The Team
Jason Quinn is the founding director of Sustainable Engineering Ltd. His work focuses on the intersection of physics and building design and he has outspoken views on New Zealand housing. He has degrees in mechanical engineering (George Washington University, USA) and aerospace engineering (Florida Institute of Technology, USA) and is a registered International Professional Engineer (USA) and a Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand.
Jason spent a decade as a rocket scientist at NASA before he and his family relocated to New Zealand in 2009. He soon became one of New Zealand’s first certified Passive House designers and in 2016 travelled to Germany for further training and exams to become the country’s first Passive House certifier. Jason is an in-demand speaker at Passive House conferences in Australasia and has taught courses for PHINZ, the Passive House Academy and the NZ Green Building Council.
Jessica Eyers joined Sustainable Engineering in 2023, bringing a decade of experience as a certified Passive House designer. She has a MSc in architecture (UEL, 2006) and is a design LBP. Jessica has deep expertise in natural building materials, especially strawbale construction. She and her family live in New Zealand's first certified strawbale Passive House. Jessica was most recently running her own architectural design practice; she has also been a NZGBC assessor and Eco Design Adviser.
Sara Wareing is a building scientist determined to use her skills and knowledge to develop Passive House buildings at scale in New Zealand. She has a Masters of Building Science (with distinction) from VUW. Sara is a certified Passive House designer and certifier. She is practised at coaching designers new to the Passive House methodology—and understands the challenges from first-hand experience. She’s designing her own high-performance home, which will perch on a typical Wellington hillside.
Gary Tabion is a mechanical engineer, who has been working with the Sustainable Engineering team since 2022. Gary carries out building energy modelling and 2D and 3D analysis of components and buildings. He is skilled in the use of multiple software tools, including Flixo, ECCHO, PHPP, designPH and SketchUp. In previous roles, he designed HVAC and fire protection systems for high-rise mixed-use buildings.
Ike Saniel is an organizational whizz who keeps the back office humming along. On any given day, he may be invoicing, updating the website, coding the email newsletter, or working on documentation to support the certification team.
Rachel Rose is a freelance communications strategist, writer and editor who worked with Jason on his two books (the first aimed at homeowners and the most recent for architects, designers and building officials) and shapes the steady stream of original content published on the Sustainable Engineering website: from case studies of certified Passive House projects to technical articles and the monthly newsletter.
