Digital Climate Podcast

Welcome to Series 3 of the BIM Academy Digital Climate Podcast. In this episode our new podcast host, Andrew Johnson, Learning and Development Lead is joined by Dr Jenni Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Management, Lancashire School of Business & Enterprise at University of Lancashire.

Episode #3 of series 2 in the BIM Academy Digital Climate podcast, sees Peter Barker talking with Sheryl Staub-French, a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of British Columbia.

Sheryl is also Director of the BIM TOPiCS Lab where she leads inter-disciplinary research focused on developing methods and tools to support the digital delivery of sustainable building projects through the applied and effective use of BIM. It is this very topic upon which Peter asks Sheryl about the key strategies needed for digital asset management to support the design, construction and delivery of sustainable buildings.

Listen as Peter and Sheryl discuss digital construction, sustainable design and applied research to enable us to build smarter.

In this new episode, Peter Barker invites two offsite construction specialists to discuss how Modular and Offsite Manufacture have changed in recent years. Listen now as Peter talks to Jared Dielwart and Chris Boucher from Nomodic, one of Canada’s leading modular contractors.

The conversation focuses on how the blending of materials and technology driven processes is meeting the demand for high performing buildings. Plus how designing and constructing buildings in a factory offsite offers endless opportunities to refine the building process with obvious savings being presented in cost and time, as well as reduced waste of time and materials.

Tune in to learn more about offsite construction in Canada and how it is having a positive impact on fighting climate change.

Welcome back to Series 2 of the BIM Academy’s Digital Climate Podcasts. In this episode Peter Barker is joined by Shaun St Amour, an Outreach and Education Associate with 475 High Performance Building Supply, in British Columbia, Canada.

As a champion of passive house and green building design, Shaun is an active member of the Global Passive House Happy Hour and Passive House Accelerator Construction Tech Programme. Shaun is considered an authority on low-energy design and is one of the more influential people in Canada on sustainable design.

Peter and Shaun discuss some of the creative ways innovation and digital technologies are converging in the built environment sector to address the climate emergency. Shaun is committed to preserving our plant and part of the process to do this is to build better, more energy efficient buildings.

In the third episode of our Digital Climate series, podcast host Peter
Barker talks to Passive House expert Tomas O’Leary, Director of MosArt
Architects and co-founder of the Passive House Academy.

Tomas and his family live in Ireland’s very first Passive House, which
he built in 2005 and in their discussions, Peter and Tomas talk about
the benefits of Passive House design and how it creates such high levels
of thermal efficiency.
Tomas comments that more needs to be done from government to drive
policy in new builds for improved environmental impact and safeguard the
wellbeing of building inhabitants. The industry still has a lot to learn
when it comes to energy efficiency, measuring output and minimising
energy waste.

Episode #2 in our “Digital Climate” podcast series sees host Peter Barker talk with Melbourne based Claire Bowles, Associate and Regenerative Development Lead at i2C Architects.

In this episode, Peter and Claire discuss how the drive towards sustainable buildings is significantly growing and this can be attributed to a number of key factors which are having a huge impact on the AEC industry, particularly over growing concerns for climate change and wastage of energy and resources.

Claire is passionate about approaching the built environment as an opportunity to create positive buildings and places that act as educational, inspiring acupuncture points for a new way of living, being and working. 

She is a firm believer that we can all contribute and have a positive impact on our communities, society and wider natural environments. Which is why Claire said we need to consider all aspects of sustainability, not just zero carbon, taking biodiversity for example and learn lessons from projects which reconnect people with the natural world and their local communities.

This is the first in our “Digital Climate” podcast series hosted by BIM Academy Managing Director, Peter Barker.

In this series Peter will cross continents for conversations with sustainability champions on the synergies between digital construction and climate change, what action is being taken right now and what plans need to be set in place for the future.

In episode #1 Peter talks to Helen Goodland, Founding Principal and Head of Research and Innovation at Scius Advisory Inc. Helen also serves on Canada’s National Zero Waste Council’s Construction Taskforce and on the Board of CanBIM – Canada’s voice for the effective deployment of digital technologies and processes in the building and infrastructure industry.

Speaking to Peter from Vancouver, Helen talks about the digital built environment in Canada and what positive steps have been taken within the construction industry for this region to tackle carbon emissions and reduce unnecessary waste.