Sustainability Action Plan
Our current Sustainability Action Plan was completed in 2022.
More than three years on, there has certainly been noticeable progress in terms of a broader mindset shift. Unfortunately, this has also fostered a growing sense within the industry and nationally that the job is done and that the mission has been accomplished.
More than three years on, there has certainly been noticeable progress in terms of a broader mindset shift. Unfortunately, this has also fostered a growing sense within the industry and nationally that the job is done and that the mission has been accomplished.Reality tells a very different story. In September 2025, the Australian Federal Government announced revised projections showing the nation is set to miss its 2035 emissions reduction target by a significant margin. Under existing policies, Australia is on track to cut climate pollution by only 48 per cent below 2005 levels by 2035, well short of the target reduction of between 62 and 70 per cent.
In light of this disappointing news, we must double down. This means prioritising and strengthening key aspects of our four core Sustainability Action Plan goals from 2022, while expanding their scope to meet the scale and urgency of the challenge ahead.
The Why
Global climate
The world as we know it, is experiencing increased global temperatures at an unprecedented level. This spells an impending systemic change to our Earth’s environmental capacity to regulate its temperature.
2024 has given us a preamble to what a 1.5C world would look like. Increasing heatwaves, floods, and storms are occurring at a higher frequency.
For Australia, we must reduce emissions on a steep downward trajectory with an actionable plan to reduce emissions by 75 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2035. As of September 2025, and under existing policies, Australia is on track to cut climate pollution by only 48 per cent, well short of the target reductions.
The urban environment
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will reside in cities and urban areas. Urban sprawl, air pollution, and limited access to open public spaces persist in cities.
Melbourne is projected to be the largest city in Australia by 2070 with a projected population of 6.5-10 million people. (ABS 2023)
With an increase of population within our metropolitan areas, leads to increasing pressure to develop and build homes, infrastructure, and amenity to our cities at rates that negatively affect the quality and sustainability outcomes.
Source: Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, 2018 Global Status Report; IEA
Biodiversity
Many native species are at an increasing risk of extinction from a range of pressures, including the impacts of climate change, habitat loss, and a rise in invasive species.
In Victoria alone, over 50% of native vegetation has been removed during the two centuries since European settlement. 18 species of mammal, 2 birds, 1 snake, 3 freshwater fish, 6 invertebrates and 51 plants have become extinct.
With resource intensive production (agriculture, resource extraction, timber harvesting), urban expansion, and resource extraction, what once was a rich and diverse biodome, is now being threatened by aggressive expansion.
Source: Remnant Native Vegetation Investigation (VEAC, 2011)
The world’s carbon
The construction industry is responsible for 39% of all carbon emissions.
If we can recognise the climate emergency, we also have to reconcile that as practitioners, we are also heavily responsible for contributing to it.
As current research informs, the majority of construction involves a high volume of waste produced through the delivery of Architecture, buildings and infrastructure. These energy and carbon-intensive practices are still embedded in the work that we do.
Our Approach
Priority
100% Greenpower
This is the easiest and most important thing we can do.
Most of our carbon footprint in the built environment is in operational carbon, the power used for hot water, heating and cooling, lighting and power.
And the good news is this is the easy one to fix. So let’s fix it. Every time, without fail.
It’s not ok to power our projects from coal fired power stations. What you can do?
You need to find ways to help your clients get their projects powered by 100% GreenPower.
It is your role to educate, to advocate. Do not take no for an answer. It is your duty here to find a way to make it easy for your clients to make the switch.
It is your duty to follow up, until you are certain your client is connected to 100% Greenpower.
Solar — energy generated on site
Rooftop solar is the best bang for buck for your client and the planet.
Every project. Find a way.
This is not a “we’ll come back to this later” option.
This is a must have. Australia is a place that has tremendous solar power potential. Studies estimate 60.9 GW of rooftop solar potential on residential buildings - far more than the current 15 GW estimated to be installed to date.
Where possible install 120% solar. Future proofing and catering for additional energy consumption, a future EV, E-Bike or increased cooling loads in a warming city.
Battery — energy stored on site
Battery storage and Virtual Power Plant.
Give certainty on the price of power now, and into the future. Protect your client and building occupants from rising energy prices.
Ensure that you advocate and educate your client on the power and benefits of Virtual Power Plants. Advocate for your client to connected to a VPP for both their own financial benefit and for the benefit of decarbonising the National Energy Grid.
With the payback period for Solar battery down to 4 years (from 8-10 just five years ago), now is the time to invest in on site storage.Install minimum of 120% of clients current storage needs for future proofing, similar to the increased size solar array.
Export more electrons than you use, the only way to pay down your carbon debt over time. The only way to get to Net Zero.
If you are not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
Priority
Electrify everything
No new gas, not ever. The future is electric.
If you work on a project outside of Victoria or the ACT it is your job to advocate, and educate for electrification from the very first meeting.
This is the big game. Do not start work on design until you have convinced the client (and the electrical engineer and ESD consultant if they are appointed).
Brief the QS. Get them onside. They are the key to your success.
If there is resistance to 100% electrification, call in support early from the leadership team at Breathe. They will help you negotiate.
Heat pumps for hot water.
Induction for cooking (residential & commercial).
Airconditioning for heating and cooling.
Easy.
Priority
High performance, high impact
Aim to achieve no less than 7.9 NatHERS stars — as of 2026. (To be increased by 0.1 star per year.)
This is our ‘sweet spot’ balancing high performance building envelope against commercial viability.
Thermal assessments as a design tool — not just as a compliance tick box.
Remember to complete an early energy rating benchmark and complete a preliminary rating prior to town planning.
A multi phase energy rating will be an integral part of our design and project delivery process moving forward.
Priority
Measure carbon
Measure up. Measure twice.
We have to measure whole of life carbon to understand how to reduce our emissions.
If we don’t measure we don’t know where the problems lie.
If we don’t know where the problems lie, we cant fix them.
Every single project at Breathe, must have a Life Cycle Assessment completed at concept design stage.
Don’t just measure it, interrogate it, seek a second opinion, interpret it, and then, use it as a tool to do better, to use less.
Then, measure again.
This is our ‘sweet spot’ balancing high performance building envelope against commercial viability.
Breathe is here because the planet matters. You’re here because you care.
If you don’t care, you’re probably in the wrong place.
Priority
Build less, give more
Use design as a weapon for good.
Size matters.
Use efficient, elegant, honest design.
De-materialise, strip back, be reductive.
Interrogate your brief. Ask, do you really need this?
Educate your client. Ask can we do this a different way, a better way?
Be tenacious, do not accept the status quo.
Ethic over aesthetic. Substance over style. Every time.
Every project is an opportunity to do something special, something important. If you are not pushing the boundaries, you’re not pushing hard enough.
God is not in the details (sorry Mies).
God is in the big idea, executed elegantly. This is where Breathe lives.
Solve the big pieces of the carbon problem first.
Reduce
Take out the basement carparks. Take out the second bathrooms. Take out the flabby space.
Structure
Let gravity be your guide, make your building stack, take your loads straight down to ground, put the heavy things on the ground, not in the sky.
The right stuff
Chose the right materials fit for purpose. Aluminium has six times more embodied carbon than steel… but… it doesn’t rust… So use it sparingly, use it for external uses only where it is exposed to weather and where it is difficult to maintain.
Get others to own their own carbon emissions.
If every supplier manufactured using recycled content, renewable energy and EV transport then delivering a carbon neutral building would be possible. Currently that couldn’t be further from the truth. We have to support manufacturers that are producing carbon neutral products. If there is only one tapware product that is carbon neutral then we, in good conscience, can only specify one tap. If there is only one carbon neutral brick available, then, we can only specify one brick.
Take the other products, no matter how alluring, no matter how cheap, off table… they are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem.
Local, natural, low carbon
Where ever possible specify a natural product. Timber, stone, hemp, clay brick, rammed earth, compressed strawboard. The closer something is to its natural state, the less manufacturing, the less carbon. The closer something is produced, the less carbon miles.
Storing carbon in your building
Trees extract CO2 from the atmosphere and lock in the structure of the tree trunk as they grow. Use timber as structure wherever possible. Don’t use structural steel beams when it can be done in timber. Never use steel studs when timber is available.
Brief your engineers early, be tenacious.
Find a way to engage you clients and consultants on what you are trying to achieve and why it’s important.
Advocate, and educate early.
Be strategic about how you communicate with each of your clients.
And… identify early if you are losing the battle… see it, acknowledge it, and call for reinforcements. Call for someone else at Breathe to come to your side, to meet with the client with you to see if the important things can be defended.
We’re stronger together.
Priority
Circularity and design for disassembly
Particularly… if you’re on an interiors project.
Screw don’t glue.
Bolt don’t weld.
Mechanically fix don’t use adhesives.
Floating floors instead of glueing them.
Use circular products.
Assemble don’t build.
