Our Values

What We Believe

We started NeighbourWood because we believe housing and nature shouldn't be at war with each other. We believe you can build homes that restore ecosystems, create communities that last, and run a business that makes the world better — not in spite of being profitable, but because of it.

These aren't slogans. They're the convictions we built this company around, the standards we hold ourselves to, and the promises we're willing to be judged by.

Housing Is a Human Right

Before NeighbourWood existed, our co-founder Esther at one time signed up for every affordable housing programme she could find as a single mother. None of them came through. She knows what it means to need a home and not be able to get one.

We believe everyone deserves a home — to buy, to rent, or to be given if they can't afford either. Housing scarcity isn't a fact of nature; it's a systemic failure that breeds the division and fear tearing communities apart.

What this means in practice

Our financial model is designed so that environmental credit revenue flows toward making homes more affordable. By Year 3 and beyond, we target 20% or more of our homes as affordable units — funded not by government subsidy alone, but by the model itself generating affordability. We price transparently and publish our cost structures.

Our commitment: We will never build exclusively for the premium market. If the model can't eventually deliver affordability, it has failed — regardless of profitability.

Build the Thing You Needed

The most honest motivation is personal. We left a country where housing is a commodity and scarcity is treated as a given. We're building what we wish had existed for us — and what we want to exist for everyone's children.

What this means in practice

We're purchasing a home in our first community at full market price. We'll pay all the same fees our neighbours pay. We'll raise our family there. We don't build communities we wouldn't live in. Every design decision is tested against one question: Would this be good enough for our own kids?

Our commitment: We will never build to a specification we wouldn't accept for our own family. We will never cut corners on health, safety, or quality to protect margins. If we wouldn't live there, we won't sell it.

The Land Is Not a Resource — It's a Relationship

The trees at Fairymount Farms and Powerscourt Estate didn't just inspire a business plan. They called us. We believe native woodland isn't an amenity, a carbon offset, or a marketing feature — it's a living system that deserves permanence, care, and respect. The ancient relationship between people and trees in Ireland is real, and restoring it is as important as restoring the trees themselves.

What this means in practice

Every Woodland Bank is held in perpetuity by the NeighbourWood Stewardship Trust — not for 25 years, not until it's convenient to sell, but forever. We restore native species using ecological best practice, not commercial forestry monoculture. We design woodland access for connection, not consumption. The woodland generates environmental credits that fund the model — but the economic value serves the ecological commitment, not the other way around.

Our commitment: We will never sell, develop, or clearcut Woodland Bank land. We will never plant non-native commercial species in a Woodland Bank. We will never reduce woodland commitments to increase housing unit counts. The covenant is permanent because the commitment is permanent.

Solutions, Not Enemies

We don't need a villain. Housing crises and ecological collapse are systemic problems, and everyone working on solutions — however different from ours — is an ally, not a competitor. We'd rather build the alternative we believe in than tear down other approaches.

What this means in practice

We celebrate progress from any source. We collaborate with councils, agencies, and partners without requiring ideological alignment. We evaluate every relationship by looking for ways to create public and ecological benefit, not by imposing purity tests.

Our commitment: We will never engage in negative campaigning against competitors or alternative approaches. We will walk away from partnerships where our involvement would be used to greenwash genuinely harmful practices — but we'll always have the conversation first.

Guests Who Are Building a Home

We are Americans who arrived in Ireland via Spain with a business model and a dream. We are acutely aware of how much we don't know about Ireland's history, culture, and people. We are not here to tell anyone how to build homes or restore woodlands — we are here to work alongside the best Irish builders, researchers, and conservationists, to learn as much as we teach, and to invite people to reimagine with us.

What this means in practice

We hire Irish (including legal immigrants). We use Irish suppliers. We seek out and listen to criticism from people who know this land better than we do. We hold our model loosely enough that it adapts to what Ireland actually needs, not what we assumed from abroad. Every community we build will reflect the people who live there, not a template imported from somewhere else.

Our commitment: We will never operate in a way that is counter to Irish national interests. We will never dismiss local knowledge or expertise in favour of our own assumptions. When the model and the place are in tension, the place wins.

Ethical Wealth Is Not a Contradiction

We want to build wealth for our family, our employees, and our partners — and we refuse to apologise for that. But we insist it happen without exploitation. Profit and purpose are not in tension; profit funds purpose at scale. The question isn't whether to make money — it's whether the way you make money leaves the world better or worse.

What this means in practice

Our model generates three revenue streams — development profit, perpetual stewardship fees, and export licensing — so that financial success and environmental impact scale together, not in opposition. We pay fair wages with a maximum 5:1 salary ratio across all roles. We build long-term supplier relationships rather than squeezing margins. And we structure the company so that woodland success directly funds housing affordability.

Our commitment: We will never profit at the expense of the communities we serve. We will never sacrifice long-term stewardship commitments for short-term financial returns. If wealth creation and mission ever truly conflict, the mission wins — but we believe, and intend to prove, that they don't have to.

How We Hold Ourselves Accountable

Values that don't change how you make decisions are just decoration. We use ours as a decision-making framework every day — from supplier selection to investor negotiations to how we write a planning application.

We apply what we call the dinner table test: before we make any significant decision, we ask whether we could explain it honestly to our children, to our first home buyer, and to the communities we serve. If the answer requires hedging or rationalisation, that's a signal worth paying attention to.

We're a young company. We'll make mistakes. When we do, we'll own them and fix them — publicly.

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