Category: Health
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Build Aotearoa 2: Principles and Performance
In March 2023, Homestar trainer, Passive House Designer and Certified Passive House owner, Joseph Lyth published a comparison of Homestar v5, Passive House and MBIE’s proposed Building for Climate Change framework. It’s a useful summary of these main three standards. There are other standards and brands out there, but these are the most relevant for…
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265: A New Network of Smart Healthy and Green Living Content
Sabine Schoenberg is co-founder of the Smart Healthy Green Living network, a collection of videos and streamed content on everything from tiny homes and carpentry to interior design and gardening. Through her network, Sabine is promoting the ‘Do One Thing‘ campaign to help everyone take a step towards living a more sustainable life. Sustainability, says…
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260: The Mold Medic
Michael Rubino studied marketing and business at college, but ended up back home working for his family business. Michael’s father was involved with a lot of fire restoration work, some of which came from insurance claims to do with the damage caused by all the water used to fight fires. He saw first hand, the…
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257 The Atlas of Comfort
Germán Molina trained as an engineer in Chile and has recently completed fascinating research posing the question ‘what is comfort?’ at Victoria University in Wellington. Having come from ‘the warm side’ of engineering, Germán has long had an interest in energy efficiency. He didn’t expect to be researching human behavior and social science.
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254: The Impact of Interior Design
Georgia Ezra has a lot on the go. Based in Melbourne, she’s the Founder and Director of her own interior design practice Studio Ezra. She also sources and supplies artisan tiles through Tiles of Ezra and bespoke homewares via AHW. Georgia calls herself a ‘treasure hunter and market maven’. She has a passion for pushing…
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239: How to Build the Right Home
Jennifer Crawford first appeared on Home Style Green when Our New Home Coach was just getting started. Six years on, she’s back to discuss her journey and why she still believes strongly in helping people build the right home. 2020 has been an interesting year for everyone, Jennifer included. A few months after starting a…
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236: Sustainability Leadership
Sheryl Owen embodies sustainability leadership. Her purpose is to create a sustainable environment where everyone can thrive. “The environment should not be a commodity available for a select few,” says Sheryl. “In order for us to elevate, we must be aware of our impact on the environment and marginalised communities”. In her numerous volunteer roles,…
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217: The Performance of Luxury
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. True…
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190: What can learn from over thirty years of airtightness testing?
Paul Jennings needed a project for his dissertation on fuel poverty in the UK when he came across some charity work funded by the then ‘Greater London Council’. This was back in the 1980s. Not many people had heard of Blower Doors or airtightness testing. But a team from the suppliers in Canada were willing…
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188: How to Have a Comfortable, Safe and Affordable Home
Paul Hennessey has an inspiring vision of a thriving community in which people live in their own warm, dry comfortable and affordable homes. He’s partnered with his wife, Pascale to create Park Homes in order to turn that vision into reality. But is it really possible to have an affordable and a comfortable home? Affordability…