Sustainability

Sustainability is integral to all of our projects, and we are a carbon neutral business.

Many clients are drawn to us because of our approach to sustainability. Sustainability is integral to all of our projects and we discuss it from the very beginning with our clients.

For us, sustainability starts with building quality that lasts the long term. A building that is used and loved for over 50 years is a sustainable building. Building from this foundation, we plan our buildings to make the most of natural light and processes such as natural ventilation and passive heating and cooling. We carefully plan shading and thermal mass to create stable indoor temperatures while also maximising efficiency and minimising waste in terms of space and materials. Maximising durability and using local, sustainably and ethically sourced materials and products whenever possible is a given. Most of our projects feature solar power and batteries and if you are keen to go further we can assist you with other choices like eliminating reliance on natural gas (a non renewable resource), choosing certified Green Power or making your project net carbon neutral.

All of these steps aim to significantly reduce or even eliminate the long term lifespan energy costs to our clients and the environment. There are other systems and features that can supercharge your sustainable home even further should you desire.

Carbon Neutral

Bower Architecture has been proudly carbon neutral since 2019 and in November 2021 we became Certified Carbon Neutral through Climate Active, the Australian Government body that verifies the integrity of the carbon neutral claim.

Through the annual reporting, analysis, review and offsetting processes we are continually learning about our carbon footprint, where we create carbon and how to adopt strategies to minimise our emissions as a business and in our work.

As of the 2023-24 financial year, Bower Architecture have made the decision to remain carbon neutral, but to not continue with Climate Active Certification. As a small practice, we believe the significant amount of money spent on the Climate Active third party assessment and cost of the actual certifications is better spent offsetting carbon emissions. We also found that the Climate Active Certified projects that could be contributed to for carbon credits were large in scale and rarely local.

We will continue to work with Pangolin Associates to report, analyse, review and offset our carbon and publish our annual reports. Our previous Public Disclosure Statements and Greenhouse Gas Assessment Reports can be found here: 2020, 2021, 2022. 2023 will be uploaded upon completion.

We proudly support Greenfleet as our carbon offset provider and you can read more about their work here.