We’ve been long time fans of Marion Baeli’s work here at BE-ST. Marion is partner at PDP London, an architect and Passivhaus designer with a passion for sustainability and low energy design. This led Marion to take part and win a contract as part of a government competition, Retrofit for the Future, which in turn led to the delivery of the award winning 100 Princedale Road project, the first certified Passivhaus retrofit in the UK.  

But that’s not all, Marion has carried out a deep retrofit of her own home too, so truly has a sense of what it takes, but also what the wide-ranging benefits are to delivering retrofit. In this episode we hear about Marion’s own home retrofit as well as her work in reviewing the Retrofit for the Future programme.

This week, we bring you an extra bonus episode where Sara speaks to Jonathan Atkinson of Carbon Coop and People Powered Retrofit fame. It was a real joy, and Jonathan shared his extensive insight about the public and third sector and the world of the cooperative approach.

Check out their work here, also check out People Powered Retrofit, B4Box and also mentioned was the Community Green Deal report by Urbed.

What a way to finish this series on place-based community focused retrofit initiatives! This week we had the pleasure of speaking to Aneaka Kellay from Carbon Co-op in Manchester, an energy services and advocacy cooperative that helps people and communities to make the radical reductions in home carbon emissions.

Aneaka works in the Retrofit Team and Energy Commons Team. She is experienced in workshop development, facilitation, and community engagement. And that’s the gold that Aneaka brings to this conversation. The fundamental importance of meaningful engagement to make retrofit stick! We covered a lot of other ground, from the finance models for retrofit, to training and the role of local authorities.

We also spoke about B 4 Box, a construction training provider and employer with a difference and social justice at its core. Aneaka also mentioned Hannah Dixon at Progress in Practice and the Power in the City podcast.

Towards the end of this recording we were joined by Jonathan Atkinson of Carbon Coop and begin to set the scene for the bonus episode that we’ll treat you to next week. Happy listening!

Loco Home Retrofit is a Community Interest Company focused on owner occupier retrofit, Loco HomeRetrofit support energy conscious home improvement in Glasgow.

Key to their work, is participating in collaborative initiatives to aggregate demand and ensure high quality outcomes and a risk managed retrofit offer to households.

Find out more here: https://locohome.coop/

Better still, become a member. If you don’t live in Glasgow, don’t let that stop you reaching out to them. Let’s continue to build this network, this wonderful web of connections to deliver safe resilient places for our communities to thrive!

In this week's episode, we explore the growing movement of community-driven initiatives and their impact on local communities. Against the backdrop of social and economic challenges, we speak with Homebaked CLT, a community land trust in Liverpool bringing about change for the better in their community. Both residents, they’ve been working in Anfield and Everton for over 12 years now. They talk about the need to be patient, to build trust and to get organised. Recognising there is a movement building in this place based community driven work, they mention collaborating with other great organisations such as Carbon Coop and South East London Community Energy.

As part of their work they’re developing a deep retrofit of a terrace in their neighbourhood and will soon launch a community share offer to raise the funds to deliver it. Please follow their work and consider supporting them if you can.

https://www.homebaked.org.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/homebakedclt/

Retrofit is a complex area. And making the ideas around it meaningful for people is an area that has been underserved for a long time. But here’s a way to approach it.

Civic Square is a public square, neighbourhood lab, and creative and participatory platform focused on regenerative civic and social infrastructure.We spoke with Magda Petford, Dream Matter Designer, and Charlotte Bailey, Dream Matter Storyteller, about the work they have been doing in Ladywood inBirmingham with the community there.

You can find out more about their work at https://civicsquare.cc/about/

We mentioned a number of things on the podcast, and here are some links to those:

Doughnut Portrait: https://doughnuteconomics.org/stories/33

The Good News of B16: https://issuu.com/civicsquare/docs/gnob16-issue1-reprint-low-singles

Donella Meadows – Leverage Points: https://donellameadows.org/a-visual-approach-to-leverage-points/

Centric Lab: https://www.thecentriclab.com/

Generous Waste: https://www.instagram.com/generouswaste/

Centre for Alternative Technology: https://cat.org.uk/

As always, get in touch with suggestions and feedback!

This week we hear from Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn, two artists in London, driven by a desire to bring about change in their community.

Hilary and Dan's project POWER is a ‘show and do’ project building a solar power station across the rooftops of their street in Walthamstow, London through enacting a grassroots Green New Deal – working with art and infrastructure to tackle the interlinked climate/energy/cost of living crises.

There is a movement building in communities across the UK in response to a deep need for improving our homes. This series we are taking a look at inspiring examples of community driven and place based retrofit initiatives. In this episode Sara, part of the retrofit team at BE-ST, hears from John Christophers, an architect and passionate retrofit and social justice advocate, all about Retrofit Balsall Heath, where their aim is to see no one left behind in their community. Oh and insulation? Though it might feature later, this scheme has bigger ambitions.

Find out more about Retrofit Balsall Heath.

Sara also speaks to the head of retrofit programmes at BE-ST, Caitriona Jordan, and sets out why BE-ST are focusing on retrofit. Go here for more information. And don’t forget to access all the excellent Low Carbon Learning resources available on our Learning Hub 

Finally, please get in touch if you think there are people that we should be platforming on our podcast. Happy listening!

Construction underpins society. Skills underpin construction.

According to Skills Development Scotland, developing construction skills is at the heart of new major changes – it is front and centre in getting us to a net zero society.

Hear two sides of the story from Government and industry, Elaine Ellis of Skills Development Scotland and Jennifer Finn of AC Whyte, discuss action, implementation and the importance of changing the way we approach things in order to make these changes and build skills for the future.

www.cs-ic.org

The built environment is facing unprecedented challenges: Brexit, Covid-19 and climate change.  

In the next instalment of the Built Environment Innovation Podcast we hear from CSIC’s new Chairman of the Board – Andy Outram, Lead Real Estate Director for Scotland at Turner & Townsend – as he sits down with Stephen to grapple with these challenges and help lead us into a new era through digital transformation, cultural change, sustainable building, and advanced manufacturing techniques.

If you're interested in learning more about innovation in the built environment and construction industry, come join us for the journey.