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Robert Sroufe, PhD. is a Professor of Sustainability, Operations and Supply Chain Management at Duquesne University. His practical experience comes from sustainable supply chain management. He was ‘co-opted’ into the green building movement by experts that he invited him to present to their students about the business opportunities associated with building green.

Living Shelter Architects is a design firm led by Terry Phelan in the Northwest of Washington State. The focus of their work is to provide healthy, resilient homes by combining natural materials with the "gifts of the site".

VCA Green provides green building consulting and commissioning. Their mission is to help clients achieve sustainability goals and long-term cost savings. I spoke with Principal Moe Fakih about where buildings sometimes go wrong and how companies like VCA Green can help with energy modelling, building rating, and commissioning. 

How is overlighting of our internal environments, and overshading our cities, affecting our wellbeing? Antony DiMase is a thoughtful Architect based in Melbourne, Australia. We discuss the role that architecture can play in making better places for people and the planet.

Enveloped provide all the products and systems you need to take an ordinary house and make it a high-performance home. Murray and his team help with the selection and installation of airtightness systems, insulation, ventilation, high-performance windows, heating and water heating systems for homes throughout New Zealand. "Remember, the Building Code is the minimum level of performance you are legally allowed to build to."

Through his work, Simon Croker is showing that designers can make a difference and be significant wherever they are. From big city firms to small country town practices, everyone can play an important role in creating sustainable, healthy buildings for the benefit of everyone.

Architects shape the places where they work. Good Architects are themselves also shaped by their surrounding environment. Living and working in Wanaka, Beth Chaney is very aware of being part of a place that most people only get to visit on holiday. This acknowledgment provides motivation for looking after the environment through her work as an architect. In this episode, we discuss how Chaney and Norman incorporate environmental ratings along with PHPP energy modelling from Passive House to create sustainable architecture.

CarbonLite is a producer of prefabricated Passive House and high-performance buildings, based in Victoria Australia. Founder Burkhard Hansen explains some of the problems with typical Australian building practices, and how CarbonLite is using building science and experience to produce fit for purpose homes. 

Idealings Architecture is based in Fremantle, Western Australia and serves Perth and the Southwest of the state. Run by Timo and Najwa Bleeker, the aim of Idealings is to help future homeowners and organisations to create healthy, comfortable, energy-efficient and sustainable buildings.

After studying Japanese and international business, Daniel Gudsell's plan was to go to Japan and sell New Zealand produced milk, but he ended up selling wood in the South Pacific, an enterprise that led to the creation of Abode Wood.

Murray Robertson took a liking to technical drawing during intermediate school, which he carried on through college. After considering both industrial design and landscape design, he eventually settled on Architecture. He 'did his time' at a few practices and then found himself at McLaren Associates in Edinburgh where he was introduced to the environmental rating processes of BREEAM. Back in New Zealand, Murray spent over a decade at Stephenson & Turner before starting his own practice, Robertson Architecture Design in 2016.

In 2019 Anne Salmond was made a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, a high honour available to a maximum of only ten people at any one time. As a trailblazer throughout her career, Anne is a worthy recipient of this title. At one time Anne was told that she was running the largest architecture firm in the country that was directed by women. In our interview, Anne and I discuss her growing interest in sustainable architecture, passive solar and Passive House, Living Building Challenge and some of the exciting projects she's currently working on.

Simon Wansbrough is the Founder and Director of Third Little Pig, a custom home builder based in Christchurch. We discuss how Simon got into building in the first place, what building better homes means to him, and how he's been able to become more selective about the projects he takes on.

Daniel Wolkenberg is a student of the 90s. He took the fairly typical route out of Architecture School and worked for a couple of different studios as a graduate. During this time Daniel worked on some fairly major projects such as Federation Square in Melbourne. He gained experience in master planning and got exposure to people and practices. With a desire to own more of the complete process and to fully connect with clients, Daniel opened his own practice, Poly Studio at the beginning of 2012.

Before Reece Beresford trained as a builder and started his own company, he did some time working on oil rigs. Now he's aspiring to build Certified Passive House for clients in Perth, Western Australia.

Viktoria Nikitina is Managing Director of Blue Sky Windows, a manufacturer of high quality, high performance uPVC windows based in Melbourne, Victoria. With so many locally manufactured options now available, there are plenty of reasons why you should consider windows and doors like these for your next project.

Simon Cator of Pro Clima New Zealand recently caught up with Kirstie Brown at a sustainable house that Kirstie has built using ECO-Block Insulation Concrete Forms (ICF) in Tauranga. Simon finds out about the advantages of using ECO-Blocks and how an airtight construction is already contributing to great performance. This episode and accompanying article originally appeared on Eboss, https://www.eboss.co.nz/ebossnow/pro-clima-intelligent-air-barrier-tauranga-sustainable-home

Browsing the photo gallery on Jeff Bogard's R.E.A Homes website, 'sustainability' is not likely the first word that comes to mind. Can large, luxury houses actually be sustainable? This is one of the topics I discussed with Jeff who's been providing high performance homes for discerning clients in Saint Louis for over fourteen years.

I'm always interested in the perceptions of architects and builders who have been trained or have experienced living in Europe and then come to the Southern Hemisphere. Their reaction to typical houses in New Zealand and Australia usually involves a level of disbelief. A common sentiment is that they've never been colder, despite this being a milder climate.

Joachim Herrmann developed an interest in building biology while working as a teacher. As a trained biologist, he describes the science of life as "endlessly fascinating". We discuss the 25 principles of Building Biology and how they contribute to creating healthy places to live.