284: Breaking Down Barriers to High-Performance Buildings with Nidhi Shah

About this episode

Mary James interviews Nidhi Shah about her journey in sustainability and her work on high-performance building retrofits.

In this episode of The Passive House Podcast, Mary James chats with Nidhi Shah, a certified Passive House designer and member of the Reimagine Buildings Collective. Shah traces her path from early sustainability interests in India to Passive House training in the UK. They dive into her retrofit-focused work with Retrofit Action for Tomorrow (RAFT), emphasizing whole-building approaches over piecemeal measures like external wall insulation or heat pumps. Nidhi describes how funding criteria centered on operational carbon shaped retrofit decisions for cash-strapped public-sector buildings, and why reducing demand and peak heating loads matters alongside electrification and comfort. https://www.retrofitaction.org.uk/s/RAFT-Whole-Life-Carbon-Report Reimagine Buildings: Designing for Survivability: https://events.ringcentral.com/events/reimagine-buildings-survivability/registration Thank you for listening to the Passive House Podcast! To learn more about Passive House and to stay abreast of our latest programming, visit passivehouseaccelerator.com. And please join us at one of our Passive House Accelerator LIVE! zoom gatherings on Wednesdays.

People in this episode

Host: Mary James

Guest: Nidhi Shah

Topics covered

• high-performance buildings
• sustainability
• retrofit
• Passive House
• operational carbon
• public-sector buildings

Keywords

• Passive House
• sustainability
• retrofit
• operational carbon
• public-sector buildings
• whole-building approaches
• electrification

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Reimagine Buildings Collective, Retrofit Action for Tomorrow, Passive House, Passive House Accelerator

Places: India, UK

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