Indigenous Business Month: Making our Mark on Sustainable Office Fitouts

This year marks 10 years of Indigenous Business Month, which recognises and celebrates the growing successes of Indigenous businesses and community. With the 2024 theme ‘Making our Mark’, we’re reflecting upon CoDesign + Sheldon’s 2024. We’ve designed and delivered government workplace projects, connected with other Indigenous businesses and suppliers, and proudly supported progress in land regeneration and environmental initiatives.?

As stated by Indigenous Business Month: “[Indigenous businesses include] some of the most resourceful people looking to efficient yet environmentally conscious ways of doing business, all the while bringing others along with them, employing and sharing opportunities to see the value of a dollar spent with an Indigenous Business...”

Achievements in sustainable workplace design and construction.?

In 2024, CoDesign + Sheldon has begun and completed projects in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. With environmental consciousness at heart, we prioritise using materials with sustainable credentials, locally produced joinery and furniture and use of modular furniture.?

Our electric truck has been delivering our joinery and furniture to sites, 100% carbon emissions free.

Our government workplace project in Perth demonstrated how adaptive reuse of existing materials can result in a contemporary and refined look, without compromising on quality and functionality of the space.? ?

Designing with Country.?

CoDesign + Sheldon’s values and ethos aligns with the NSW Government Architect’s Connecting with Country Framework and its commitment that: “All NSW built environment projects will be developed with a Country-centred approach guided by Aboriginal people, who know that if we care for Country, Country will care for us."?

This sentiment is reiterated by our CEO Richard Swain: “Country is the soil, the water and the species that evolved here. Our aim is to change the building industry to be environmentally friendly and sustainable; and in doing so heal Country, restore species, and restore landscapes.”?

Read more about ways in which we are including the principles of Designing with Country in our projects here.

Building relationships with Indigenous artists, suppliers and businesses.?

Specifying the work of Indigenous artists, designers and suppliers into our projects is an important aspect of deepening workplaces’ connection to Country. We are proud to showcase the culture and creativity of Indigenous artists in a number of projects.?

Our recent Government project features a Tappeti rug with an original design by Wiradjuri artist Cara Shields, called Ochre Pathways. We also featured acoustic panelling designed by Wiradjuri artist Amanda Hinkelmann called Yalgu ‘When the water runs dry’ (seen below). This product is made in Australia with up to 65% recycled content, and a circular pathway for the product’s end of life.

Important progress with environmental initiatives and caring for Country.?

Using portions of profits to support environmental and land regeneration initiatives is a central guiding purpose of CoDesign + Sheldon. We actively support initiatives as guided by our CEO Richard Swain’s advocacy and environmental expertise.?

Starting close to home, we are restoring the landscape and species surrounding our manufacturing facility on Darkinjung Country/Central Coast. This has included planting native trees around the property and providing bird and possum boxes to encourage native biodiversity to return.?

As Indigenous Ambassador for the Invasive Species Council, Richard has been actively involved in campaigns to curb the influence of invasive species including feral horses and cats in Australia, weeds and imported diseases that threaten our biosecurity and ancient ecosystem.

We are also proud of our support for the Yambulla Project, a model for shared land ownership and regeneration on Yuin Country. The Yambulla team is “creating a master plan for transforming this degraded former plantation site into a climate resilient and biodiverse novel forest that provides perpetual habitat, supports native food production and supplies sustainable timber products.”?

We’re looking forward to continuing creating workplaces that prove it doesn’t need to cost more to put the environment first.?