Zero Ambitions Podcast

For almost two decades transatlantic commentator Lloyd Alter has been the rarest of creatures: a popular writer of insightful articles about green building, mainly via the pioneering green living website Treehugger.com.

Roaming cross-cultural perspectives on the built environment, sufficiency, consumption, change, the language of green building, gas stove outrage, transport, adaptation for aging populations, and plenty more.

Show Notes

For almost two decades transatlantic commentator  Lloyd Alter has been the rarest of creatures: a popular writer of insightful articles about green building, mainly via the pioneering green living website Treehugger.com.

The day before our interview, Lloyd and the rest of the editorial team at Treehugger were told to clear their desks, due to a change in business model that focused more on search engine algorithms, and less on the kind of nuanced, considered pieces that have made Lloyd so renowned.

We caught up with Lloyd to reflect on his time at Treehugger. We set out to talk about the state of reporting and publishing in the green building sector but the discussion ended up covering a lot of other ground, ranging from perhaps the most boneheaded culture war of all – the gas cooker variety - to the shortsighted lack of design consideration for aging populations.

Roaming cross-cultural perspectives on the built environment, sufficiency, consumption, change, the language of green building, gas stove outrage, transport, adaptation for aging populations, and plenty more.


Notes from the episode


**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**
We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.

**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**



What is Zero Ambitions Podcast?

Zero Ambitions is a consultancy and weekly podcast about sustainability and the built environment.

We find interesting and experienced guests who know what they're talking about, usually to discuss how we navigate the complexity of decarbonisation and sustainability in the built environment and its many related sectors.

Hosted by Jeff Colley and Dan Hyde, publishers of Passive House Plus magazine (UK and Ireland), the podcast has now grow into a consultancy, Zero Ambitions Partners.

The consultancy specialises in defensible sustainability communications. We create the strategy that makes built environment leaders stand out, enabling them to occupy positions that are distinct and defensible.

As with the podcast itself, we help organisations to communicate about what they do and the value that they offer. Usually, this means strategies to change a conversation from price to value and how to futureproof an offer with evidence that makes its claims watertight.

If you're a leader, or want to become one, we help you to make sense of where you stand in your sector, how to improve your positioning, how to communicate this to the market you operate in, and how to highlight the difference between you and your peer group.

If you can engage your value chain by speaking about what matters to them, you can educate your key stakeholders and turn them into evangelists for your cause.

Book a ‘ZAP Defensibility Audit’, but brace yourself
- Uncover value and opportunities that you may 
not have recognised
- Find out if your sustainability claims are defensible
- Find out if your claims are too meek
- Change the conversation from price to value