Tom building fences at the TSW team day at Odonata Foundation reserve. Photo by Chris Ramsay
Our approach
We’re a design and building company that creates healthy, sustainable, community minded, functional homes. Our thoughtfully designed houses encourage connection to nature, to community, to family, to friends and to ourselves. In 2019 we became a certified B Corporation which means that we meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps form a community of leaders and drive a global movement of people using business as a force for good. In June of 2023 we re-certified and improved our score to 92.4
How we achieve our impact goals
We take a comprehensive approach to achieving our impact goals through:
- Passive Solar Design Principles: By incorporating passive solar design principles by orienting living spaces to the north, homes can maximise natural light and heat from the sun during colder months while minimising heat gain during warmer months. This reduces the need for mechanical heating and cooling systems, thereby lowering energy consumption and utility bills.
- NatHERS Star Rating: NatHERS (Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme) assessors independently evaluate the energy efficiency of homes. Higher NatHERS star ratings indicate greater energy efficiency, lower heating and cooling demands, and reduced energy bills. By integrating passive solar design principles, homes can achieve higher NatHERS ratings.
- Solar Power and Battery Storage: Integrating appropriately sized solar power systems and battery storage allows homes to generate their own renewable energy. Excess energy can be exported to the grid, further reducing reliance on fossil-fuel-powered energy sources and achieving a negative carbon impact from energy consumption.
- eTool Analysis: We use an auditing tool called eTool which allows for a thorough assessment of a home's environmental impact over its lifespan. This includes analysing the size, materials, and services loads to understand and minimise the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the home. The result of this assessment is a Design Performance Summary which provides the equivalency savings we report on for each home – C02 balloons removed from the atmosphere, trees planted, zero energy Australian homes built per year and cars taken off the road.
- Certified Passive House Design: As Certified Passive House Designers and Builders, we’re qualified to design and build homes which achieve some of the lowest energy demands through airtight building envelopes, mechanical heat recovery ventilation systems, high performance glazing and avoidance of thermal bridges. This creates a home that is thermally comfortable to live in year-round without relying on air conditioning.
Value-aligned partners
We prioritise collaborating with values aligned partners who share our dedication to reducing environmental impact. The below are a few organisations that we work alongside in the daily pursuit of creating a positive impact on people and the planet.
Measuring our impact
Throughout the year, we reflect as a team on whether we exceeded, met, or fell short of our targets. This introspection guides our improvement efforts and holds us accountable to our team, to our clients and ultimately to the planet.
We incorporate third party accreditations including eTool and B Corp to track our impact across projects and as a business. Each of our design and builds are measured against a comprehensive audit, these are then shared to us and the homeowners as reports. We also summarise the impact of each our projects on our website while also providing a running total of impact measured to date.
If you have any questions or comments, please reach out—we value your input.
608,826,474 balloons of CO2 gas removed from the atmosphere
3,235 cars taken off the road this year
1,827 zero energy Australian homes for a year
Emissions reduction equivalent to 82,232 trees planted
608,826,474 balloons of CO2 gas removed from the atmosphere
3,235 cars taken off the road this year
1,827 zero energy Australian homes for a year
Emissions reduction equivalent to 82,232 trees planted
608,826,474 balloons of CO2 gas removed from the atmosphere
3,235 cars taken off the road this year
1,827 zero energy Australian homes for a year
Emissions reduction equivalent to 82,232 trees planted
608,826,474 balloons of CO2 gas removed from the atmosphere
3,235 cars taken off the road this year
1,827 zero energy Australian homes for a year
Emissions reduction equivalent to 82,232 trees planted
608,826,474 balloons of CO2 gas removed from the atmosphere
3,235 cars taken off the road this year
1,827 zero energy Australian homes for a year
Emissions reduction equivalent to 82,232 trees planted
Our approach
Sustainability
We design our homes to outlast a lifetime, focusing on crafting beautifully designed, functional, healthy and environmentally conscious homes to be enjoyed by the families who inhabit them and those to come.
Energy efficiency
The Sociable Weaver homes are each thoughtfully designed depending on your direction for a home based on passive solar design principles or a Certified Passive House. Regardless of your intent, we strive to achieve the highest level of energy efficiency performance with the lowest environmental impact.
Carbon Neutrality
We strive to create homes that are carbon negative and we place strong emphasis on building biology to create a healthy home. Our homes are assessed on a 50 year life-cycle. Using eTool software we can then determine our home’s Global Warming Impact and thus advise on the best approach to reduce or offset this with the goal of achieving a carbon negative impact.
REDUCING WASTE
Right now we’re focused on reducing our waste to landfill across our build sites and strive for zero-waste construction sites. We use waste recycling companies who recycle over 80% to ensure our sites are organised, managed with the environment (and neighbours) in mind.
ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION
As part of TSW Group’s offsetting initiatives, we donate a portion of our profits to like-minded organisations that are improving our planet. We do this by planting trees to help offset our company’s carbon impact. With the goal to always go above and beyond for our planet, we also volunteer our time to help support local organisations in their own pursuit to help our planet. This includes beach clean-ups, tree planting and most recently in 2023 we helped construct fences to protect local flora and fauna at Odonata’s Mt Rothwell Conservation & Research Reserve.
Healthy for you and the planet
Beyond the design of your home we place a strong emphasis on what life will be like inside. We do this by considering factors like Passive House Design, Living Building Challenge requirements, Building Biology, Biophilic Design, Golden Ratio, Permaculture integration, recycling processes, accessibility and more to ensure you can live your healthiest life in your new home.
Our family business
We’re deep in the detail and can support you from concepts to keys in hand. The building arm of our business, Martin Builders, can support you on your build journey. We work together from design, pricing, final contracts to completion and work alongside you to guide you through one of the biggest decisions of your life.
If you already have a trusted builder in mind for your project, we offer flexibility to engage us for design only. Likewise if you have a design in place we can guide you in the best approach for a sustainable construction with Martin Builders.
Credentials
