Metricon, a Mt Waverley-based home-building juggernaut with 900 staff, took out the top gong. Its representatives say the company has turned away from McMansions - in part due to smaller land sizes - to more energy-efficient properties, rated up to an industry-standard of seven.

Winners included Desaln8, a Notting Hill firm that desalinates ground water to produce drinking-water supplies, and Vega Press, an entirely carbon-offset printing company.

Peter Temopoulos, Metricon's national display delivery manager, said the company was the leading home builder and developer in Australia, with a presence up the eastern seaboard and with plans to move into South Australia.

He was undaunted by talk of a sustainable rather than a Big Australia, saying that his company was forecasting "growth".

"The trend over the next 12 months is for sustainability and affordability in housing," he said.

Another popular trend were butler pantries, all to do with the popularity of TV-franchise Masterchef.

Heady days for the company, which started when founding directors George Kline and Mario Biasin pitched themselves as 'boutique' home-builders in Moorabbin in 1976.

In truth, their first homes were square boxes without much articulation, Metricon's display construction manager James Harrison said. "Now we're making mass-produced, architect-designed homes.

"When we started out, AV Jennings would have been the yardstick. To think we would be compared and even surpass them, and George would say this, is beyond his wildest dreams."