Sustainable luxury @ The Beachmere Project

Luxury and eco friendly are usually considered to be polar opposites in Australian houses. Yet with good design, considered  construction processes and attention to detail this doesn’t have to be the case.

In 2009, Brisbane builder Sovereign Homes began planning the partial demolition and  reconstruction of a home at Beachmere, 74 km north of Brisbane. Typical of beachside  properties across South East Queensland, the natural tenancy would have been to  construct a large, luxury home with little consideration for environmental impact or  lifecycle costs. Instead Sovereign Homes set out to challenge the business-as-usual  approach and deliver a home that would include all of the luxury at a low  environmental cost. What resulted is The Beachmere Project.

Sovereign Homes engaged Ecolateral to act as auditors to report on the materials saved, energy minimised, and carbon production avoided.

The Beachmere Project is now complete and the results are impressive. Key environmental achievements include:

• Net zero energy saving up to 7,667kg CO per year
• Net zero water saving up to 227,395L per year
• Total construction waste amounting to 12m³– a saving of around  
• A saving of 46,816km of commuting
• A saving of 10 tonnes of Portland cement
• Recycling of materials including 2.2 tonnes of metal and 300 lineal metres of timber
• Provision of an uninterrupted power supply

Built as a demonstration project, the team had the luxury of an extended build time which allowed Sovereign Homes to review its construction processes and practices to ensure the most environmentally sound outcome was achieved.

But setting out to challenge the industry has its drawbacks and the team faced a number  of challenges that required out of the box problem solving and determination to work  through the challenges of alternative products, procedures and details.

One of the major benefits for Sovereign Homes is the experience and knowledge gained  which will be applied to future projects and integrated into business operations.

 

Visit tinyurl.com/mvjwwg4 to see how a luxury home can tick all the boxes and become an asset to the community.