Meet The Team

Finance & Compliance Manager

Sally is the co-founder of the AECB. She manages the finance aspects for the AECB and deals with any legal issues. Her expertise is in finance, personnel and administration processes.

Training Centre Manager

Sarah provides operational leadership, coordination and continuous improvement for the AECB Training Centre, and dedicated support for its students. Sarah has over 12 years experience in further education training in the built environment sector, a degree in Environmental Science and an NVQ Level 4 in Internal Quality Assurance, as well as having carried out her own whole house retrofit using sustainable materials.

Office Manager

Bev is the office manager for the AECB, supporting all departments with the day to day running of the group, social media and marketing, also assisting with finance and will usually be the one responding to member queries and orders.

Standards and Certification

Tim is the Programme Manager for the AECB Standards and Certification Scheme, an Expert Advisor for the AECB Retrofit course and also supports the PHribbon software. Originally an Architectural Technologist, Tim has also been a Passivhaus Designer since 2012.

Co Chair

Kit is the founder and director of Ecospheric, an award-winning Passivhaus design and sustainability consultancy based in the Northwest of England. His background is in chemical engineering provides practical knowledge in heat transfer, building technology and integration. His varied experience and passion for decarbonising the built environment has led him to become one of the country’s leading experts on sustainable building. He has advised the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on its large-scale retrofit strategies for residential housing as well as its commercial retrofit group, supported Co-op Foods in developing low carbon “green stores”, delivered technical expertise for Passivhaus multi-story social housing developments, and is currently acting as the net zero carbon building standard coordinator for the NHS’ new Countess of Chester Women & Children’s Hospital.

Co Chair & Secretary

Anna has experience with retrofit to full Passivhaus certified standard (including Totnes B&B), through to working with Prewett Bizley Architects on award winning retrofit projects (2014-2019) and then to new-build to the full Passivhaus standard using the PH15 System, winner of the Ashden Award in 2020 for scalable climate change solutions. Her skill base is both in design and technical design, with PHPP modelling, including upfront carbon calculations with PH Ribbon, and construction detailing. She is interested in energy efficiency and low upfront carbon solutions, especially in the appropriate use of timber in a contemporary, low energy context.  More recently she has become engaged in trying to drive retrofit action at a local level, using and enhancing local skills and addressing local issues. She feels passionate about the need to be strategic in our collective thinking and our outputs as the time periods available for a safe transition to ‘net zero’ continue to shorten and the urgency for action continues to increase.

Treasurer

Mischa Hewitt is a sustainability consultant and project manager. He has an MSc Architecture: Advanced Energy & Environment Studies from the Centre of Alternative Technology / University of East London and is also a Certified Passivhaus Designer. He is the co-author of ‘Earthships: Building a zero carbon future’ published by IHS Press and is a director of The Low Carbon Trust, where he project managed the award winning Earthship Brighton project. Mischa also runs the sustainable building company Earthwise Construction based in Sussex, and in recent years has organised many environmental events, including the ‘Eco Open Houses’ weekends in Brighton and several conferences. In his spare time Mischa plays the piano and composes classical music. Mischa is also very active in the Brighton (South East) Group.

Trustee

Mark has been a member of the AECB since late 2006 and a Trustee since 2014. He has also been a speaker at a number of AECB Conferences, a technical adviser to the AECB CarbonLite programme and a regular contributor to PH+ magazine. As an architect with a no-nonsense evidence-based approach to design he has a deep-seated interest in ecologically aware construction. Mark is one of the pioneers that introduced the Passivhaus standard to the UK. In addition to being an architect and energy consultant Mark is an educator and industry transformer. He has helped to co-author the Certified Passivhaus Designer course for the AECB’s CarbonLite Programme, led masterclasses for the Passivhaus Trust, delivered CEPH training at the University of Strathclyde and, between 2011 and 2014, was a part-time lecturer at Northumbria University. He has also contributed to technical papers for the UK’s Passivhaus Trust including internationally recognised papers and reports including “The Passivhaus Overlay for the RIBA Plan of Work”, “Thermal Bypass: Risks and Solutions”, “Are the energy savings of the Passive House standard reliable?” and more.

Trustee

Hannah is an Architect, Passivhaus Designer and AECB Certifier. She is the founder of Progress in Practice, a small but innovative architecture practice in Greater Manchester, specialising in Passivhaus and low energy homes and buildings. The practice delivered the first two AECB certified retrofit projects in Greater Manchester in 2023 and the first Passivhaus Plus in Greater Manchester in 2024, and they are advocates for the Passivhaus and AECB approach more generally. Hannah is passionate about inclusivity in the design process and also sits on the board of the GM Community Led Homes hub.

Trustee

Lois recently completed her PhD which explores the embodied and life cycle impacts of domestic retrofit from a carbon and energy basis, as well as furthering the understanding of how retrofit life-cycle studies should be framed differently to those of a new-build. Prior to this, she worked in environmental consulting for nearly a decade, during which time she embarked on her own retrofit journey in 2015, converting a Victorian industrial building into a home. She joined the AECB at this time, and was later part of the first cohort of the original AECB Carbonlite Retrofit course. This was pivotal in establishing the best approach for her retrofit, supported by her background in environmental sciences which provided a firm foundation for understanding building physics. Lois completed her Passive House Consultant qualification in late 2020. Her transition back into academia for her PhD enabled a deep exploration of retrofit; her findings are critical to ensuring that robust decisions can be made with respect to retrofit and decarbonisation, and are published in a series of peer-reviewed articles. Her work in this area is ongoing.

Trustee

Jonathan is a Chartered Building Engineer, Passivhaus Designer and AECB CarbonLite Certifier and Building Modeller who has structured his career around an interest in utilising low carbon materials to deliver low energy buildings. His focus is on refining conventional techniques to deliver high performance buildings with minimal embodied energy and is passionate about the role of energy modelling tools in data-driven optimisation of architectural design. He is involved in the Technical Working Group for Welsh Building Regulations and is the AECB Local Group leader for South & West Wales – promoting the work of the AECB and CarbonLite Standards to the Welsh Government, social housing organisations, developers and contractors.

Trustee

Louise is an Architect and Certified Passivhaus Designer with over 20 years of industry experience. She designs high-quality, sustainable buildings that prioritise comfort and wellbeing. Her expertise spans a wide range of sectors, including education, healthcare, transport, community projects, the public realm, and, over the past decade, residential housing. Louise is passionate about promoting energy-efficient design and building physics, helping stakeholders develop the skills needed to deliver climate-responsive, sustainable buildings. She also advocates for local archetyping studies and the provision of trusted, accessible retrofit guidance across building types.

Trustee

Gwilym has helped drive the adoption of Passivhaus within the UK construction industry, particularly on larger projects, raising its profile and helping to train future Passivhaus designers as part of the Coaction Group. He is currently the Director of Passivhaus at Max Fordham, a Passivhaus certifier and designer, and MEP consultant. He has experience across all scales of new-build and retrofit projects in multiple sectors. He is a regular contributor to forums and expert panels, including the Passivhaus Trust Technical Panel, and a trustee for the Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry.

Company Secretary

Chris has been serving on the Board (previously steering committee) since 1995, and was chair of the AECB for 8 years until stepping down in 2013. Chris is a founder director of Environmental Construction Products Ltd, which operates the Green Building Store and Green Building Company.  His key role is in steering the future direction of the company, its products and activities.  The company decided some years ago to make Passivhaus a key focus and it is now acknowledged as an important and influential SME in the Passivhaus field.  The company built the flagship Denby Dale Passivhaus and continues to undertake ground breaking Passivhaus construction projects.  Alongside this it has developed key expertise and product ranges in Passivhaus fenestration and ventilation. Chris was part of a small core AECB team which instigated and developed the UK Passivhaus Trust. He has been chair of the Trust since its foundation.