Steve Hessler is a Certified Passive House Consultant, building systems specialist at New Energy Works, and visiting educator at McGill University through Holzraum System. He started out in communications before being drawn into carpentry via a growing obsession with all things wood, and ultimately into building and enclosure design.

In this episode, we talk about the marketing potential of graphic-rich modeling visualizations, the many benefits of building with biogenic materials, the importance of thinking at the whole-system level, the beauty of a well-illustrated instruction manual, and more.

Connect with Steve, New Energy Works, and Holzraum System:

• Steve on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-hessler-81214833/

• New Energy Works on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-energy-works/

• New Energy Works on Instagram => https://www.instagram.com/newenergyworks/

• New Energy Works website => https://newenergyworks.com/

• Holzraum System on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/holzraum-system-llc/

• Holzraum System website => https://www.holzraumsystem.com/

Mark Attard is the founder and director of Point 6 Building Science Consultants, as well as being both a certified passive house consultant and tradesperson. From energy modelling to heating and cooling design, verification work in the field to pre-build sequencing, Point 6 is on a mission to support architects, builders, developers, and municipalities in building verifiably better buildings.

In this episode, we talk about the esoteric, passive house-themed name of his and co-founder Shawn LeMons' business, the importance of clearly defined goals on a project whether that's certification or not, how to communicate effectively with clients and tradespeople working on your project, and more.

Connect with Mark and Point 6:

• Mark on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/attardmark/

• The Colorado Green Building Guild => https://cgbg.org/home

• Reimagine Buildings Collective => https://collective.reimaginebuildings.com/

• Passive House Rocky Mountains => https://passivehousenetwork.org/chapters/passive-house-rocky-mountains/

• Point 6 on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/point6pro/

• Point 6 on Bluesky => https://bsky.app/profile/point6pro.bsky.social

• Point 6 on Instagram => https://www.instagram.com/point6pro/

• Point 6 website => https://www.point6.pro/

Josh Salinger is the founder and CEO of Birdsmouth Design-Build, building custom new residential homes and ADUs, as well as some retrofits and remodels. They focus their new construction on passive buildings and have been doing that — and certifying them through Phius — since 2012 or so, operating out of Portland, Oregon, in the US Pacific Northwest.

In this episode, we talk about best practices and how passive building techniques and passive house certification are, in a way, nothing more or less than a means of following best practices at every step along the way. We talk about the benefits of design-build, the five things everyone really wants from their building (and how to figure out which one to talk about first), and much more.

Connect with Josh and Birdsmouth:

• Josh on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-salinger-763a396/

• Josh on Fine Home Building => https://www.finehomebuilding.com/author/josh-salinger

• Josh on Green Building Advisor => https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/author/josh_salinger

• Birdsmouth on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/company/birdsmouth-designbuild/

• Birdsmouth on Instagram => https://www.instagram.com/birdsmouthpdx/

• Birdsmouth website => https://www.birdsmouthpdx.com/