Mini Episode – Listen Before You Install Your Next Heat Pump
Aug 08, 2025
Show notes
It’s been a while! Buildings + Beyond host Robb Aldrich is back with a quick update on a new (and free!) video series for anyone who wants to learn how to install an air-source heat pump. We hope to return with more full-length episodes soon, but in the meantime, say hello at podcast@swinter.com.
Air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) can work great, even in cold climates, but they have to be designed and installed correctly to be high-performance. At Steven Winter Associates, we recently worked with Jon Harrod (a previous guest on the pod) to create a video series for NYSERDA that demonstrates each step of a real-life ASHP installation including:
Planning, locating, and setting equipment
Connecting everything, preventing refrigerant leaks, and charging
Setting you up for success – making sure everything works and facilitating good operation and maintenance
See below for how to access!
Featuring
Host: Robb Aldrich, Principal Mechanical Engineer at Steven Winter Associates
Episode Resources
VIDEO SERIES: Cold-Climate Air Source Heat Pump – Installation Refreshers Guide
The series includes 15 videos, each 2-5 minutes, that can easily be viewed at your desk, on your phone, and while in the field. Here’s how to access:
Need CEUs? Enroll in the “Installing a Cold-Climate, Air-Source Heat Pump” course on SWA Academy: https://bets.swa-academy.com. This course is free to those who live or work in New York State.
If you’re looking for more info on designing and selecting ASHP equipment, check out the longer “Air-Source Heat Pumps: Achieving Comfort & Efficiency in Cold Climates” course on SWA Academy: https://ashp.swa-academy.com
KEEP LISTENING: The Role of Heat Pumps in Low-Moderate Income Homes with Jon Harrod
Buildings + Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings + Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Hosts: Robb Aldrich | Kelly Westby
Production Team: Heather Breslin | Dylan Martello | Tricia Carr
Room Acoustics – Are They the Missing Piece in the Occupant Experience?
Oct 30, 2024
Show notes
Many of us take good acoustics for granted. But it’s common for acoustic efforts to be the first thing cut from commercial projects—or not included in the design phase at all, according to Graham Waks, founder of Music City Acoustics. And when a space has bad acoustics, it can negatively impact the occupant experience.
Buildings + Beyond producer and audio guru Dylan Martello invited Graham on the podcast to talk about the science behind room acoustics, how they affect the occupants of a space, and the most effective ways to improve acoustics for several types of commercial spaces. Plus, we have a special introduction with Dylan and B+B host Robb Aldrich!
Host: Dylan Martello, Senior Building Systems Consultant at Steven Winter Associates
Guest Bios
Graham Waks is the founder of Music City Acoustics, a company known for providing top-tier acoustic treatment solutions for musicians, producers, and audio professionals. With over a decade of experience, Graham is passionate about helping clients achieve the best possible sound environments, whether in studios, offices, restaurants, or churches. Graham’s commitment to quality and innovation has made his company a trusted name for clients looking to improve their acoustic performance and sound quality.
Thank you to our episode sponsor, Passive House Accelerator!
Passive House Accelerator is an online community and media company dedicated to accelerating the transition to clean, resilient, zero-carbon buildings.
Every week, Passive House Accelerator produces new original content, including Passive House Accelerator LIVE! online educational events, Passive House Podcast episodes, articles about low-carbon building, video content, and a newsletter. In addition, it also publishes a magazine twice a year and hosts the acclaimed Reimagine Buildings online conference series.
Visit passivehouseaccelerator.com to subscribe to the newsletter, register for an upcoming event, and browse the latest podcast episodes, articles, and videos.
We Want to Hear From You!
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings + Beyond
Buildings + Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings + Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Do We Need a Green Certification Program Just for Commercial Kitchens? (Hint… Yes)
Sep 17, 2024
Show notes
Featuring
Chef Christopher Galarza
Christopher is a pioneering force in the culinary world, known for his unwavering commitment to sustainability and innovation in kitchen design. As the founder of Forward Dining Solutions LLC and co-founder of EcoChef, Chef Galarza has become a leading advocate for decarbonizing commercial kitchens and championing the Green Industrial Revolution within the foodservice industry. Read more
Chef Duke Gastiger (pictured with Monica Gastiger)
Duke and Monica bring specialized talents and passion to RE Farm Café at Windswept. Duke’s prior corporate life with Sheraton and Hyatt Hotels embraced training with master chefs from around the world, learning the essence and nuances of each of their cuisines. Read more
Host: Kelly Westby
Kelly leads the Building Operations, Decarbonization, and Efficiency (BODE) team at SWA. She has a wide range of experience in building science, commissioning, and energy efficiency retrofitting. Kelly’s commissioning, energy code, and efficiency projects cover millions of square feet of commercial buildings along the East Coast. She also speaks at events and conferences, sharing her expertise on industry best practices.
Commercial kitchens are one of the most challenging spaces to electrify, but we need to take on this challenge in order to decarbonize restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, and other buildings with commercial kitchens. Is another green certification program the answer?
In this episode, Chefs Christopher Galarza and Duke Gastiger are back to dive into EcoChef—the first electric kitchen rating system and certification program with the goal to standardize how commercial kitchens are designed, built, and operated. They discuss the origin story of EcoChef, the structure of the program, the pilot project with Duke’s RE Farm Café, and why commercial kitchens need a dedicated certification program for electrification.
Special update: Congratulations to Chef Christopher for becoming a Certified Executive Chef (CEC), making him the first chef in history to earn this certification in an all-electric kitchen! Read more
Sponsor
Passive House Accelerator
Thank you to our episode sponsor, Passive House Accelerator!
Passive House Accelerator is an online community and media company dedicated to accelerating the transition to clean, resilient, zero-carbon buildings.
Every week, Passive House Accelerator produces new original content, including Passive House Accelerator LIVE! online educational events, Passive House Podcast episodes, articles about low-carbon building, video content, and a newsletter. In addition, it also publishes a magazine twice a year and hosts the acclaimed Reimagine Buildings online conference series.
Visit passivehouseaccelerator.com to subscribe to the newsletter, register for an upcoming event, and browse the latest podcast episodes, articles, and videos.
We Want to Hear From You!
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
It’s Getting Hot in Here! – Why We Can’t Stop Talking About Electric Kitchens
Sep 01, 2024
Show notes
Featuring
Chef Christopher Galarza
Christopher is a pioneering force in the culinary world, known for his unwavering commitment to sustainability and innovation in kitchen design. As the founder of Forward Dining Solutions LLC and co-founder of EcoChef, Chef Galarza has become a leading advocate. Read more
Chef Duke Gastiger (pictured with Monica Gastiger)
Duke and Monica bring specialized talents and passion to RE Farm Café at Windswept. Duke’s prior corporate life with Sheraton and Hyatt Hotels embraced training with master chefs from around the world, learning the essence and nuances of each of their cuisines. With a strong entrepreneurial drive, Duke returned to his college town in 1985 to acquire The All-American Rathskeller. In 1987, Duke opened Spats Café and Speakeasy, a themed “prohibition era” eatery. Read more
Host: Kelly Westby
Kelly leads the Building Operations, Decarbonization, and Efficiency (BODE) team at SWA. She has a wide range of experience in building science, commissioning, and energy efficiency retrofitting. Kelly’s commissioning, energy code, and efficiency projects cover millions of square feet of commercial buildings along the East Coast. She also speaks at events and conferences, sharing her expertise on industry best practices.
Remember when gas stoves became a political issue last year? While all that public debate was happening, there were chefs around the world embracing the concept of all-electric kitchens and getting past the learning curve to induction cooking.
We don’t hear about gas stoves in the news as much as we used to, but kitchen electrification will always be a hot topic here at Buildings + Beyond! In this episode, we invited Chef Christopher Galarza back to the podcast to talk about the progress being made to transform more commercial kitchens into efficient, safe, and climate-friendly spaces. Chris brought Duke Gastiger, who built a net zero, all-electric commercial kitchen at his farm restaurant, to join the conversation.
Keep listening: Our previous episode with Chef Christopher Galarza, It’s Time to 86 Fossil Fuels in Commercial Kitchens, is available here.
Coming soon: Look out for part two of this episode all about the EcoChef electric kitchen rating system and certification.
Thank you to our episode sponsor, Passive House Accelerator!
Passive House Accelerator is an online community and media company dedicated to accelerating the transition to clean, resilient, zero-carbon buildings.
Every week, Passive House Accelerator produces new original content, including Passive House Accelerator LIVE! online educational events, Passive House Podcast episodes, articles about low-carbon building, video content, and a newsletter. In addition, it also publishes a magazine twice a year and hosts the acclaimed Reimagine Buildings online conference series.
Visit passivehouseaccelerator.com to subscribe to the newsletter, register for an upcoming event, and browse the latest podcast episodes, articles, and videos.
We Want to Hear From You!
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Career Diaries – What’s It Like Working As an Accessibility Consultant?
Jul 26, 2024
Show notes
Featuring
Carlos Sevillano
Carlos is a Senior Accessibility Consultant at SWA focusing primarily on residential projects. His key responsibilities include conducting plan reviews, field inspections, and providing technical guidance to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulatory and building code requirements for accessible design and construction.
Jeff Heitert
Jeff is an Accessibility Consulting Director and a 15+ year veteran of the team at SWA. He has specialized expertise in the complex scoping and technical requirements of federal, state, and local regulations and building codes that require accessible design and construction. Jeff oversees quality control and consulting services for large multifamily and mixed-use projects throughout the country.
Jennifer Low
Jennifer is a Senior Accessibility Consultant at SWA. She provides accessibility compliance and consulting services through plan reviews, field inspections, due diligence and barrier removal surveys, remediation development, litigation consulting, technical assistance, and training with focus on healthcare.
Host: Kelly Westby
Kelly leads the Building Operations, Decarbonization, and Efficiency (BODE) team at SWA. She has a wide range of experience in building science, commissioning, and energy efficiency retrofitting.
Kelly’s commissioning, energy code, and efficiency projects cover millions of square feet of commercial buildings along the East Coast. She also speaks at events and conferences, sharing her expertise on industry best practices.
Accessibility consultants work at the intersection of architecture and social justice. It’s much more than checking the boxes on accessibility requirements of laws and codes; it takes precision, dedication, and creativity to solve problems and remove physical barriers to access that have historically marginalized people with disabilities.
To mark the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, we invited three members of the accessibility team at Steven Winter Associates (SWA) on the Buildings + Beyond podcast. Combined, they have almost 40 years of experience as accessibility consultants! We hope you’re as inspired as we are by their wisdom (yes, wisdom; we talk a lot about this), lessons learned, and stories from the field.
Thank you to our episode sponsor, Passive House Accelerator!
Passive House Accelerator is an online community and media company dedicated to accelerating the transition to clean, resilient, zero-carbon buildings.
Every week, Passive House Accelerator produces new original content, including Passive House Accelerator LIVE! online educational events, Passive House Podcast episodes, articles about low-carbon building, video content, and a newsletter. In addition, it also publishes a magazine twice a year and hosts the acclaimed Reimagine Buildings online conference series.
Visit passivehouseaccelerator.com to subscribe to the newsletter, register for an upcoming event, and browse the latest podcast episodes, articles, and videos.
We Want to Hear From You!
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Your Top 10 Passive House Questions, Answered – The Long-Awaited Part 2
Jun 28, 2024
Show notes
Featuring
Lois Arena, Director of High-Performance Building Solutions at Steven Winter Associates
Lois possesses over 25 years of experience in the building science field and has extensive experience with new and existing buildings. Lois holds both US and International Passive House consultant certifications and is currently consulting on some of the largest and most difficult Passive House projects in the world.
She has co-authored and presented training programs about energy efficient building practices to professionals in all sectors of the building industry and is regularly invited to present at conferences and private firms around the world to discuss the benefits of and road blocks to Passive House adoption.
Dylan Martello, Senior Building Systems Consultant at Steven Winter Associates
Dylan focuses primarily on advanced energy modeling, Passive House design consulting, and building performance analysis. Dylan brings a keen understanding of the economic, social, and environmental implications that come with energy efficiency measures in advanced building design.
Dylan also serves as an integral part of the Buildings and Beyond podcast production team, providing sound engineering and editing for each episode.
On the very first episode of Buildings + Beyond, Passive House pioneer Lois Arena answered the most common questions asked about meeting the high-performance requirements of the Passive House standard. You loved the episode—it’s one of our most popular of all time—and we loved recording with Lois. So, 6 years later, we decided to record a highly anticipated follow-up episode.
Listen as host Robb Aldrich poses the same 10 questions from the original episode, and a few new ones, to Lois and Dylan Martello—who both work on first-of-their-kind, largescale Passive House projects at Steven Winter Associates. What answers have remained the same, and what has changed in the last 6 years?
Thank you to our episode sponsor, Passive House Accelerator!
Passive House Accelerator is an online community and media company dedicated to accelerating the transition to clean, resilient, zero-carbon buildings.
Every week, Passive House Accelerator produces new original content, including Passive House Accelerator LIVE! online educational events, Passive House Podcast episodes, articles about low-carbon building, video content, and a newsletter. In addition, it also publishes a magazine twice a year and hosts the acclaimed Reimagine Buildings online conference series.
Visit passivehouseaccelerator.com to subscribe to the newsletter, register for an upcoming event, and browse the latest podcast episodes, articles, and videos.
We Want to Hear From You!
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
2024 IECC – What Happened?
Apr 09, 2024
Show notes
Featuring
Gayathri Vijayakumar
Gayathri is a Principal Mechanical Engineer at Steven Winter Associates. For over 18 years, she has specialized in evaluating residential and multifamily buildings with an emphasis on high-performance construction and renewable energy systems.
Early in her career, Gayathri provided technical assistance to sustainability projects by performing energy modeling and conducting cost-benefit analyses of energy efficient measures in both new and existing residential construction. She leveraged that experience for her current role: providing consulting to federal, state, and local agencies, codes, and programs to develop emerging standards and procedures that involve energy efficiency and indoor air quality requirements. This includes the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Multifamily New Construction Programs, where she has provided technical support since 2008, and more recently, their Indoor airPLUS program.
Gayathri is also an active contributor to various technical committees that share a goal of improving codes and standards. She currently is a voting member of the 2024 IECC Residential Consensus Committee and Chair of RESNET’s Standards Development Committee, SDC300.
The International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) or “model code” establishes the minimum requirements for building energy efficiency. The code is updated every three years, and for 2024, a new consensus-driven development process brought together diverse stakeholders to determine those requirements.
However, the International Code Council’s Board of Directors recently voted to go against consensus and remove mandatory provisions relating to building decarbonization from the 2024 draft.
In this episode, host Robb Aldrich interviews Gayathri Vijayakumar, Principal Mechanical Engineer at Steven Winter Associates and a voting member of the 2024 IECC Residential Consensus Committee, to find out… what happened?
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Choosing Electrification or Efficiency (When Both Aren’t Possible)
Mar 25, 2024
Show notes
Featuring
Ryan Merkin
Ryan Merkin is Vice President of Business Development with BlocPower. He is an experienced leader with over 20 years in the building science and energy consulting industry. Ryan has a demonstrated history developing decarbonization projects for new builds and retrofits. He is skilled in the delivery of consulting services for low energy building design, electrification, engineering and retrofit studies, energy code adoption and compliance, DER strategies, solar design, smart building system integration, utility and incentive programs, and professional training.
Prior to joining BlocPower, Ryan was a Vice President and Director of Multifamily Energy Services for 13 years with Steven Winter Associates. Ryan is active in the New York metropolitan area engineering community as board member and former President of Association of Energy Engineers New York City Chapter.
Ryan received a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from University at Albany, State University of New York and Master of Science in Geosystems from MIT.
When is it the right call to improve the energy efficiency of existing building systems, or upgrade and electrify them?
Though electrification is important to reduce carbon emissions, electrifying buildings is not straightforward. Factors like cost, existing infrastructure, compliance needs (and we’ll say it again: cost!) can keep building owners from going all-electric.
In this episode, Buildings + Beyond co-host Robb Aldrich catches up with Ryan Merkin, Vice President of Business Development at BlocPower (and a SWA alum). They discuss the eight areas Ryan considers when deciding to focus on efficiency vs. electrification:
Building height
Planned capital expenditures (CapEx)
Current system condition and remaining useful life
Heating energy source: oil and electrical resistance
Existing systems: Individual/unitized vs. central
Packaged terminal ACs (PTACs) and through-wall sleeve ACs
Regulatory drivers (LL97, ESG, etc.) and incentives
Metering: who pays what now; who would pay in the future
Note: This episode was recorded in December 2023. Mentions of “next year” are referring to the year 2024.
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Mind the Gap – Addressing the Skills Gap in the Sustainable Building Industry
Feb 14, 2024
Show notes
Featuring
Ellen Honigstock
Ellen is the Senior Director of Education at Urban Green Council. She oversees the development of Urban Green’s Public Programs and develops the curriculum for its signature programs, including Green Professional Training (GPRO) and Crushing the Energy Code.
Ellen has 28 years of experience as an architect and volunteered for Urban Green for several years before joining the staff. She previously served as the first Residential Green Building Advocate, working to increase green building and LEED for Homes certification in the New York residential marketplace, and as a committee chair of the Green Codes Task Force. Ellen is a co-founder of Solarize Brooklyn and Sustainable Kensington Windsor Terrace.
Kelly Westby
Kelly Westby leads the Building Operations, Decarbonization, and Efficiency (BODE) team at SWA. She has a wide range of experience in building science, commissioning, and energy efficiency retrofitting.
The BODE team is focused on optimizing performance and reducing energy use and carbon emissions of building systems for new construction and existing buildings across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. The team offers benchmarking, capital planning, energy management, implementation, commissioning, research, program management, and policy advisory services. Kelly’s commissioning, energy code, and efficiency projects cover millions of square feet of commercial buildings along the East Coast. She also speaks at events and conferences, sharing her expertise on industry best practices.
Buildings are complicated. There’s a bigger learning curve than ever for the people who construct, operate, and manage high-performance buildings—and there’s more demand than ever for skilled workers across the sustainable building industry.
In this episode, Ellen Honigstock, Senior Director of Education at Urban Green Council, sits down with Kelly Westby, Managing Director of the Building Operations, Decarbonization, and Efficiency (BODE) team at Steven Winter Associates. They chat about what it takes to effectively educate the workforce to ensure occupant comfort, energy and carbon reductions, sustainability, and the overall performance of a building.
This is a crossover episode! Go to the Building Tomorrow: Conversations with Climate Solvers podcast feed to hear Ellen interview Kelly about all-things building commissioning.
Episode Information & Resources
Crossover Episode
Listen to our crossover episode featuring Kelly Westby on Urban Green Council’s Building Tomorrow podcast:
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Healthy Materials 101 – A Realistic Approach to Creating Healthier Buildings with Jonsara Ruth
Dec 15, 2023
Show notes
Featuring
Jonsara Ruth
Jonsara Ruth is Co-founder and Design Director of Healthy Materials Lab (HML) at Parsons School of Design, where she is an Associate Professor and Founding Director of the MFA Interior Design program.
At HML, Jonsara brings creative leadership to the goal of improving the health of underserved communities through the transformation of design and material practices. Read more
Guest Host: Sarah Nugent
Sarah Nugent is a Sustainability Director at SWA’s New York City office, within the Sustainable Building Services (SBS) group. She oversees building certifications for high-rise residential and a variety of commercial building project typologies.
Sarah’s professional knowledge helps guide architects, owners, developers, and building management staff on green and high-performance building and site design strategies, healthy design strategies, cost-effective building system operations, and energy-saving maintenance practices.
At the baseline, “healthy” materials should not have a negative impact on people living or working inside of a building. Beyond that, there are materials that have a low impact on people and the planet throughout their entire lifespan—and then there are materials that can have a net-positive impact, such as those that absorb carbon from our atmosphere.
Jonsara Ruth, Co-founder and Design Director of the Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design, joins this episode of the Buildings + Beyond podcast to discuss the spectrum of materials and resources available. Jonsara chats with guest host Sarah Nugent about how to phase out toxic ingredients and select materials that are healthy and affordable.
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com.
About Buildings and Beyond
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
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