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Dr. Dominique Hes has a PHD in Architecture from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, with further degrees in Science (Botany) and Engineering (Cleaner Production) from Melbourne University.

Dominique’s key research questions are: ‘why, when we have been ‘doing’ sustainability for so long, are we having an ever increasing impact?’ People create such beauty with music, food, art, buildings and community why is it so difficult to be a thriving part of the earth’s systems? and How can the built environment be part of this thriving? As such she has looked at biomimicry, biophilia, regenerative design, permaculture and development and positive development. This resulted in the publication of the award winning book ‘Designing for Hope: Pathways to Regenerative sustainability’, co-authored with Professor Chrisna du Plessis. Her continued research centers on how to create a built environment that is good for people and the nature they are a part of.

Dominique is an associate of MSSI (Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute), one of the University Of Melbourne’s Interdisciplinary Research Institutes. Previously Director for Place Agency and the Thrive Research Hub at The University of Melbourne. Her research interests are identifying and filling the knowledge gaps in sustainability practice and application in the built environment.

Dr Dominique is the award winning author of the book Designing for Hope: Pathways to regenerative sustainability, a further 6 books and over 100 papers. She is a non-executive board member at Greenfleet (planting ecosystems to offset carbon) and Trust for Nature; founder of internationally award winning Place Agency, and ex director of Thrive Research Hub at Melbourne University.

She has a demonstrated history of working in the higher education and building industries in the fields of life cycle assessment, sustainability, regenerative development, systems thinking, placemaking and project management. These supported her in a previous role as Principal Researcher at Beyond Zero Emissions where she worked with a team of researchers and volunteers to develop pathways to low emissions strategies for communities, industries and regions.