Sonja Markovic — Evitat: making green home renovations less like a PhD
Evitat — helping renovators track healthy, low-carbon home improvements through an e-logbook
Evitat is a Melbourne-based proptech platform that empowers homeowners and renovators to track and measure healthy, low-carbon home improvements using an e-logbook that works much like a service book for cars. When a cyclone damaged her Queensland home in 2017, co-founder Sonja Markovic found herself drowning in complex material decisions, an ordeal she compares to studying for a PhD.
In this episode, Sonja and I dig into why our obsession with marble bench tops and oversized floor plans has blinded us to the carbon cost of building big. She shares how avoiding a massive home extension can wipe out 20 to 50 years of embodied carbon, why incoming residential energy ratings will shock property owners, and how Evitat is building a circular ecosystem of vetted businesses to take the pain out of green retrofitting.
What’s in this episode
(01:52): Sonja Markovic joins us to talk about Evitat winning the 2023 Proptech Award for Most Innovative Startup in Environment, Social and Sustainability.
(02:24): Sonja gives us the Evitat elevator pitch: an e-logbook for homes that tracks low-carbon, healthy, and climate-resilient renovations.
(03:42): Why our obsession with Miele appliances and oversized floor plans has distracted us from the actual thermal comfort and carbon cost of homes.
(08:19): Sonja points out that avoiding a massive home extension instantly cuts 20 to 50 years of embodied carbon emissions.
(11:16): How Evitat works: connecting users with vetted, responsible businesses across six core categories like health, affordability, and water efficiency.
(16:16): Exploring Evitat's B2B2C business model, where suppliers and professionals pay a membership fee while residential consumers use the platform for free.
(19:42): The origin story: how a cyclone destroying Sonja's Queensland home in 2017 felt like doing a PhD in material science and inspired the startup.
(25:50): Who has time to do a PhD in green renovating while juggling work, kids, and dinner? Sonja explains how small, step-by-step upgrades change the journey.
(32:52): You do not need to do everything at once—starting with a hot water heat pump or roof insulation is enough to get the impact meter moving.
(37:58): Can homeowners use Evitat reports to educate real estate agents? Sonja discusses how capturing install certificates adds tangible property value.
(41:03): Preparing for incoming residential energy efficiency ratings and why existing housing stock built before the 1980s is likely to rate poorly.
(46:06): A peek behind the scenes: Evitat's small team of five in Melbourne plus two overseas developers, and plans for the next 12 months.
(47:12): The roadmap ahead: mapping postcodes against climate zones and integrating AI-powered recommendations for local sustainable materials.
In their words
“It's similar to a service book for cars, but the Evitat logbook or e-logbook allows renovators basically to track and measure the good decisions and turn them into sustainable home value, good for people and the planet.” — Sonja Markovic
“We have shifted our perception of homes to be around the bench tops... Each of these added spaces are, in the end, actually added material choices. And, that contains a huge proportion of embodied carbon.” — Sonja Markovic
“It doesn't matter. Once you are on that journey and once you have done one step, for example... knowing that it's captured and knowing that you can actually show it to a future buyer will create added value to it.” — Sonja Markovic
About the guest
Sonja Markovic is the co-founder of Evitat, winner of the Most Innovative Startup in the Environment, Social and Sustainability category at the 2023 Proptech Awards. With a background in user experience and systems thinking, she previously worked with an architectural startup in Frankfurt and spent time with Green Magazine. Her personal trial restoring a cyclone-damaged Queenslander inspired her to build a platform that brings trust and transparency to residential retrofitting.
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