Sustainability

We believe it is our responsibility to look after our environment for the future generations who will live in this world.

Sustainability is integral to all of Bower’s projects and entrenched in our design process from the beginning. We create long-lasting homes using robust, durable materials and high-quality construction. Buildings and spaces are planned and oriented to harness site-specific natural elements (such as passive solar and ventilation design) for energy efficiency and thermal comfort, and clients are encouraged to use renewable energy sources. We source local, recycled, recyclable and ethical materials whenever possible, and select products that are healthy for wellbeing. We educate ourselves and our clients on the emissions associated with new building products to guide selections. We minimise waste in terms of space and materials, and craft timeless homes that will be loved for generations. All these strategies reduce the embodied emissions generated from building, as well as the operational emissions, ongoing costs and maintenance.

In 2019 Bower Architecture & Interiors became carbon neutral with independent Greenhouse Gas Assessments and purchased offsets. From 2021 -2024 we added a further commitment becoming Certified Carbon Neutral with Certification by Climate Active. This journey was hugely educational and rewarding with Bower being able to understand our carbon use and emissions created by running our small business.

With this knowledge and considered initiatives we were reduce our carbon from 50T in 2019 to 30T in 2024. White the costs associated with independent assessments and certification are too high to continue every year, we continue work hard to ensure our internal practices are as sustainable as possible by reducing our power consumption and buying 100% carbon offset power, refillable office supplies where possible, actively minimising waste, low reliance on cars generally (and car pooling when we drive), and near zero paper use. We have become aware that our IT equipment and software services are our biggest carbon emitters and as such we are far more considered in our replacement of equipment, repairing where possible, and being careful with our selection of software. We hope to undertake further independent assessments of our carbon usage regularly in the future.