Lucy Pedler is an architect with 34 years of professional experience in the UK and USA and has particular expertise in sustainable building practices.

Lucy worked as a Product Specialist at Construction Resources, the UK’s first Ecological Building Centre, for five years. She spent the first two years researching the environmental impact of ecologically sound building materials and systems and the subsequent three years advising architects, other professionals and visitors on the appropriate selection of building materials. She was also responsible for running the seminar programme at Construction Resources and still makes regular presentations to architects and other organisations as part of The Green Register team.

In 1999, Lucy started her own sustainable architecture practice, archipeleco, designing buildings that have a low impact on the environment. In 2005, Paul McWilliams joined archipeleco to then create develeco limited, a company exclusively self-funded to offer refurbishments of existing buildings – usually in very poor condition – and transform the properties into sustainable, beautiful buildings fit for 21st century living.

Lucy created The Green Register in 2000 as part of her lifelong commitment to the promotion of sustainable building.
Lucy is an Earth Champion, on the panel of the Bristol Urban Design Forum and a keen cyclist.

Nicholas Heath MA MSc is Founding Director of NDM Heath Ltd, an independent sustainable energy consultancy based in Yorkshire. He has a wealth of experience in the challenges of achieving meaningful building upgrades that address environmental, economic and social agendas. In particular, he has a special expertise in the challenges and solutions for traditional and historic building stock, as well as large-scale social housing regeneration.

Formerly with sustainable development organisation Changeworks – where he remains an Associate Consultant – Nicholas is the author of numerous traditional building retrofit guides, technical papers, research reports and planning guidance, and has extensive experience of technical training development and delivery.

Nicholas has led high-profile research into solid wall insulation on traditional buildings, and has worked with several local authorities and social housing providers to develop city-wide strategies for the responsible retrofit of traditional buildings. He has worked nationally and internationally with a wide range of public and private clients including the Scottish Government, Historic England, Historic Scotland, UNESCO, EST, CITB, RIBA, RICS, STBA and SPAB, as well as numerous architect firms, local authorities and housing associations, universities and community groups.

Nicholas is also Technical Director of the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA), an Affiliate and Technical Panel Member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), and a part-time lecturer at the University of York. In addition, he is a licenced SAP and BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment Assessor, providing both new-build and existing building energy audits and upgrade strategies to the private sector.

Niall Crosson is Senior Technical Engineer with Ecological Building Systems. He holds a degree as a Bachelor of Technology (1st class Hons.) and a Masters Eng. Sc. He is also a Certified Passivhaus Consultant. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Green Building Council and provides guidance on a number of national standard committees.

EBS have pioneered the introduction of natural insulation materials and airtightness to the construction industry in Ireland and the UK for over a decade. His expertise is in the area of building physics, energy conservation, hygrothermal analysis, airtightness, natural insulation, and vapour diffusion open constructions.

Over the last decade Niall has received advanced training from GUTEX woodfibre insulation manufacturers (www.GUTEX.de) and pro clima (www.proclima.com) based in Germany as well as a number of other companies. He has provided guidance to many award winning low energy projects in Ireland and the UK. He has also co-authored and authored chapters for a number of low energy building publications including The Passivhaus Handbook and The Passivhaus Designers Manual. Niall also provides regular technical contributions to a number of construction publications including The Journal of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.

Christian Bludau, Dr.-Ing is a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, Department for Hygrothermics, in Germany.

Christian received his Diploma in Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, Germany in 2001. After his studies he worked as research assistant at the Institute for Building Materials and the Institute for Structural Engineering at the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich.

He has worked as researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics since 2005 and from 2011 to 2015 he had held a lectureship for building physics / moisture control in buildings at the University of Applied Sciences in Augsburg. He finished his PHD with the topic “Special boundary conditions for the hygrothermal simulation of flat roofs in timber constructions” in 2021. His research interests focus on the hygrothermal conditions in wall and roof constructions with special interests in the thermal behaviour of flat roofs. Christian has been involved in many WUFI® seminars, lessons and workshops during the last few years.

Dr Daniel Zirkelbach is the Group Manager of Moisture Control and Construction in other Climatic Zones at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, Germany. Daniel Zirkelbach worked from 2001 to 2004 as
Scientist at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Building Physics (IBP) in Holzkirchen, Germany. Since 2004 he’s group manager and sine 2007 deputy head of the department Hygrothermics at IBP. Daniel Zirkelbach is responsible for the work fields moisture control, hygrothermal simulation and climate specific design. This includes the evaluation and optimization of building envelopes and materials for different outdoor climate conditions and operations as well as the development of the building component simulation software WUFI ®.

He is member of the technical approval board for exterior insulations (task groups A and B3) at the Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik (DIBt), the working group for DIN 4108-3 and the WTA task groups “Interior insulation systems” and “Hygrothermal performance of wooden structures”. Daniel Zirkelbach published more than 110 scientific articles in national and international journals, text books and conference proceedings and lectures Building Physics resp. Hygrothermics at the University for applied sciences in Munich.

Joseph Little , BArch, MSc Arch. AEES, is the principal of Joseph Little Architects and Building Life Consultancy. He graduated from the UCD School of Architecture in 1996 and from the Graduate School of the Environment at the Centre for Alternative Technology in 2008.

Joseph set-up his own practice in 2003 when he realised that his passion for low energy, environmental building design could only be realised outside of mainstream architectural practices and launched Building Life Consultancy in February 2009.

Joseph’s consultancy has recently held WUFI® hygrothermal training in Glasgow, Leeds and Dublin with Fraunhofer IBP and thermal bridge training in Dublin. Historic Scotland released ‘Technical Paper 15’ in Summer 2012 which is a significant report by Little, and colleague Calina Ferraro, on hygrothermal simulation and internal insulation retrofits in Scotland.

Joe Fitzgerald is Technical Support Engineer & NSAI Approved Thermal Modeller at Ecological Building Systems.

Joe is a trained Energy Manager and graduated from Athlone I.T with an Honour’s Degree in Sustainable Construction & Energy Management. After this he went on to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Green Engineering and joined Ecological shortly after.

In addition to his academic studies, Joe has also spent many years as a tradesman and has completed the Passive House Contractor exam. Most recently, Joe became an NSAI approved Thermal Modeller after completing his examination in Dublin Technological University and is now certified to carry out thermal bridge assessments to evaluate heat loss in buildings.

Neil Turner is Technical Sales Manager at Ecological Building Systems. A former competent person of the BBA/TIMSA U-Value and Condensation Risk Calculation Competency Scheme, who has been involved in developing CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation) European standards, Neil has extensive experience in the building products sector. Neil advises architects, contractors and timber frame specialists on the specification of sustainable insulation products and has been involved in numerous sustainable projects throughout the UK.

Recent projects that Neil has been involved with include:

• Bristol City Council affordable Passivhaus housing scheme with pro clima systems, Halstatt Construction and Gale & Snowden Architects
• York Road Montpelier Bristol, internal and external renovation with Diathonite Evolution system, Andrew Dale Architects
• Oak Meadow Primary School, Thomas Vale Construction and Cygnum pro clima
• West Dulwich Passivhaus new build pro clima systems, RDA Architects

Vince has been in the heating and ventilation industry for 20 years, this time has been split between manufacturers and contractors, giving a good balance of experience of the supply chain and delivery side.

Vince has been working predominantly within the social housing sector for the last 11 years, he is passionate about energy efficiency, and delivering a quality end product.

Ben is a Project Manager and qualified Carpenter with over 20 years’ experience. Ben manages all of Earthwise Construction’s construction-based projects. He is passionate about sustainable construction and is a committed environmentalist.

Ben holds a MSc Architecture: Advanced Energy & Environment Studies (Distinction) from the Centre for Alternative Technology and is a certified Passive House/Passivhaus Tradesperson. Ben is a Futureproof Associate Builder trainer, which means he trains other builders in using sustainable methods.

Ian is a building researcher, specialising in the field of building performance in relation to occupant comfort and indoor air quality. Since 2008, He has been a senior member of the technical team supporting the governments of England and Wales in developing amendments to their respective Building Regulations. Ian is technical lead for Part F (ventilation) and technical author for Part L for dwellings in relation to airtightness, standards for thermal elements, and improving levels of compliance.

Ian is routinely involved in building research programmes, many of which are delivered for national government (BEIS and MHCLG), and for organisations such as AECOM, Energy Saving Trust, the Sustainable and Traditional Buildings Alliance, NHBC Foundation, and the former Zero Carbon Hub. In previous roles, he was appointed by Innovate UK as an expert evaluator under the £8M Building Performance Evaluation programme and provided technical guidance for the £17M Retrofit for the Future programme. Ian is co-chair of the technical working group for ventilation and indoor air quality at the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings, and is a member of the Retrofit Standards Task Group.

Ilias Igoumenidis is a Technical Support Engineer at Ecological Building Systems. Born and raised in Greece, Ilias graduated from the Polytechnic school of Civil Engineers of Patras University and for many years ran his own Design and Construction company prior to moving to the UK.   Since 2013, he has been heavily involved with low energy consumption in building projects.  He was the first person in the Hellenic Passive House Institute to gain the International Certification of a Certified Passive House Designer. Ilias played a significant part of the first Certified Passive House project [Enerphit] in the south eastern Mediterranean area “Passivistas”.  Recent projects that Ilias has been involved with include:

• Agar Grove, London Borough of Camden, 500 affordable homes for new and existing tenants, putting energy performance and fuel poverty top of the agenda, Hawkins\Brown Architects.
• Glen Cottage, Allonby, Cumbria, internal and external renovation of solid stone property with Diathonite Evolution system.
• St Leonards, Chelsea, London, renovation with Diathonite Evolution and Calsitherm climate board systems, Design & Visual Concepts contractors.

Dave Judd is Technical Sales Executive at Ecological Building Systems.

Dave has extensive experience with energy efficiency retrofits and is well acquainted with the “fabric first” principles of integrating airtightness and insulation in both new-build and existing buildings.

He has also worked within the domestic renewable energy sector, with the main emphasis on solar PV, solar thermal and biomass systems. He has a Degree in Environmental Science and an MSc in Architecture: Advanced Environment & Energy Studies.

Dr Sarah Price, MSci CEng MIOP has extensive experience in Passivhaus and AECB consultancy and is a Passivhaus and AECB Certifier. She has worked on over 90 certified Passivhaus dwellings across the country, and has dabbled in Passivhaus leisure centres, student accommodation, schools and more!​

She also works with the Government, BSI and other organisations to create domestic retrofit standards, guidance and training. She is a member of the Retrofit Steering Task Group set up after the Each Home Counts review, and is the technical author for the PAS 2035/2030 retrofit standard.​Dr Sarah Price works closely with the Leeds Sustainability Institute at Leeds Beckett University to further research in building performance evaluation and retrofit.

With a mechanical engineering background, Diane’s interest in buildings arose several years ago with the realisation that our existing buildings are crucial to reducing our environmental impact.

Primarily interested in building physics, she completed an MSc at the Centre for Alternative Technology and over the past few years has had a number of papers published in the field of ventilation in traditional dwellings, together with undertaking project work for organisations such as the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and Historic Environment Scotland.

Diane is a certified Passive House Consultant and Tradesperson as well as being accredited through the iATS (Independent Airtightness Testing Scheme) to airtightness test and certify both homes and non-domestic buildings for Part L.

After working for the past 18 years for a private training provider as an Assessor/Trainer, Nigel started working for PHC Parts in July 2023 as their Training & Development Manager. He has a big interest in renewable energy and has completed a few manufacturers heat pump training courses and now delivers Level 1 courses to installers.

With twenty years of experience in the carpentry industry, Jonathan owns and runs Parnosa, a Bristol-based building company specialising in sustainable building practices and retrofit. Parnosa regularly installs many types of installation using natural materials and is well-experienced in airtightness detailing. Jonathan qualified in Level 2 Site Carpentry, Level 2 Building Treatments: UFI, and Level 5 Retrofit Coordinator.

Beth Williams MEng (Hons), CEng MICE 

Twitter: @BethWilliamsSE 

Beth is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Certified PassivHaus Designer, and associate at Build Collective, a bespoke engineering consultancy based in Bristol. 

Beth has over 10 years’ experience in low-energy and low-carbon design and construction, focussing on timber frame PassivHaus buildings. Her project experience ranges from domestic extensions to new build sports halls and high security NHS facilities.  

Alongside practice work, Beth is a visiting tutor at Bath, Cardiff and UWE architecture schools, and group leader for the AECB Bristol & Bath local group. Beth is passionate about making low-energy buildings simple to build, affordable and available to all. 

Tomas Gaertner, Director, Gale & Snowden Architects 

Tomas trained and worked as an Architect in Germany prior to moving to the UK in 2007 when he joined Gale & Snowden Architects and Mechanical Engineers. Since 1992 the practice’s team of architects, mechanical engineers, Passivhaus designers, landscape architects, permaculture designers and planners specialises exclusively in integrated, ecological and sustainable design and planning. In 2014 Gale & Snowden have become the first Building Biology Consultancy in the UK to be officially accredited by the Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (IBN) in Germany. Since 2008 Tomas has been involved with a range of Passivhaus schemes including residential, education, commercial, refurbishment and leisure facilities. Tomas is a Director of Gale & Snowden Architects, a founding director of the UK Building Biology Association and a chartered member of the RIBA and ARB. He is a Certified Building Biologist IBN, Passivhaus designer and trained BREEAM assessor.  

Stacey is joint Managing Director of Eight Versa. Stacey has a wide range of ecology experience gained over the last nine years working within the consultancy, local authority, charity and education sectors. She has experience of completing ecological surveys, overseeing ecological assessments and can offer advice and guidance throughout the development process. She is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM). 

Stacey has implemented varied habitat creation projects and subsequently compiled management plans. She has experience writing wildlife policy and advising on the ecological aspects of planning applications from both an officer and an applicant aspect. Stacey is licensed BREEAM assessor and Suitably Qualified Ecologist for BREEAM assessments and can advise on the optimal solutions in achieving the highest possible levels of biodiversity. 

Tim has been involved with VAT since the 70s. He joined HM Customs & Excise, (now HM Revenue & Customs) shortly after the introduction of VAT in the UK. He worked as a visiting VAT inspector and as a classroom trainer.

In 1990, he joined accountancy firm PKF as VAT manager later becoming Director of VAT and in 2000 was appointed VAT Director at BDO.

In October 2005, Tim set up his own VAT consultancy and training company. In addition to presenting various training courses Tim is a consultant to several accountancy firms and other businesses. He has represented clients in disputes with HMRC including at VAT Tribunals.

Tim regularly lectures on a range of VAT topics. He was a Council member and for three years was Director of Education of the Institute of Indirect Taxation. He was responsible for the entrance examination.

Tim is a Chartered Tax Advisor, and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation following a merger of the two institutes.

Jack Allen brings over 14 years of experience in sustainability across the built environment. He has worked at every stage of the building lifecycle – from planning and energy modelling through to post-completion testing, certification, and retrofit delivery. Jack founded Building Energy Experts to bridge the performance gap between theoretical energy models and real-world building performance. By combining desk-based consultancy with hands-on testing, they help clients achieve measurable outcomes in carbon reductions and energy efficiency across new build and retrofit projects in both commercial and domestic settings.

James Norman, Professor of Sustainable design, University of Bath

James is an award-winning engineer and teacher who has designed landmark buildings and developed innovative teaching that combines practice with learning. He’s written several books for engineers, students and built environment professionals making sustainable building a reality; on timber structures, conceptual design, and most recently the future of structural design.

James is committed to making sustainable design as accessible as possible, through his writing, lecturing and blogs. In his spare time James writes books about running Micro Record Labels and having coffee in the woods.

Scott Boote CEng BEng (Hons) MIStructE, Agnos Studio

As a Chartered Structural Engineer with over 20 years professional experience, Scott always strives to shape a more sustainable future in the construction industry. His passion lies in architecturally led structures, where he thrives on collaborating closely with design teams to create innovative, low-carbon solutions that are as beautiful as they are functional.

Specialising in the use of low-carbon materials, Scott has pioneered the use of structural stone, rammed earth, and timber-concrete composites in modern construction. With over 60 completed projects in structural stone – ranging from plain to post-tensioned – Scots is one of the few engineers globally with this level of expertise. This work was recognised with an IStructE Award in 2016.