Three national titles across two Tasmanian projects. Bluebush Passivhaus took the biggest honour on the program and a second title alongside it. Fysh Place made it three.
Tasmanian builder Zanetto Builders won three national titles at the 2026 HIA Australian GreenSmart Awards.
Bluebush Passivhaus took out the HIA Australian GreenSmart Home, the top honour on the program, and won Custom Built Home as well. Fysh Place at St Helens on Tasmania’s east coast won Multi Dwelling Development.
Taking the top title alone would have made it a strong night. Taking it alongside two more, against entries from across the country, makes it a standout result.
The GreenSmart Awards are the national end point of the HIA sustainability program, and this year they closed out the HIA Future Homes Forum, held on Wednesday 22 July at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The forum ran across the day, with sessions on passive home design, modern methods of construction, moisture management, medium density sustainability, consumer expectations and new building products.
Bluebush Passivhaus takes the top title
Bluebush is a certified Passivhaus at Blackmans Bay, south of Hobart, and the performance behind it is the reason it stood up.
Zanetto Builders reports the completed home achieved a heating demand of 10 kilowatt hours per square metre per year and an airtightness result of 0.5 air changes per hour. The home is independently certified rather than simply built to Passivhaus principles.
That distinction matters. Airtightness is measured on the finished building with a blower door test, and Passivhaus certification is granted against tested results rather than design modelling. The number either meets the standard or it does not, which makes it a difficult thing to overstate in an award submission.
Hitting 0.5 also says something about how the job was run. Sealing at that level is not a product you buy. It is a detail that has to survive every trade that comes through the building, which makes it a whole team result rather than a design flourish.
Taking both the top GreenSmart Home award and Custom Built Home for the same project means the judges rated Bluebush as the strongest sustainable home in the country and the strongest custom build in its field.
Fysh Place makes it three
The third title went to Fysh Place at St Helens, on Tasmania’s east coast, in the Multi Dwelling Development category.
Multi dwelling projects are a harder proposition in sustainability awards than detached custom homes. Grouped housing gives a builder less room to move on orientation, envelope and budget, and the performance gains have to be found within tighter constraints.
Winning a national title in that category in the same year as the top home award points to a company applying the same standard across different project types, rather than concentrating everything into a single showpiece build.
What a GreenSmart title actually requires
The GreenSmart program has been running for more than two decades, and it is not a design competition.
Award entries come out of the HIA GreenSmart accreditation process, which assesses a project against a protocol covering seven areas of environmental practice: energy management, water management, indoor air quality, material selection, site management, resource efficiency and, optionally, universal design.
Each area carries minimum criteria plus leading practice criteria on top. Energy management alone requires eleven minimum criteria and at least two leading practice items. Accreditation is assessed by an approved GreenSmart assessor rather than declared by the builder.
That is what separates a GreenSmart title from recognition based on photographs. It sits closer to an audit than a beauty contest, and Zanetto Builders cleared it three times in one night.
What the result says about Tasmanian building
Tasmania makes the case for high performance construction more directly than most parts of the country. Cold and damp homes are a familiar complaint in the state, and builders working there have had a practical reason to take airtightness, insulation and ventilation seriously ahead of the national curve.
Zanetto Builders works from Launceston, Hobart and St Helens, and says it runs the largest certified Passive House team in Tasmania. Kyle Zanetto has previously spoken to The Good Builder Podcast about rebuilding the business around open book pricing and performance building, and has been consistently open about the systems underneath the work.
Writing after the win, he tied the result to durability rather than recognition.
“We are building a 100+ year business,” he wrote, “and the only thing that will guarantee that is the quality of the homes we build.”
Where the standard is going
National wins like this one are a useful signal of direction. NCC 2025 and the broader policy push on low energy buildings are lifting the floor across the country, and the projects taking out national sustainability titles today are a reasonable preview of what becomes ordinary later.
The distance between minimum compliance under the National Construction Code and genuine measured performance is still wide. Builders already working in that gap are not so much gaining an advantage as arriving early.
For anyone looking at a result like this and wondering where to start, the practical question is less about certification and more about which construction methods and performance decisions actually change the outcome on site.
The Good Builder Take
Three national titles in one night, including the top sustainable home in the country, is a big result and Zanetto Builders should enjoy it.
What lifts it above a good awards night is the nature of the program. GreenSmart is assessed against a protocol by an approved assessor, and Bluebush was independently certified against tested numbers rather than described in a submission. That is a harder bar than most awards ask builders to clear.
It is also a good night for Tasmania, and for every builder around the country doing this kind of work without a trophy to show for it. Congratulations to Kyle and the team.
Frequently asked questions
Three national titles. Bluebush Passivhaus won the top award, the HIA Australian GreenSmart Home, partnered by Clipsal by Schneider Electric, and also won Custom Built Home. Fysh Place at St Helens won Multi Dwelling Development.
They were presented on Wednesday 22 July 2026 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, at the close of the HIA Future Homes Forum.
They are the Housing Industry Association’s national awards recognising sustainable residential design, construction and innovation. Entries come out of the HIA GreenSmart accreditation process, which assesses projects against a protocol covering energy management, water management, indoor air quality, material selection, site management, resource efficiency and, optionally, universal design. The program has been running for more than two decades.
A building certified against the international Passivhaus standard, which sets measured targets for heating demand, cooling demand, primary energy use and airtightness. Certification is granted against tested results on the finished building, including a blower door test, rather than design modelling alone. Zanetto Builders reports Bluebush achieved a heating demand of 10 kilowatt hours per square metre per year and 0.5 air changes per hour.
Entry runs through the HIA GreenSmart program. A business needs at least one accredited HIA GreenSmart Professional, and the project itself is submitted for GreenSmart accreditation and assessed by an approved assessor against the protocol. Accredited projects can then be entered into the awards. Entry details are available through HIA.
This article is intended for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice. Laws, regulations, and industry requirements vary by state and territory and change over time. Builders and trades professionals should seek independent advice relevant to their specific circumstances before making business, legal, or financial decisions.
Author: TGB Editorial
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