The SDF is very grateful for the input and management of Head of Special Projects Kate Brown over the last year – in particular her support over the crucial period of COP26 in Glasgow, and her development of our inspiring Exemplars Library. We wish her the best in her new role as Associate at Bioregional – and hope she will find plentiful opportunities there to continue to work on projects that target net zero, deliver health and wellbeing, and help create sustainable communities.
In her wake, the SDF team gains a new Communications Associate. Laura Soar (right) joins the SDF from the Passivhaus Trust, where she has worked across the communications, projects and research teams since 2018. She has gained hands-on experience of sustainable building practices through her own personal project turning a 200-year old brick-and-flint barn into a home, aiming for EnerPHit while respecting the building’s heritage, maximising resource efficiency, and utilising natural materials.
As the SDF enters a new phase as a UNECE Centre of Excellence for High Performance Buildings, Laura is looking forward to facilitating a new focus on scaling up and mainstreaming the lessons learned from exemplar projects, and both calling on and amplifying the collective expertise of the SDF Alliance programmes and their broader networks.