41

7M ago1:16:41

1:16:41

It's all about shading, overheating, and solar gain with Zoe De Grussa this week. She's the author of that infamous Camden overheating case study that Jeff always references and, at the time of writing, is technical and sustainability consultant at the British Blind and Shutter Association (BBSA). We cover Camden, but perhaps more interesting is th…

1
POE and its value to retrofit, and what does a Head of Sustainability do? With Loreana Padron (ECD Architects) 1:17:56

7M ago1:17:56

1:17:56

We are joined by Loreana Padron to talk about what it is that a Head of Sustainability does and, more broadly, the value of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) to all the stakeholders in a retrofit project. Loreana tells us about the path she's taken to becoming Head of Sustainability at Architecture firm ECD, a leading sustainability-focused practice,…

1
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) 1:18:50

7M ago1:18:50

1:18:50

Today we're talking about standards. In short, it's about how standards are written and why retrofit shouldn’t just be about products or carbon. It's never short with us though, is it? We're sure that all of our listeners will have complained about PAS2035/2030 at some point, admiring its ambition while lamenting its restrictions. We've all certain…

1
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) 1:21:03

8M ago1:21:03

1:21:03

We invited Tania Jennings back. Most folk in the retrofit or social housing space will probably be aware of Tania from LinkedIn and the myriad jobs she has. If you don’t know her yet, check her LinkedIn. Anyway, she wrote a thing for Architect’s Journal about fuel poverty, Covid, and inevitably retrofit and it was excellent. It sparked a conversati…

1
Driving change in building design and the things that inspire you to do better, with Cedric Burgers (Burgers Architecture) 1:20:24

8M ago1:20:24

1:20:24

If you fancy, you can settle in for a long one this week, in which Jeff and Dan speak with award-winning Canadian architect and passive house designer Cedric Burgers. We cover all sorts because he has led a pretty interesting life and he has a lot to say about sustainable building design, particularly his love for passive house as a philosophy, the…

1
Biogenic building, whole life carbon, and natural fibre insulation. With Sam Baumber (IndiNature) 1:00:43

8M ago1:00:43

1:00:43

This week we're talking about natural fibre insulation and the potential of biogenic building products with IndiNature manufacturer (and co-founder) Sam Baumber. It feels like a timely follow-up to last week's episode about quantifying embodied carbon, particularly in relation to the role biogenic products have in providing a mid-to-long-term carbo…

1
Can you have a zero carbon building? The answer is “no”. With John Butler (Sustainable Build Consultancy; CAT) 1:01:54

8M ago1:01:54

1:01:54

If you’re looking to understand how to approach carbon accounting in the built environment, we’ve got you. Brought in to tackle some big questions around accounting for carbon we were joined by sustainable building expert John Butler. Jeff’s been talking about getting John on for ages, for reasons he explains in the episode, and when we caught sigh…

1
Construction's embodied carbon problem: how do we incentivise retrofit over 'demolish and rebuild', with Joseph Kilroy (CIOB) 57:22

9M ago57:22

57:22

Jeff received a press release that piqued his interest, so we invited the man behind the call to action, Joseph Kilroy, (Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)). Joseph joins us to talk about their ideas for increasing the pace of change required to meet the ubiquitous net zero 2050 targets. They're calling …

1
Getting real about energy research and making heat pumps chic, with Mike Fell (UCL; pump:chic) 1:08:45

9M ago1:08:45

1:08:45

This week we're joined by Mike Fell, energy researcher at UCL, amongst many other things. We've been following Mike's work for a while, (mainly because the pump:chic work is really interesting to us) and when we clocked he's co-authored this paper about realist approaches in energy research we saw an opportunity to bring him onto the podcast. Reali…

1
Stranded assets, financing sustainability, and carbon as a risk factor, with Alexandra Hedesiu (EnerSave Capital) 1:07:12

9M ago1:07:12

1:07:12

This week Jeff introduced us to a new friend he met while working on a EU funded green finance project, Alexandra Hedesiu, Head of ESG & EU Advisory Services at EnerSave Capital. The EU Life-funded project is called Smarter Finance for EU, and its aim is to develop the market for credible green home certifications and associated green mortgage, loa…

1
Thermal comfort in building design: thinking ahead and taking lessons from East Africa, with Huda Elsherif (calfordsedan) and Andy Simmonds (AECB) 1:14:04

9M ago1:14:04

1:14:04

In the midst of a weirdly warm October for this part of the work, we're talking about thermal comfort in building design with Huda Elsherif and Andy Simmonds about a project they've been collaborating on in Tanzania. While the lessons we can learn from it might not be immediately obvious, there are plenty of them there to be had as our climate grow…

1
A schism in building standards: promoting passive house and high performance building in the USA, with Zack Semke (Passive House Accelerator) 1:12:24

9M ago1:12:24

1:12:24

Lloyd Alter introduced us to Passive House Accelerator earlier this year and it turns out that we're doing some quite similar work, promoting high-performance building, sharing innovation, and elevating thought leadership. Instead of starting a blood feud, we decided to invite Zack Semke onto the podcast to talk about what they're up to and see wha…

1
Building a place for women in retrofit, with Ellora Coupe (Her Own Space) 1:18:17

10M ago1:18:17

1:18:17

We've a slightly different episode for you this week. Our guest is Ellora Coupe who we think has a big part to play in the retrofit space without performing one of its traditional roles. Ellora is the founder of Her Own Space, a platform that provides a women-only space to share knowledge, insight, support, and help in all things to do with renovat…

1
The benefits of energy efficient building are much more than energy efficiency, with Marion Jammet (Irish Green Building Council) 1:00:29

10M ago1:00:29

1:00:29

It was about time we had someone from the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) join us on the podcast. So Jeff invited Marion Jammet, the IGBC's Head of Policy and Advocacy, to join us to talk though a recent white paper they published in conjunction with the Institute of International and European Affairs. The paper is titled: Reviewing the Co-bene…

1
Retail perspectives on retrofit and high performance building, with Andy Mitchell (Green Building Store) 1:16:17

10M ago1:16:17

1:16:17

We often talk about the notion of selling high performance building to people but we rarely seem to talk with people who actually deal with the customers. In an effort to fill this gap we were joined by Andy Mitchell, MD at Green Building Store, a long-established retailer of all the things a high-performance building might require, and a passive h…

1
Get your heat from the streets: Kensa Utilities' plans for geothermal district heating, with Lisa Tresedar (Kensa Utilities) 1:12:55

10M ago1:12:55

1:12:55

More heat-related chat this week. We're with Lisa Tresedar of Kensa Utilities joined us. She’s the string-puller behind Kensa’s Heat the Streets project the success of which has garnered national coverage because of its innovation and its success so far (which is now up for an award). Heat the Streets is a pioneering project in which Kensa sought t…

1
Scaling high performance buildings AKA EnerPHit is no more expensive than retrofit, with Mel Reynolds 1:22:20

11M ago1:22:20

1:22:20

'EnerPHit need not be any more expensive than retrofit': those are the words that we put into the mouth of this week's guest Mel Reynolds. He stood by them, even if they weren't his own, but advisedly. It's not necessarily easy, but it can be done, and it can be scaled up. Mel took us through his experience in working on high-performance buildings,…

1
Viability of heat networks: why consider them, where's best, and what do you need to make one work? With Dave Pearson (Star Refrigeration) 1:13:33

11M ago1:13:33

1:13:33

Returning champion, Dave Pearson of Star Refrigeration joins us to talk about the viability of heat networks. There loads we can learn from Dave's experience, so keep a notepad handy. Rather than talk in the abstract, we discussed the conditions that make them viable, why anyone should consider one, and how we can make them happen. Notes from the s…

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