In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Meghan Lewis, Program Director at the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), ahead of CLF's three-hour Materials programming block at Reimagine Buildings ’26: The Solutions on November 6.

Meghan walks through CLF’s Embodied Carbon State Policy Playbook, highlighting states leading the way on policy and the challenges of turning legislation into action. The conversation explores who still needs a seat at the table, particularly developers and contractors who hold the cost data policymakers need. Meghan also shares how CLF’s 26 volunteer-led hubs and professional commitment programs like SE 2050 are helping spread knowledge and accelerate progress, and why embodied carbon policy must address housing rather than treating it as off-limits.

The conversation offers a preview of CLF's three-hour Materials block at Reimagine Buildings ’26, which will bring together industry leaders to explore the policies, tools, and innovations driving embodied carbon reduction. Sessions will cover state-level policy, whole-building life cycle assessment benchmarking, and the hidden carbon impacts of MEP systems, followed by innovations in ultra-low-carbon concrete and biobased building materials. The programming will conclude with a panel on making low-carbon, affordable housing a reality, exploring how incentives, carbon accounting tools, and practical building strategies can help scale housing production without scaling emissions.

View the full program here:
https://events.ringcentral.com/events/reimagine-buildings-26/registration

Register for Reimagine Buildings ’26: The Solutions:
https://events.ringcentral.com/events/reimagine-buildings-26/registration

Learn more about the Carbon Leadership Forum:
https://carbonleadershipforum.org/

Join us on the Reimagine Buildings Collective:
https://collective.reimaginebuildings.com/

In this episode of the Passive House Podcast, Ilka Cassidy talks with Jane Sidebottom, 2026 president of Women in HVACR and founder and owner of AMK Consulting. Jane describes the “new collar” women coming into HVAC from waitressing, retail, and nursing, many of them looking for stable pay and schedules that work with raising a family.
She shares what employers can do to keep women in the industry, starting with defined career paths and flexibility for caregiving. Diving in to what excites her about where the industry is going, including window heat pumps that make electrification workable in low-income housing, and how listeners can get involved with Women in HVACR.

https://www.womeninhvacr.org/
https://www.amkconsultinggroup.com/

Join us on the Reimagine Buildings Collective: https://collective.reimaginebuildings.com/

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.

In this bonus episode of the Passive House Podcast, Michael Ingui is live on the expo floor of the ZEB Summit in Dublin, Michael chats with attendees about what's scaling Passive House in their world. Guests explain how Passive House reached 7% of residential output in the Republic of Ireland, what post-occupancy data shows for Scottish social housing, and why Cairn Homes uses AeroBarrier to protect its construction schedule.

Thank you to Aeroseal for sponsoring this episode and supporting the team's trip to Dublin.

https://www.zebsummit.com/

Featured in this episode:

• Hugh Whiriskey, Founder and Director, Partel
• Dr. Barry Mc Carron, Managing Director, KORE Retrofit
• Leighanne Fay-Crowe, KORE Retrofit
• Steven Magee, KORE Retrofit
• Dr. Wolfgang Feist, Passive House Institute
• Caroline Ashe Brady, Passive House Association of Ireland
• Emma Fletcher, Octopus Energy
• James York, Principal Energy Consultant, Collective Architecture
• Ryan Daly, Daly Renewables
• Ann-Marie Fallon, Co-Director, Passivhaus Trust
• Hugh Franklin, Aeroseal UK and AeroBarrier Ireland, and Roy O'Brien, Aeroseal
• Matt Risinger, The Build Show
• Julie Torres Moskowitz, Certified Passive House Consultant and Architect
• Ingrid Yancey, Certified Passive House Designer

Join us on the Reimagine Buildings Collective: https://collective.reimaginebuildings.com/

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.