Michael Quast is the CEO of Passive House Canada. With a career that spans marketing, PR, executive management, and communications, including being executive producer for the successful HGTV renovation show, Holmes on Homes, and then later CEO for The Holmes Group, Michael feels that his role at Passive House Canada is something of a unicorn job, perfectly blending his personal passion with his professional abilities.

In this episode, we talk about Michael's experience building the first straw bale house in his town (Oakville, ON), 20 years ago, the importance of supporting and including anyone interested in getting into the field of better-performing homes, not letting dogmatic viewpoints exclude people, and his optimism for the future of the Passive House industry.

Connect with Michael and Passive House Canada:

• Michael on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeloquast/

• Passive House Canada on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/passive-house-canada/

• Passive House Canada on Bluesky => https://bsky.app/profile/passivehousecan.bsky.social

• Passive House Canada website => https://www.passivehousecanada.com/

Jeremy Clarke is the founder and CEO of Simple Life Homes and Simple Life Building Systems, based out of Bowmanville, Ontario. They combine the principles of passive house design with off-site (prefabricated) and carbon-conscious construction to produce sustainable, healthy home packages. 

In this episode, we talk about Passive Houses, Pretty Good Houses, the challenges of being a "building enclosure technical integrator," the importance of gathering your team together in the pre-construction phase (especially if you want to leverage pre-fab), and which CCDC contract is ideal for making sure that gathering happens.

Connect with Jeremy and Simple Life Homes:

• Jeremy on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-clarke-0ab21113/

• Simple Life Building Systems on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/simple-life-homes/

• Simple Life Homes on Instagram => https://www.instagram.com/simple.life.homes/

• Simple Life Homes website => https://simplelifehomes.ca/

Jacob Deva Racusin is the lead researcher at Builders for Climate Action and the co-founder of New Frameworks. Jacob comfortably bridges the gap between seemingly (though not, in fact) disparate worlds, valuing both the intuitive comfort of building with the natural materials our ancestors have used for millennia and the cutting edge of building and climate science. 

In this episode, we discuss communication, empathy, straw, carbon emission calculations, and how knowledge sharing between large- and small-scale projects is a two-way street.

Connect with Jacob, New Frameworks, and Builders for Climate Action:

• Jacob on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-deva-racusin-7a41603/

• New Frameworks website => https://www.newframeworks.com/

• Builders for Climate Action website => https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/

• BEAM Estimator Tool => https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/beam-estimator.html

• Bio-Based Materials Collective => https://biobasedcollective.org/

Beth Eckenrode is the co-founder of AUROS Group, "where building science meets data science." Beth co-founded the AUROS Group with Craig Stevenson in 2017 to provide building owners with more confidence in their sustainable building investments.  Together with academic sustainability expert Robert Sroufe, they co-authored the book, "The Power of Existing Buildings--Save Money, Improve Health and Reduce Environmental Impacts" (Island Press, 2019). 

In this episode, we discuss the power of Passive House to help you uncover and reach a building's optimum performance potential, and how neglecting to do so can mean leaving significant amounts of money on the table for large building owners who are doing renovations.

Connect with Beth and AUROS Group:

• Beth on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/betheckenrode/

• AUROS Group on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/auros-group/

• Beth's co-written book, The Power of Existing Buildings => https://islandpress.org/books/power-existing-buildings

• AUROS Group's website => https://www.aurosgroup.com/

Enrico Bonilauri is an architect, trainer, passive house certifier, and the CEO of Emu Passive. Started as an architectural practice in Italy in 2009, they soon discovered passive house as the building science handrail they needed to guide their design decisions. In 2016, they decided to get into education to promote passive house ideas and methodologies, and help people become better at their profession. Emu Passive's mission is to bring the most advanced building science to mainstream construction, and they've set themselves the challenge of training 5,000 builders by 2030. 

Connect with Enrico and Emu Passive:

• Enrico on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/enricobonilauri/

• Emu Passive on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/emu-building-science/

• Emu Passive on Instagram => https://www.instagram.com/emubldgscience/

• Emu Passive on YouTube => https://www.youtube.com/@emupassive

• Emu Passive website => https://emupassive.com/

Shefali Sanghvi is the Director of Sustainability at Dattner Architects, a mission-driven, women-owned design firm based in New York City and focused on civic spaces and the urban experience. One of the things she loves about being a director of sustainability in an architecture firm with multiple studios is the opportunity to leverage what she learns from the passive house and affordable housing sides into other typologies in the office. We talk about the connection between sustainability and affordability, debunk the myth that affordable has to mean low quality, and highlight how the drive for electrification is making Passivhaus an easier sell.

Connect with Shefali and Dattner Architects:

• Shefali on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/shefali-sanghvi-aia-leed-ap-bd-c-env-sp-fitwel-amb-7397425/

• Shefali on Instagram => https://www.instagram.com/shefali_sustainability/

• 425 Grand Concourse (Shefali's intro to PH) => https://www.dattner.com/projects/view/425-grand-concourse/

• Via Verde (Shefali's intro to Dattner) => https://www.dattner.com/projects/view/via-verde-the-green-way/

• Vital Brookdale (Shefali's first PH project) => https://www.dattner.com/projects/view/vital-brookdale/

• Dattner website => https://www.dattner.com/

Brian Pearson is an architect and the co-founder of Studio Pear. Brian created a flyer, which he shared on LinkedIn, titled "Air-Tightness in Buildings: Benefits You can Enjoy Every Day." In that graphic, he lists seven benefits you can enjoy EVERY DAY from the investment in an airtight building: Comfort, Energy Efficiency, Ventilation Efficiency, Pollutant Control, Vapor Control, Acoustic Control, and Building Durability.

Connect with Brian and Studio Pear:

• Brian on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-s-pearson-977012b6/

• Brian's Passivhaus graphic => https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brian-s-pearson-977012b6_passivehouse-airtight-smoketight-activity-7348837342742274049--HJe

• Studio Pear website => https://studiopear.us/

Mariana Pickering is the Chief Brand Officer and Community Director at B.PUBLIC Prefab. After graduating with a Master's in Design Science from the University of Sydney, she co-founded EMU Architetti in Italy with Enrico Bonilauri, doing sustainably focused architectural design for ~8 years. In 2017, they moved the company to the US, renaming to EMU Passive and pivoting to become one of the first accredited education providers with PHI, in order to address what they saw as one of the biggest gaps in passive house: training architects and builders. Then, having sold her partnership in EMU Passive, Mariana made her way to B.PUBLIC Prefab, where she continues the mission of marketing through education and community-building.

Connect with Mariana and B.PUBLIC Prefab:

• Mariana on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianapickering/

• Mariana on Bluesky => https://bsky.app/profile/passivemariana.bsky.social

• B.PUBLIC Prefab website => https://www.bpublicprefab.com/

• B.PUBLIC Prefab on Instagram => https://www.instagram.com/b.publicprefab/

Renee Relf is a recent graduate of the University of Oregon, where she earned her Master of Architecture with a specialization in Architectural Technology. In the course of finishing her M.Arch, Renee also became a certified Passivhaus consultant (CPHC) and acquired a Living Future Accreditation (LFA). We discuss the differences she noticed between becoming a CPHC and acquiring the LFA, her experiences of viewing the world through new eyes as she completed her degree and certifications, and her upcoming internship, in which she expects her CPHC to be put into practice.

Connect with Renee:

• LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/renee-relf-0b84b11b4/

Bronwyn Barry is an architect and principal at Passive House BB, as well as co-founder and recently retired Board Chair of the Passive House Network. It was from Bronwyn that I first came across the catchy phrase Boxy But Beautiful (#BBB) to describe the form factor that is key to optimal Passivhaus performance. She's also the first person I saw pointing out that Passivhaus' airtightness standards mean these buildings are also smoke-tight, which is increasingly important in these times of heightened air pollution from wildfires. In terms of marketing Passivhaus, it doesn't get much better than that! Listen to this episode for yet another catchy, alliterative turn of phrase! (You'll have to wait until almost the very end :-)

Connect with Bronwyn and Passive House BB:

• Passive House BB => https://www.passivehousebb.com/

• LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynbarry

• Bluesky => https://bsky.app/profile/passivehousebb.bsky.social