We’re embedding sunshine in our products

Summer isn’t only great for barbecues, pool parties and summer soirees. At Tait, we also love the abundant renewable solar power that’s helping our business operate more sustainably.

rooftop of Tait manufacturing facility with solar panels

A solar-powered journey

With manufacturing in our DNA, our product range and manufacturing capabilities have been growing over the last 30+ years. Which means – our energy usage has also been growing.

What started as a professional passion project in a small warehouse has become a business that employs 30 craftspeople. We’re proud to be supporting the future of design and manufacturing in Australia. But we also want to ensure our operations are working with—not against—the environment.

In 2017, we installed solar panels on the roof of our Fitzroy showroom. Partially, this was to offset the operating costs of existing air conditioning units in the building (which used to be a bank!). But there was also always an intention to be operating more sustainably, long-term.

‘Even before there was a well-publicised energy crisis, we wanted to make products using less energy,’ explains our Founding Director Gordon Tait. ‘So there’s a lot of feel-good factor in this for us. We also knew there would be a return on investment after about 5 years,’ he continues. ‘For us, the long-term game plan is for our operations to be powered by the sun’.

Our solar stats

Following the solar installation on our showroom roof, we also installed solar on the Thomastown factory roof 5.5 years ago. Starting with 100 panels, which produced around 12-15 kWh/day, we doubled the capacity about 18 months ago. Currently, 200 panels bump our solar input up to about 25-40 kWh/day.

In the summer months, we’re harnessing enough solar to power around half of all our needs, with some going back to the grid. Of course, the winter months in Melbourne are not as bountiful when it comes to solar, but we happily take what we can get!

So far, we’ve harnessed solar power equivalent to:
– 549,377km in a car
– 3,510 trees
– 136.9 tonnes of C02

With results like these, we believe our investment into solar is an investment into a better future for us all. And, we’re happy to think our furniture—all the Jak and Jils, the Billys and Swings—is solar-powered. Literally, there’s a bit of sunshine in everything we make.

Our long-term solar strategy

Our solar journey started many years ago, and will continue into the future. ‘We actually installed solar in our previous factory too, in Thornbury,’ Gordon shares. ‘In 2013, we installed panels that were producing about 6-8 kW/day. You can’t really move solar panels to a new location, because they’re specific to the site and system. So when we left Thornbury, we left the panels there for the new tenant and installed new ones at Thomastown.’

Whilst we’ve significantly increased our solar energy potential over the last 12 years, we’re also fine-tuning broader sustainable measures. Recently, we’ve been working with sustainability consultants Hip V. Hype to develop an ESG Framework to inform our next chapter. And we’ll be sharing the outcomes of this process with our current milestones and future goals soon.

Thanks for supporting us on our sustainable journey.

Current Sustainability Statement

Published 17 February 2025

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