The Builders Standing Up to a Broken Industry

The Builders Standing Up to a Broken Industry

June 28, 2026 · 57 min · Episode 123

About this episode

Bec Kempster discusses the Sustainable Builders Alliance's efforts to improve the Australian construction sector.

“On paper, six or seven competitive builders trying to run one organisation together makes no sense.” In this episode, we sit down with Bec Kempster, the brilliant Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Sustainable Builders Alliance (SBA), to talk about the messy, necessary business of upgrading the Australian construction sector. Recording from Matt’s newly completed Grand Designs home, we strip back the hype and discuss how the SBA transitioned from a grassroots cause into a highly structured, professional association shaking up national building standards. Bec shares insights from her eclectic background. Spanning commerce degrees, corporate head office fit-outs, and co-founding business coaching systems for architects, to reveal how the SBA is systematically tackling the biggest bottlenecks in the trade. We break down the SBA’s Theory of Change , detailing their current work with TAFEs to build localised trade courses, and their mission to establish crystal-clear definitions for high-performance builds so the market can finally stomp out greenwashing. We also take a look at the data from the SBA's newly released State of the Market report. Bec details the hidden category of…

People in this episode

Hosts: Matthew Carland, Hamish White

Guest: Bec Kempster

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sustainable Builders Alliance

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