A comfortable, efficient, well-built home is only as good as the team that designs and builds it. You can have the best intentions, the best plans and the best budget. But if your builder, designer or trades don't understand how to create a high performance, sustainable home, the house you get may not be the home you hoped for.
The good news is that finding that team is getting easier. The SBA Sustainable Building Directory is the place to find builders, designers and architects, energy assessors, engineers and professional trades who share your goals and have shown they know how to deliver them. The directory is growing, with coverage currently strongest in Victoria and NSW.
For homeowners: why you need the right team
A sustainable home isn't one product you can buy off the shelf. It's the result of many decisions, made well and implemented correctly, by many people throughout the design and build process.
Your designer needs to understand passive solar design thoroughly, orient the living areas to the sun, size the windows and eaves, and specify adequate insulation.
Your builder needs to understand where buildings fail thermally and mitigate that onsite, so insulation is installed without gaps, wraps are tight, gaps are sealed, and thermal bridges are avoided.
Your energy assessor needs to know how to model the home early and offer optimisation suggestions while the design is still flexible.
And the team need to understand heat pumps, hotwater, lighting and how to size and install solar, battery and car chargers so the home needs minimal extra energy from the grid.
If any one of these links is weak, the comfort, running costs and build quality you're paying for are at risk.
That's why you need the right team: professionals who all understand the goal, speak the same language, and know what their part is in getting you there.
The SBA Roadmap: five steps to a better-performing home
The SBA Roadmap to Net Zero Sustainable Homes sets out a clear, step-by-step path to homes that cost less to run, have a lower carbon footprint, are healthy to live in and are cost effective to build.
The Roadmap covers 5 Steps:
1. Good Design
2. Sustainable Materials Specification
3. Performance Construction & Health
4. Efficient Appliance Selection, and
5. Solar & Offsetting
Each one is a job for someone on your team, and each is matched by an SBA badge on the directory.
Net zero is where the Roadmap ends, but every step pays off on its own. A well-designed, well-built home is more comfortable and cheaper to run whether or not you go all the way.
How SBA badges work
When using the sustainable building directory to assemble your team, you will see that many listings have badges on their profile. SBA badges relate to each of the knowledge areas in the SBA Roadmap to Net Zero Sustainable Homes. A professional earns a badge by passing the SBA's test on that material.
Building your team with the directory
The SBA Sustainable Building Directory lets you filter by profession, state, specialty and badge. Here's a simple way to use it:
- Start with your key players. Most projects need a designer or architect, an energy assessor and a builder. Search for each in your state.
- Match specialities to your project. Filter by what you're planning, such as new home or renovations, or ESD consultation.
- Check the badges. Look for professionals whose badges cover their role. A designer with the Design badge, a builder with Construction and Health, and so on. The more badges, the better that professional will understand the whole process.
- Read the profiles. Look at past projects and how each professional describes their approach.
- Bring them together early. Involve your energy assessor at concept stage and your builder before the plans are locked in. Early modelling is a cost effective way to high performance outcomes.
For building professionals: the directory is your networking hub
If you're a builder, designer, assessor, engineer or tradesperson, the directory isn't just a place to be found. It's a place to find each other.
Promising a high-performance home with confidence means knowing that everyone on the job is on the same page. A builder who promises a high-performance home needs a designer who designs for climate, an assessor who models early, and plumbers and electricians who know how to work with the technology involved. When one link is missing, the risk lands on you.
The directory helps professionals build that team deliberately:
- Find like-minded partners who build to the same standard you do, not just in the same postcode.
- Use badges as a common language. When a collaborator holds the same badges you do, you know you're working from the same principles.
- Fill the gaps in your network, whether that's incorporating a designer fluent in passive solar principles, a carpenter who knows airtightness detailing, an energy assessor who models early, or an ESD consultant.
- Stand out to homeowners who are actively searching for professionals they can trust, without the greenwash.
Earning your badges also shows clients you've taken the time to learn the principles behind Net Zero Sustainable homes. Together with a strong team, that gives you a credible high-performance offer to take to market.
Get started
Homeowners: Browse the SBA Sustainable Building Directory, look for the badges, and start building the team that will deliver a home that's comfortable, efficient and built to last.
Building professionals: Sign up to create a listing, work through the Roadmap to earn your badges, and connect with other professionals who can help you deliver better performing homes with confidence.
Better homes are built by better teams. The directory is where they find each other.
