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Our story
together we're building a better future
“We weren’t always concerned about the environment. It was only on a trip overseas that a colleague and I discovered a significant difference in build quality overseas....”
energy-efficiency experts
award-winning builders
proven track-record
leaders in innovation
heritage & terrace renovations
clever extensions
design & build packages
budget-savvy renovations
"We discovered there was a better way to build..."
Hi, I’m Simon Clark, founder of Sustainable Homes Melbourne. I’m a self-confessed timber nerd that’s come a long way from the days of swinging a hammer as a carpenter. Sustainable Homes Melbourne (SHM) was the birthchild of myself and my colleague Michael Burns.
In another life (the early noughties) Michael and I each operated our own respective building companies. Honestly, all those years ago we never thought twice about the environmental impact construction has on the environment and we certainly weren’t aware of how thermal mass can help keep a home comfy.
After 5-6 years of running our own businesses as young men we were feeling stale and unmotivated and thought there must be more to life!
In 2012 we packed up our businesses and left for the trip of a lifetime overseas. We travelled together for the best part of a year through the USA, Canada, the UK and Europe. Being the timber nerds we are, we couldn’t help but observe the construction industry in each country we travelled.
We snuck into a building site in Canada to check out the timber frame (nerdy much) and the walls were 190mm thick. We just loved the look and feel of it. It was obvious these walls were really solid, super soundproof and could keep the warmth in much better than any frames we’d built in Australia.
Looking back on this time, it’s obvious why we thought there was a better way to build but if we’d never travelled we wouldn’t have seen how other countries are building their homes and how we could do it better in Australia.
Returning home nearly 18 months after we’d left, we decided to see if we could build better. We formed Sustainable Homes Melbourne with the intention to build homes we can all be proud of, Owner, Architect, Builder and most importantly our Children.”
