Building our capability

Over the last year, we have engaged in a range of important initiatives to embed regenerative thinking across our studios — not as a specialist skill, but as a shared mindset across disciplines.

Sustainability Secondment Program

One of the ways we invest in our people is through our annual Sustainability Secondment Program – an opportunity for anyone at Hassell to work closely with our Sustainability Team and Communities on focused initiatives that have the potential to scale across the practice.

Since launching in FY23, we have completed three rounds of the program, with a total of eight secondees each contributing to projects that help move our collective knowledge and practice forward. 

Each secondment focuses on a particular aspect of regenerative design. Secondment topics include:

• creating a carbon quantification template and a case study for project learnings
• revitalising project startup processes
• researching regenerative design context analysis methodologies
• developing a tool for design support and sustainability templates
• preparing a material reuse roadmap
• improving community engagement in design 
• implementing strategies for communicating circularity to minimise waste
• providing guidance for material audits in projects

The fourth round of our program commenced in July 2025, with three confirmed secondees.

Partnerships and training

In early 2025, Hassell became a Platinum Education Partner for the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA), an organisation guiding the built environment industry towards regenerative design. This partnership reflects our commitment to developing our skills and capability, an investment essential to creating spaces that offer lasting value, where communities and nature can flourish together.

During the year, we also saw seven of our people become Certified Passivhaus Designers, completing the course delivered by the Australian Passivhaus Association and undergoing over 350 combined hours of the technical training needed to implement the Passivhaus Standard on projects.

Resources and guidance

We continue to develop and distribute internal guidance materials on regenerative design, starting with From Sustainable to Regenerative. This document is a living collection of global case studies that helps clarify the difference between a sustainable place and a regenerative one. It’s not intended as a definitive guide, but as an evolving reference – grounded in real-world examples – to support a more consistent and authentic use of the terms across our work.

The document includes provocations designed to spark big thinking and challenge assumptions. It encourages our teams to go further – drawing on Hassell’s deep design experience and applying it through all 12 principles of our Sustainability Framework to shape outcomes with lasting, positive impact.

More recently, we released our Regenerative Design Guide, a key resource that sets out our approach for regenerative design at Hassell and where to begin. Starting with regenerative potential, we deliver better outcomes through design. Regenerative design is not a workshop, it’s not a bolt-on, it’s not a shopping list. It is core to our design process. It’s a way to unlock more opportunities on every project to create value for our clients, the people these places are for, and the environment and communities these places are connected to.