Zero Ambitions Podcast

Peter Rickaby qualified as an architect at Cambridge University and holds a doctorate in energy studies from the Open University. He worked in leading architectural practices in New Zealand and London before a thirty-five-year career as an energy and sustainability consultant in buildings and housing. He has published numerous technical guides to energy efficiency and was Managing Editor of the Institute of Sustainability's acclaimed suite of Low Carbon Domestic Retrofit Guides. Peter has been a Board Director of the Centre of Refurbishment Excellence (CoRE) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Energy Foundation. He contributed extensively to the Each Home Counts review, for which he was also a member of the Implementation Board, and he chairs the BSI Retrofit Standards Task Group. Peter was the Technical Author of the BSI's two UK retrofit standards: PAS 2035 Retrofitting dwellings for improved energy efficiency: Specification and guidance; and PAS 2038 Retrofitting non-domestic buildings for improved energy efficiency: Specification. Now semi-retired, Peter helps to run the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB) and coordinates the Building Envelope Research Network (BERN@ UCL), both at University College London. Peter is also Technical Director of The Retrofit Academy.

Show Notes

Peter Rickaby qualified as an architect at Cambridge University and holds a doctorate in energy studies from the Open University. He worked in leading architectural practices in New Zealand and London before a thirty-five-year career as an energy and sustainability consultant in buildings and housing. He has published numerous technical guides to energy efficiency and was Managing Editor of the Institute of Sustainability's acclaimed suite of Low Carbon Domestic Retrofit Guides. Peter has been a Board Director of the Centre of Refurbishment Excellence (CoRE) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Energy Foundation. He contributed extensively to the Each Home Counts review, for which he was also a member of the Implementation Board, and he chairs the BSI Retrofit Standards Task Group. Peter was the Technical Author of the BSI's two UK retrofit standards: PAS 2035 Retrofitting dwellings for improved energy efficiency: Specification and guidance; and PAS 2038 Retrofitting non-domestic buildings for improved energy efficiency: Specification. Now semi-retired, Peter helps to run the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB) and coordinates the Building Envelope Research Network (BERN@ UCL), both at University College London. Peter is also Technical Director of The Retrofit Academy.

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