Designing for Impact

Our first Designing for Impact report represents Hassell’s commitment to measuring, understanding and improving the environmental and social consequences of our work. 

In a world facing unprecedented environmental and social challenges, the built environment stands at a critical crossroads. The design decisions we make today will shape the resilience of our communities for generations to come.

While we continuously review our successes and challenges, we see a clear need to better communicate our progress. Designing for Impact illustrates exactly how our regenerative design work makes a meaningful difference for our clients, collaborators and partners.

“By openly sharing our successes, failures and challenges, we hope to contribute to a culture of transparency that drives collective improvement across our industry.” 

Liz Westgarth, Managing Director, Hassell

As our first external disclosure of impact, Designing for Impact establishes a baseline for what will become an annual publication. It communicates our holistic work as designers and demonstrates how we are walking the talk across our eight studios. Designing for Impact tracks our progress in implementing our Sustainability Framework into our practice and every project. By meticulously measuring our environmental and social performance, we continue to refine our work across architecture, landscape, interiors and urban design. 

The targets within our Sustainability Framework set out our ambition and what we will achieve, in three clear stages of evolution:

Designing for Impact focuses on our achievements during the 2025 financial year (1 July 2024 — 30 June 2025). It highlights how we’ve made a start embedding regenerative design principles in all our work, and how we continue to develop our approach to design led by Country - an Australian First Nations framework that places deep connections to land, water and culture at the centre of design thinking. The report also spotlights how we have validated our purpose and our impact by becoming a Certified B Corp.

Our progress is framed across the four pillars of our Sustainability Framework — Place, Carbon, Social and Systems. Within these areas, we share the collective results and stories that define our current portfolio.

To read more about our Sustainability Framework in action download the full Designing for Impact report.